I’ve been practicing Aikido for some time and received my sho-dan and find that I’m still learning. I find Aikido a long learning curve that takes many years (more like many decades) to master. When starting out I found that new students use power to overcompensate for technique and the higher level you are, the more you try to use technique instead of power.

But even so, Aikido can be very deadly when used wrong. We learn Aikido to try to control the opponent using the least movement or damage to either party. But there are some techniques that can be damaging or deadly if not done correctly. I’m sure most of aikido users no what I’m talking about with Shiho-nage. If not done correctly, it can break the elbow, so we try to do it without harming too much to the opponent.

MMA uses strikes and ground work and I find that most MMA users get their black belt in less than 2 years. That quickness in getting black belts gives them overconfidence and lack of discipline sometimes.

In real fights, I’m sad to say that I have used Aikido to get out of those situations and learned that because of my lack of training I ended up injuring them more than I needed to. The injuries to my opponent from my Shiho-nage and Kotegaeshi showed me I need more training to make it more effective, not painful.

I’ve seen my Senseis, Sensei’s Uchi-deshi (live in student) who’s 45 years old 180lb training for 20+ years threw a 240lb 4-Dan Judo practitioner across the room one day because he challenged him. The Judo guy was fine and wasn’t injured at all.

I know some people may say Aikido is a weak martial art, but there are many styles of Aikido. There are some gentle ones (I practice) or some that emphasis on hurting the opponent.

I also find that once people start practicing Aikido they don’t want want to dishonor it by going into MMA to promote it.

People often criticise aikido’s impracticality in a street fight, and to some degree such detractions are fair. But in Aikido the highest premium is placed on avoiding the attackers strikes first and foremost.

So although i’ve never kotagayashed someone in a real blue (as much as i’ve wanted to and tried), i have consistently employed the skills aikido taught me in evasion, and using an opponents force and strength against them.

There are punches and kicks in Aikido, they just aren’t commonly practiced. There are defences against straight punches in Aikido. Many etemies will address straight punches.

The Notion that Aikido is purely defensinve is false. There is a offensive and defensive components to every aikido technique.

My Aikido instructor taught an Aikido class to people of mixed diciplines. They were all fourth and fourth dan and above. He could handle all the strikers quite easily. – He even beat the boxer Sam Soliman (who lost to Anthony Mundine) using pure Aikido. He told me he definately go t caught out by the grapplers at first, but in the end no one could really get him down. Lots of people would challenge him and few would get a punch in.

I know it sounds like an urban myth or some mythical character off ‘Kill bill, but I learn off this guy and he is exquisit. A warrior out of his time.
Peace out.

That’s a cool point you’ve brought up that I’ve never considered: original Aikido guys already knew how to put fist to face.

Piyush -

I agree that the complexity and depth are alluring when it comes to Aikido. However, the whole “Aikido is a one move kill – therefore it isn’t allowed.” is a bit of fantasy thinking.

Guys in the UFC are doing elbow, shoulder and leg locks. Guys doing jujitsu are even doing wrist locks while sparring.

Yes, wrist/arm locks are effective.
No, they are not easy to get against a savvy, resisting opponent.
Yes, a good joint lock can be a fight stopper.
No, joint locks are not considered a “one hit kill” … unless you consider their old time application with swords. Which are not typically allowed in MMA.

Thanks everybody for commenting!

You talked about techniques and stances, which brings up good points. The problem is a lot of practitioners see aikido techniques and stances as ‘the real deal’, rather as training tools to enforce/explore certain fighting principles, body use, angles and leverage. For example, the long forward stance is impractical, but it enforces certain body use for forward power generation; once you get that you can do narrower stances.

It should be remembered that the founder’s (Ueshiba) original students were already experts in other martial arts (like judo and karate) which had large components of non-cooperative sparring, which in those days were quite brutal. These people did not come to Ueshiba to be taught how to fight someone who will actually fight them back (they’re already good at that). But my guess it that they learned some new principles that can enhance their existing fighting skills.

In other words, Ueshiba’s original students were cross-trainers who did ample amount of realistic sparring. That is what’s lacking these days.

This brings the next point. If those original students were already used to brutal, hard training before they came to Ueshiba, the fact that they called his dojo ‘Hell Dojo’ gave us a clue of the harshness of training that Ueshiba gave them. Hard training where one is pushed to the limit is essential in developing proper mind set for fighting, not to mention the resulting body conditioning. This is what’s lacking in Aikido dojos nowadays. I think Sensei Ellis will agree with me on that one. (note: I’m NOT connected with Ellis Aikido)

I think the interpretation of the saying’ Aikido has 10,000 techniques’ means that the principles of aikido, if trained properly, can be applied to any martial arts ‘techniques’.

But the question i think you might want to ask is not which martial arts is better? Its rather who is better trained. So when you talk about cardio training and straight punches and low kicks, i agree there are no explicit moves that is taught in aikido to counter these.

I have been studying aikido for 2 years and the thing that fascinates me the most about aikido is that there is so much to explore and ur not only training your body but you have a lot of food for thought too.

I think the one reason that you missed that aikido is not used in MMA is because MMA tends to be a drawn out brawl with a lot of punching and ground and pound (correct me if i am wrong) but aikido having come from samurai martial arts in the medieval ages, its not built to mess about. Its one move kill. That is the basic philosophy. One does not mess about doing blocks as you must have seen in the videos when a guy actually does a wrist or elbow lock, it pretty much breaks and the fight ends. I dnt think that would go down really well with the sponsors.

The other major point is the philosophy behind aikido is peace and non violence until pushed to the edge. So the people who do train and get really really good at it would not take part in MMA anyway coz by that time, they have moved on to another plane of philosophy which as much as it sounds like a cliche is actually true. And there is no sense of competition in aikido because we do train with deadly seriousness. And to all who think aikido is BS, i guess i can only say how can one judge something without even trying it and aikido is something which takes at least 10 years of training to even understand what KI is hehe. I know its a insane challenge but thats where the fun is .
Peace
And its kinda cool you could actually read through all this.

While I’m sure there are some habits that would need to be broken for fighting (wrestlers and jiu-jitsu practitioners go through the same thing) I don’t see why knowing Aikido would be a bad thing. If anything it could give you an edge in MMA. If everybody is so familiar with Striking, Wrestling, and Jiu Jitsu, an Aikido throw would slip through, like that Machida video you posted. Take downs are big points.thx..

glad to send