Aikido as a PRACTICAL form of street self defense?

[Bam]

Jujitsu is not a "pure self defense system." It is more of a sport. But spanky is right, good self defense should be easy to learn and easy to use, because when the adrenaline dump hits it's almost impossible to sign your name, let alone pull off some spinning back kick to the head. Any style that has you practice set routines "when he does this you do that, then this then that" won't work. On the street there are WAY too many variables to make any kind of routines or katas practical.

If you really are interested in self defense, look up some of the stuff done by sammy franco ( http://www.sammyfranco.com/ ), Geoff Thompson ( http://www.geoffthompson.com/ ), or Richard Dimitri ( http://www.senshido.com/ ). None of this stuff is meant to look fancy, or be a sport, it's meant to save a life.

Are we all missing the point?

Any art or style of self defense can be great or usless depending on the mental state of the practitioner. Aikido is a powerfull flowing form of control of energy and can be as powerfull or as weak as the person wealding it. Just the same as ANY other art. The power is in the person and not the form....

 

[Judo Tom]

my judo instructor likes aikido a lot and recently taught us a few self defense techniques that are pure aikido.

one is if someone grabs you buy the wrist with the opposite side arm and its a very simple very fast and very effective wrist lock

another cool one is if someone squeezes your hand hard and you cant get away you simply point your index finger straight, rotate your finger/wist to the right and slide your thumb ontop of there thumb knuckle (your fingers now look like a fake toy gun) you simply rotate your wrist downward and point at the floor.. again another quick and effective way out of a not so good situation..

just thought id share..

 

[Bam]

my judo instructor likes aikido a lot and recently taught us a few self defense techniques that are pure aikido.

one is if someone grabs you buy the wrist with the opposite side arm and its a very simple very fast and very effective wrist lock

another cool one is if someone squeezes your hand hard and you cant get away you simply point your index finger straight, rotate your finger/wist to the right and slide your thumb ontop of there thumb knuckle (your fingers now look like a fake toy gun) you simply rotate your wrist downward and point at the floor.. again another quick and effective way out of a not so good situation..

just thought id share..

I love that demonstration Tom and I might add that when you are pointing your wrist/finger down you are moving your energy and hand through the weakest point of your attacker's grip. Just after you do this and the attacker's grip is broken that bend your pointed finger and reverse your movement to bring your now bent knuckle upwards into the attackers face, You have your choice of targets (Upper lip, soft spot under the jaw etc) and with control of the amount of energy you use you can completly stop even the bigest person.

 

[kenpojim]

Just wanted to collect your thoughts about Aikido as a practical martial art (and by practical I mean effective in a street situation). There's a school locally I'm interested in attending where the instructors are police officers who specialize in "conflict resolution". Thanks!

I studied aikido for about a year and I think it would have taken a lot longer for me to be good enough at it to use it on the street. I'm into kenpo now and we are using a lot of the same joint locks and control techniques. I'm learning more about body mechaniics now than I ever did before so more of what I was doing when I was learning aikido is making sense to me now. I think the key is being able to adapt and not lock yourself into any one style.