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Old 05-03-2011, 08:35 AM   #1
Zoe S Toth
Dojo: Seidokan Aikido of South Carolina
Location: Columbia, SC
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 40
United_States
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Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Hi!

I'm rather new to aikido (especially when I hear about people doing it for 20-30+ years!) and I am not familar with all the styles. I practice at a Seidokan dojo which was explained to me as being an off-shoot from the ki society. We are told to work on small, gentle, flowing motions.

I've met Aikikai Aikidoaist; I would describe their style as being more active (more entering, larger motions) than ours.

I wanted to know if someone could give me a good explaination of the other (main styles). In particular, I would love one on Iwama ryu because I might be going to an Iwama ryu dojo when I transfer to law school.

Thank you for your time!
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Old 05-03-2011, 08:45 AM   #2
grondahl
Dojo: Stockholms Aikidoklubb
Location: Stockholm
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Instead of long heated discussions where people canīt agree on definitions: try youtube. Itīs not the same as feeling but closer than written word.
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Old 05-03-2011, 09:12 AM   #3
Janet Rosen
 
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

I suggest you both check out articles and also do a "forum search" here on aikiweb as this a an often discussed topic raised by newbies.

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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Old 05-03-2011, 09:24 AM   #4
Tony Wagstaffe
Location: Winchester
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,211
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Quote:
Zoe Toth wrote: View Post
Hi!

I'm rather new to aikido (especially when I hear about people doing it for 20-30+ years!) and I am not familar with all the styles. I practice at a Seidokan dojo which was explained to me as being an off-shoot from the ki society. We are told to work on small, gentle, flowing motions.

I've met Aikikai Aikidoaist; I would describe their style as being more active (more entering, larger motions) than ours.

I wanted to know if someone could give me a good explaination of the other (main styles). In particular, I would love one on Iwama ryu because I might be going to an Iwama ryu dojo when I transfer to law school.

Thank you for your time!
Depends on what you prefer? soft or hard?.... plenty to choose from.... Iwama is considered a harder to hard style, encyclopaedic and pedagogic, but solid.....
Shodokan has competition randori shiai are considered heretics and thugs....
Yoshinkan, a hard style....
Yoseikan a comprehensive budo worth looking into....
The rest are soft to middling...... With the exception of some Traditional schools that rend to be a rarity these days.....
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Old 05-03-2011, 09:39 AM   #5
Alberto_Italiano
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 296
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

In the heat of an actual fight you won't have time to be gentle: you will be too busy being scared, working out the confusion, closing (unfortunately) your eyes under flashes of incoming arms & stuff, you will do goofy things, you will be too confused by hearing screams and crashing objects (on which you may trip...) and guys yelling and threatening you alleging they are going to kill you and women yell and cry and people fleeing all around and tables turned and glasses broken, you will see flahses of light when a blow lands on your chin and if you don't know that's normal you will be scared to death and think you have been heavily damaged wheeras you have not, and you will instinctively use your force too.

Once you feel confidence, which I haven't with aikido and which can come only by dealing frequently with aggressive ukes, eventually you will know what to do. Until you have not a clear feeling that you know what to do and what comes next even under a frantic attack, you won't be able to afford "gentle, flowing motions".
You can do them in a dojo, as you learn - but a real attacker will pose to you an entirely different challenge, under a pshycological point of view, under the brutal force he will produce, and as far as unpredictable items and weapons can be suddenly produced out of the blue.

I can't remember what heavyweights champion once answered, after having been brutally insulted by a guy and having being very kind in return: "once you have been worldwide champion, you can afford being gentle".

This applies to techniques also: once you are confident and comfortable within an actual fight, then your techniques can become gentle too, and probably you can place a nikkyo spending 1/20 of the energies you spend on it now.

I mean: it is not simply a matter of knowing the technical side: it is most of all a matter of being comfortable in a setting where punches start landing on your face for, sadly, this is what may happen in a real fight.
If you know how to be calm under fire because you know how fire behaves, because you have been there already, then you will be ready to be "gentle" too.

Last edited by Alberto_Italiano : 05-03-2011 at 09:44 AM.
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Old 05-03-2011, 10:01 AM   #6
chillzATL
Location: ATL
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Tony summed it up pretty well actually. You have quite a few varieties of aikido in your area, go visit some other dojos. I can recommend a few depending on what level of intensity you're comfortable trying.
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Old 05-03-2011, 11:15 AM   #7
Dan Rubin
Dojo: Boulder Aikikai
Location: Denver, Colorado
Join Date: Feb 2002
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Zoe

This page will probably answer your questions: http://www.aikidofaq.com/introduction.html
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Old 05-03-2011, 12:15 PM   #8
Gorgeous George
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 464
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Er...terrifying, forceful posts aside...

