Poll: Have you ever been physically abused beyond the boundaries of hard training in your aikido tra

AikiWeb Poll for the week of June 29, 2003:

Have you ever been physically abused beyond the boundaries of hard training in your aikido training?

• I don't do aikido
• Yes
• No
  

Here are the current results.

pretty simple, if i get abused i would leave aikido now

There are many ways to be abused, in my opinion. Physical, emotional, financial, etc. are basic categories that we should all learn to consider in our study of "self-defense".

The history of abuse is very difficult to discuss in an open forum such as this due to the uncontrollable repercussions that can arise from this limited communication method.

We have recently experienced this on Aiki-Web and we need to be very careful of doing great harm along with our intent to do good.

I have experienced mentally abuse in a different martial art than aikido - not unlike what is described in 'Angry white pyjamas' which I am currently reading, but with a 'brain-washing' twist to it.

My advise is to be sure allways to take time of to listen to one self, and decide if what you are doing is right for you. When one is inside the 'system' it can be very hard to break out. It's not as easy as Reza describes it above, if your are young and gullible. If I had been better at listening to myself when I was in my early 20's, many people would have been spared much trouble and pain.

I am wondering if abuse means that an act was intentional or if unintentional harm caused could also be considered abuse in some way.

Accidents are accidents but often they result due to inattentiveness that is psychological in origin.

Charles

Charles Hill wrote: I am wondering if abuse means that an act was intentional or if unintentional harm caused could also be considered abuse in some way. Accidents are accidents but often they result due to inattentiveness that is psychological in origin. Charles

"Unintentional" harm can be an accident... or it can be part of a pattern of behavior in a dojo that is abusive. Abuse can be due to an act of commission or an act of omission. My feeling is that if it happens repeatedly and can be predicted...it is intentional no matter how much the offender apologizes and says they "didn't mean it." At some level, if it happens more than once, it's intentional. This goes for all categories of abuse as far as I'm concerned.

I having trained in other "bashing" arts that may appear "physically abusive" to some. The old saying that "the more you sweat in training the less your bleed in combat" has some value and validity. I personally never considered it abuse.

I have only been treated with kindness and respect in Aikido. We (Tenshinkai) are an Aikikai style and tend to train hard, but never abusive.