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Old 10-20-2011, 04:10 PM   #1507
Alberto_Italiano
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 296
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Re: Aikido does not work at all in a fight.

I am trying to make sense of this accusation, rather than to dismiss or snub it with acts of denegation.

Although I am not so naive to assume this accusation (that Aikido is ineffective) comes out of good faith, nonetheless I want credit it (and consequently treat it) as if it were an instance of what is called "constructive criticism"; you know, that type of criticism that, though abrasive, can still make you grow - this also because, in case it was instead or indeed an instance of "destructive criticism", we can always turn evil into good by elaborating it as if it were the former rather than the latter.

I believe that this approach can be conducive to a positive solution.
But nothing of this can be achieved if we are totally impervious to admit the possibility of any shortcoming in our turf, and if we are totally inaccessible to self-criticism. We must be able to concede something and, arguably, also a bit more than just some desultory something.

This if we are interested in addressing this accusation in a manner that may solve it - because, evidently, many of the manners attempted earlier did not prove successful at dispelling it.
Does my intention make sense?
Of course, we may not be interested in solving it, and choose to be so obdurant to refuse giving this accusation any legitimacy whatsoever and keep treating it as an awoved enemy. But I am writing for those who want to follow the other path.

This accusation comes out from that point of view accordingly to which the true validation test of any martial art is: confronting violence.
Not violence in the sense you will exert it as an initiative of your own, but in the sense of neutralizing violence with physical actions (which as such may not be reciprocating punches, but meeting brutality and weapons with locks, leverages, and throws).

What is the growing ground whence this accusation comes from?
We can call it: "the street". Perhaps I might provide also, as an additional example, an Army: it would fit, but I don't want to defile the sacrality of those who gave their lives for their country, using the Army as an example for an... Aikido issue.

In the "street" there are two criteria, and two only, that make you earn your respect:
1) Sacrifice: in a deep sense, in the tragic sense. Either you sacrifice your life, or something significant (from a limb to the life of a significan other) in the name of a superior cause.
2) Kick ass

Whatever falls short of those two criteria, which are the only ones enabled to make you earn your respect, won't qualify at all. If you refuse yourself to both, you are automatically ranked either among those who are meant to be easy game, or among those who are only worth of indifference: just another shnook whatsoever in the neighborhood...

You are cornered by two guys. They are taller than you, they may have knives, they are athletically prepared and they are decently competent at fighting: in fact, they have already a few dozens of souls in their roll...
They don't want your money, or your wallet. Oh no.
They want your life.
Why such a thing? Well, you know: because.

They are predators, they enjoy smashing skulls for sport, and to them taking a life is a funny diversion like joyriding on an elevetor can be for a bored downtown boy.

You won't get out of that corner explaining to them that you have aiki powers; you won't get out of there explaining that you are a power ranger; you won't get out of there flashing a police card: talks and credentials are a currency that doesn't run here...

They now will get your life, investing you with a fury or pure brutality and violence that will dispose of you in a couple of seconds, and slit your throat at the very first chance they get. You will be left on the concrete with your guts disemboweled, and as you are ending your agony you will have to listen to them taunting you. Because that's the type of violence these guys happen to enjoy.

Now, what these guys that inhabit this world are saying is: use your aikido techinques (and only those, and nothing else, if you want to re-evaluate... aikido) to come out of this corner.

You need to be able to kotegaeshi and make them hit the concrete and break their hips. You need to be able to ikkyo them and make them see their teeth on the sidewalk if there is no other way out (and there is not).

You won't earn respect in any other way.
As long as we don't understand that it is out of that type of world that the accusation comes, we will be never dealing with the proper interlocutor.

We may refuse to fight and go away saying that aikido is not for this: in this case, the accuse will stay, because there is one way only to get out of it.

KICK ASS using AIKI-DO, and you're outta this thread.
Don't do it, for as many perfectly valid and legitimate reasons as you wish, and the accusation shall persist.

This is why I said: randori on steroids. 15 more dojos like that per state, and we would finally stand good chances of solving this reputation problem.

KICK ASS AIKI-DO, is the only answer to this thread.
And it is so whether you like it or not.

Last edited by Alberto_Italiano : 10-20-2011 at 04:25 PM.
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