Iwama is supposed to be the style practiced by The Founder at the end of his life; this is the man who created that school of aikido:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21y32ASY3Sw

I'm astounded by his power. His son is currently the head of the style, and I find him to be very similar to his father.

Tomiki aikido, as said above, contains competitions; it is very pedagogical - as is Yoshinkan style.

Tomiki style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAaK0jipIY

Yoshinkan is very martial orientated, and based on the 1930s ethos, when Japan was engaged in war with China; it is taught to the Tokyo riot police:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9y9rqRo9U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIt_g0amnis

Aikikai is the mainstream style; it is very diverse, and indeed: the Iwama style is aikikai. I see it as being a middle ground between too martial, and too soft (i.e., obsessed with 'ki').
Some aikikai teachers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2mFrh3FXQ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iy9sIDfN0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yiBehK4vBU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHnT1hUNmTo

...and the head of the Aikikai:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94sOPZ4WtyY

Hope that helps.
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Old 05-03-2011, 01:39 PM   #9
phitruong
Dojo: Charlotte Aikikai Agatsu Dojo
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

i thought there were only three styles. the "ai" style, the "ki" style and the "do" style.

*there is a, less well known, phi's style which incidentally only known to phi. it's the best style of all the style as far as phi concern, and he doesn't, well he maybe he does. *
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Old 05-03-2011, 02:56 PM   #10
Dave de Vos
 
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Dojo: Shoryukai, Breda (aikikai) & Aiki-Budocentrum Breda (yoseikan)
Location: Baarle-Nassau
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Quote:
Graham Jenkins wrote: View Post
Er...terrifying, forceful posts aside...

Iwama is supposed to be the style practiced by The Founder at the end of his life; this is the man who created that school of aikido:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21y32ASY3Sw

I'm astounded by his power. His son is currently the head of the style, and I find him to be very similar to his father.

Tomiki aikido, as said above, contains competitions; it is very pedagogical - as is Yoshinkan style.

Tomiki style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAaK0jipIY

Yoshinkan is very martial orientated, and based on the 1930s ethos, when Japan was engaged in war with China; it is taught to the Tokyo riot police:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9y9rqRo9U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIt_g0amnis

Aikikai is the mainstream style; it is very diverse, and indeed: the Iwama style is aikikai. I see it as being a middle ground between too martial, and too soft (i.e., obsessed with 'ki').
Some aikikai teachers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2mFrh3FXQ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iy9sIDfN0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yiBehK4vBU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHnT1hUNmTo

...and the head of the Aikikai:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94sOPZ4WtyY

Hope that helps.
That's a nice overview. Thank you.
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Old 05-03-2011, 03:50 PM   #11
Gorgeous George
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 464
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Quote:
Dave de Vos wrote: View Post
That's a nice overview. Thank you.
No problem; glad you liked it.
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Old 05-03-2011, 04:14 PM   #12
Zoe S Toth
Dojo: Seidokan Aikido of South Carolina
Location: Columbia, SC
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 40
United_States
Offline
Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Quote:
Graham Jenkins wrote: View Post
Er...terrifying, forceful posts aside...

Iwama is supposed to be the style practiced by The Founder at the end of his life; this is the man who created that school of aikido:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21y32ASY3Sw

I'm astounded by his power. His son is currently the head of the style, and I find him to be very similar to his father.

Tomiki aikido, as said above, contains competitions; it is very pedagogical - as is Yoshinkan style.

Tomiki style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAaK0jipIY

Yoshinkan is very martial orientated, and based on the 1930s ethos, when Japan was engaged in war with China; it is taught to the Tokyo riot police:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG9y9rqRo9U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIt_g0amnis

Aikikai is the mainstream style; it is very diverse, and indeed: the Iwama style is aikikai. I see it as being a middle ground between too martial, and too soft (i.e., obsessed with 'ki').
Some aikikai teachers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2mFrh3FXQ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iy9sIDfN0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yiBehK4vBU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHnT1hUNmTo

...and the head of the Aikikai:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94sOPZ4WtyY

Hope that helps.
Thank you for your help. The videos helped a lot!
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Old 05-03-2011, 05:24 PM   #13
Janet Rosen
 
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Quote:
Phi Truong wrote: View Post
*there is a, less well known, phi's style which incidentally only known to phi. it's the best style of all the style as far as phi concern, and he doesn't, well he maybe he does. *
Semper Phi

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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Old 05-03-2011, 07:57 PM   #14
Gorgeous George
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Re: Help! Explaing Diferences in Aikido Styles.

Quote:
Zoe Toth wrote: View Post
Thank you for your help. The videos helped a lot!
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