Hopefully, those of you who read our blog on a regular basis know that the primary arts we teach in our dojo are Karate and Aikido. Of course, we utilize a wide range of methods, including boxing, grappling, ground fighting and various "old school" Jujutsu techniques. Now, if you are not familiar with martial arts, I understand this sounds like alphabet soup to you, so let me put it very simply, at least the way I see it: karate is mostly about striking, kicking and body hardening for the express purpose of hand-to-hand combat. Aikido is everything else.
Most people are familiar with the yin/yang symbol:
Allow me to provide the Cliff Notes version of what this means. Essentially, yin is softness, gentleness, passiveness, yielding, etc. Yang, on the other hand, is hard, authoritarian, linear, solid and unyielding. Yin and yang must coexist if there is to be harmony. If you have too much of one, then you no longer have balance in the universe. While this sounds like pretty lofty stuff, just look around at all of the chaos going today and you can clearly see examples of what I'm talking about. But let me reel you back in a little bit.
I've known martial artists who only understand violence. They derive a certain amount of satisfaction from hard sparring, hard throwing, etc. They don't mind getting punched in the face and in fact, relish the idea because in their mind, it makes them tougher. I know this kind of guy very well because that used to be me. That's not to say that I still don't enjoy harsh training and the body and bone conditioning we practice in our karate classes. But I don't need to beat up on anybody anymore and I don't need to have my jaw alignment "checked" every now and then. Aikido changed all that for me.
The men who founded the modern Japanese martial arts, e.g. aikido, kendo, judo, karate-do, etc., all studied proven methods of combat. They came from long lines of warriors who perfected the art of killing. But they changed their arts to match the changing times, and perhaps, changing perspectives. They removed a lot of the lethal techniques and replaced them with softer methods to allow people to train physically, mentally and spiritually without having to worry about breaking a bone or, you know, death. But we need to remember where these arts came from, lest we run the risk of allowing ourselves to get "soft."
As an example, here is a picture of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, in his younger days practicing a pin from Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu (yang), if you will.
Now, here is the way aikido practitioners perform that pin today:
Can you see the difference? Yes, both pins can clearly damage your shoulder. However...if you look closely at the original version, you can see the hand placement the neck. If Ueshiba (O'Sensei) were to lean forward, he would not only dislocate the shoulder, but place a great deal of torsion on the cervical spine. Because that's what this pin was designed to do.
As someone who has practiced and studied aikido for over 30 years, I feel confident in saying that the art has slipped far too much into yin; soft, flowing, dancelike movements that have lost any sort of practical application except in the strictest of schools. Furthermore, a lot of the folks who teach aikido these days have only done aikido...they have no foundation in striking or other forms of grappling. They practice the "art of harmony" but lack any sort harmony in their technique. And that's why so many people think aikido is worthless.
It's not. It is a martial art that provides fantastic opportunities for physical fitness, personal growth and self-defense. But only if it is studied and practiced with the proper intent. And only if you put some meat in the alphabet soup.
Dave Magliano
Tatsu Dojo
Jissenkan Budo
Dojo Cho
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