Starting out in Aikido

Posted by: Anonymous

Starting out in Aikido - 02/12/05 04:04 PM

Hello,

I took karate for about five years when I was younger, but now I'm not currently involved in any art. However, I find myself being very interested in Aikido due to the fact that one gets tired of all the hard contact that comes with karate. The only thing is I'm concerned with how effective Aikido is as compared to karate. Suggestions, anyone?
Posted by: senseilou

Re: Starting out in Aikido - 02/14/05 12:37 PM

How can something be effective if there is no contact? Why would you need to do anything if you don't want contact?If you don't want to have contact, avoid all confrontations, be a pacifist and just don't acknowledge the action toward you. If you want to control someone, there must be contact. I don't know why people think wrenching someone's arm is some how less civil than hitting them. My Sensei put a lock on me this weekend that I wish he would have hit me instead.

But maybe you mean you don't want the contact on you. So if you don't want to be hit, play golf, where there is no contact. Even in Aikido, if you move wrong, you get hit, so there has to be contact in the Martial Arts. If you want to do everything in the air, you could train without contact. Its like saying you want to play football and you don't want to block or be tackled. You can't have it both ways. If you don't like contact, don't train in the arts, try yoga or Tai Chi
Posted by: Anonymous

Re: Starting out in Aikido - 02/14/05 02:28 PM

I also took Karate for about 10 years. I've been taking Aikido for about a year now.
I'm far to new to Aikido to attempt to provide any real insight about it. However...by "hard contact", I assume that you mean impact...Karate is primarily linear attacks (punches, kicks, etc) or linear blocks where you absorb or diflect the impact w/ your arm, etc. Aikido is different but it's every bit as physical (in fact, I spend MUCH more time "in contact" than I ever did in Karate). A lot of people (myself included) go into Aikido w/ the idea that it's "martial arts for pacifists", and while it CAN be nicer/less damaging to you oponent, it is still a martial art.
As for effectiveness... if your good, your good, if you **** , well, you get yer %^& kicked. It's true in Karate, Aikido or any other martial art. I had some doubts about the effectiveness when I first started (it didn't take landing on my face very many times to change that opinion. After a year, I understand a few of the techniques (conceptually, not necesarily in practice) well enough to see that they would be more usefull to me in any scenario that I'm likely to find myself in...I think.
Also, for me at least, Aikido is a much slower learning curve.