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Old 06-03-2009, 05:14 PM   #71
scandibilly
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 5
United_States
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Re: How effective is aikido in self defense?

Re: Everyone who responded to my lengthy post on page 2 of this forum.

I think the majority opinion from the forum is that there are no "realistic" training scenarios, and that's true, but some are better training for the real thing than others. Doing CPR on a dummy in your EMT class may not be the real thing, but it's better training than doing it on a pillow or pretending you're doing it on a person.

From what I wrote, there was this response by Alex Lawrence:
Quote:
There are no techniques. There are no "realistic" attacks. You get attacked how you get attacked. That's why the attacks in Aikido are how they are. You can't say "That's not a realistic attack" half way though a fight, you have to deal with what you're given.

That being the case, keeping the attacks you train from generic makes more sense than training against a narrow range of highly specialised attacks that are deemed to be "realistic" even if it's statisically unlikely to come across someone trained enough to make them common attacks.
Still, repeatedly training for the off-balance, half-speed open hand "judo chop" at your chest or shoulder seems a little less than generic -- besides, following the Aikido philosophy anyone actually attacking you like that probably shouldn't be met with a throwing technique because they obviously don't pose much of a threat. That being said, many people suggest that Aikido serves as good cross-training for the martial arts. Also, I think Philippe Willaume interpreted my original post too narrowly, and to his comments on realism in training I refer again to the CPR/EMT metaphor. I wasn't asking for absolutist evidence, rather suggestive evidence other than anecdotes. This sort of evidence is readily found for martial arts such as muay thai, some styles of karate, tae kwon do, and krav manga, and among some mixed martial arts geared specifically for "street" situations. Notice I said "some" and "some styles".

So, what does the forum think of the "Cross Training in the Martial Arts" series, such as "The Anatomy of Combat" and "The Anatomy of Hand Strikes"? The insight of the karate guy from "Hand Strikes" is very interesting, as he comments on the differences between effective origins and contemporary form training. From an Aikido perspective, what are your interpretations and thoughts?

(If you haven't seen them, they are available via a torrent tracker such as Demonoid or Isohunt, and may be found on FilesTube.)

Thanks!
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