Aikido and Riot Police

Aikido is currently taught in many countries at Police and Military Academies, especially Riot Police.

Probably the Aikidoka who get the chance to actually use Aikido most often are police officers. I am curious to hear the opinion of such persons. Do they think it works, do they ever use it, is it possible to subdue someone without permanently damaging him?

For those in doubt, beating someone on the head with clubs in shomen- and yokomen-uchi like fashion is not considered Aikido

Cheers,
Edward

Originally posted by Edward For those in doubt, beating someone on the head with clubs in shomen- and yokomen-uchi like fashion is not considered Aikido

I wish you'd tell my wife, my head is really starting to hurt now

LOl!

Originally posted by mj I wish you'd tell my wife, my head is really starting to hurt now

Basic police "defensive tactics" techniques are simplified versions of Aikido and Jujitsu techniques. Your average Officer gets about 50 to 100 hours of training in the academy and less than 8 each year after that (in other words much less than your average Aikidoka). Cops have the advantage of doing technique on real/resisting people and can work out quickly what does/does not work and strive to out number their opponents whenever possible.

The basic Aikido principles apply quite nicely to police street work : Move, Enter deeply (w/atemi), take uke's balance and then execute technique. Anytime a suspect or Officer gets hurt it is a real problem (accusations, second guessing, criminal charges, and PAPERWORK) so I gravitated to Aikido to broaden my skills and have be working at it ever since.

As to "Riot Police" training, I have been through it, and as practiced in the US, has little bearing on Aikido. We are trained to form tight, interlocking lines or formations, then push into the crowd in an effort to disperse them. We wear helmets, pads, shields and carry long batons so we tend not to be fun to play with, but only make arrests when we have to because the demonstrators usually out number the cops at least 3 to 1 (or more)

MJ, please advise if you know any effective stuff to deal with GODMYWIFEISPISSED waza

Having been on the other half of the line, I can tell you that I have never seen riot police use physical aikido techniques. It usually yelling orders and threats to the mob (verbal atemi which usually work). After that, it's banging clubs against shields (extending ki to frighten the enemy, which sometimes works). Barring that, it's usually distancing one from the throng and then mace and the shomenuchi and yokemenuchi club work if anything at all. Overall strategies can range from "Relax and go with the flow" (aikido and tai chi which work if no one or their property is being harmed or vandalized much) to the "hippie beat down" which is less than fun, I'd hope for all parties involved.