Poll: How well taught is "being martially effective" in your aikido training?

AikiWeb Poll for the week of September 18, 2005:

How well taught is "being martially effective" in your aikido training?

• I don't do aikido
• Perfectly well
• Very well
• Somewhat well
• Not very well
• Not at all well
  

Here are the current results.

AikiWeb System wrote: How well taught is "being martially effective" in your aikido training?

I can ask for nothing more than I receive from Sensei Phong Thong Dang in Tenshinkai Aikido at the Westminster Aikikai on a daily basis. His ability to keep his movement Aiki-beautiful and martial-effective never ceases to amaze and humble me. It is probably the primary reason I have stayed in Aikido so long.

One of our sensei is a police inspector. Oddly enough, he knows a fair deal about self defense...

However, martial arts (what the style) is just one tool to help oneself be safe. There are others: know you enemy (IE: read statistics, know which areas are dangerous, etc...), being aware of your surrounding and many others.

Hell, all this has been said before in more eloquent terms than mine.

Question: How is "being martially effective" thaught in your aikido training?

I voted "Perfectly Well". If it were any less, I simply wouldn't be practicing it.

I think most folks think of martially effective as 'hard': hard blocks, hard throws to the ground, lots of effort and occasional bleeding and joint injuries.

Martial effectiveness can happen from a well placed touch and bending of the knees.

The best training in martial effectiveness I receive is when three or four are sent to get me in randori - and I have to try to stay calm and move correctly.

David Knowlton wrote: I think most folks think of martially effective as 'hard': hard blocks, hard throws to the ground, lots of effort and occasional bleeding and joint injuries.

For us it is just the opposite. If you are strong enough, you can do hard techniques and they work - unless your opponent is too strong or clever. But it costs a lot of energy.

Feel the power and do the technique just hard enough to redirect and use your opponents power will save the energy you might need for the next one. So soft techniques (not necessarily a soft uke) are (can be) martially more effective than hard ones.

I admit a hard atemi saves energy according to long-time grappling. But even if you train lethal martial arts (which we do not), you can save energy by knowing when and where to put the technique, which means it is softer to you - not necessarily to your uke

Dirk