Competition in Aikido

Joep Schuurkes wrote: When I hear the "Aikido is too dangerous for competition"-argument, I always hear the following discussion in my head: though guy from karate, judo, boxing, ...: "Aikido is for weaklings, you don't have competition!" aikidoka: "No no no. Aikido is sooo dangerous, that we can't have any competitions. If we did, people would get killed. So we are way tougher than you!"

That reminds me of some of the Qi demonstraters in Chinese martial arts who seem to only want to demonstrate on their students because if they used it on someone who hasn't been "properly trained" it might kill them. What you do is bring your goldfish in its bowl and tell them, "it's OK, go ahead and kill my goldfish with your qi." So far all the offered goldfish have remained alive.

FWIW

Mike

I think the concept of there being a 'winner' and 'loser' is what Aikido attempts to alter by eliminating competition.

Competition is healthy if it's done in an cooperative, respectful manner. American Aikido as some people have coined the phrase, may benefit from a structured environment that fosters healthy competition. Tomiki Aikido is already doing this.