Aikido

zombiegirl

Has anyone practiced this martial art before? Any comments, thoughts, opinions about it?
At the end of October, I will be starting a two month beginner's class that's offered by my city's adult community programs department.

I've been wanting to learn some sort of martial art ever since I was a kid, but recent events have pushed me towards starting now, instead of just putting it off. A good friend of mine was brutally beaten and carjacked at a gas station about a mile from my house and it's made my already paranoid tendencies even worse. Being as small as I am, I sometimes feel so weak and helpless. This is further enforced when I try wrestling and grappling with friends of mine and can barely last one tumble without being pinned (This is a normal activity, right? lol). So anyways, I guess what I'm looking for is some sort of piece of mind that I'm not as helpless as I feel. I'm not saying that in a carjacking situation I hope to be able to fight back, I just need a little confidence boost to make my thoughts a little less troubling (I'm always jumping at shadows). Truth is, things are really bad right now and while people always think that things like this only happens in the ghetto, crime is really on the rise in the nice suburbs as well. I had my car broken into right down the street from a very hoighty-toighty expensive mall in the Detroit metro area about a year ago.

On a side note, my friend was fine aside from some stitches, dental work, and bruises that are healing just fine. Onstar disabled his car, so that was returned to him unharmed, and all that was really taken was a small amount of cash and some sports equipment which he plans to replace. I'm contemplating asking him if he would like to join me, but he's a pretty private person and none of us have really had "the talk" about where he's at mentally with all this. Sort of waiting for him to initiate, if you know what I mean.

So anyways, I'm super excited about this upcoming class. For two months, it's cheaper than what most places charge for one month and that's important because it's always been the money issue that's kept me from getting involved. It's not that I can't afford it, I just haven't felt that intense need to WANT to work it into my finances as of yet. I'm hoping this class will be the start of it. I find all of the concepts behind aikido very interesting and I'm hoping to learn some chi/ki/qui techniques, although I'm not sure if that sort of thing will actually be covered.

zenff

The concepts behind aikido are very nice; I agree.
I tried some lessons many years ago.

As a martial art I wouldn’t expect too much of it.
I’d say it is half martial art, half ballet.
These video’s of a little guy throwing all these big guys around the room are ballet only.
Any trained fighter will kick your ass.

zombiegirl

The concepts behind aikido are very nice; I agree.
I tried some lessons many years ago.

As a martial art I wouldn’t expect too much of it.
I’d say it is half martial art, half ballet.
These video’s of a little guy throwing all these big guys around the room are ballet only.
Any trained fighter will kick your ass.

lol, your comments made me laugh. well, the reason i started looking into it in the first place was i met a guy who had taken classes many years ago. he recommended a place to me and said the first time he met the teacher, this small elderly asian man flipped him on his back. and this guy was easily over six feet, very muscular. he said from that point he was sold because he didn't understand how that little guy could do it.

the fact that it doesn't emphasize punching/kicking so much is actually a bonus for me. i'm a massage therapist and i have to be very careful with my hands. i'm worried that high impacts could possibly damage them. but anyways, this class is cheap enough that if i don't see any benefit in it, then that's fine and i'll move on to something else.

@zenff which styles do you prefer?

zenff

As a kid I learned Judo. That’s all.
It worked for me. The Judo gave me confidence and I suspect other kids could read that in my body language.
Just that confidence often is enough protection against aggression, I guess.

Mr_Serenity

If I was to recommend one martial art for self defense, it would be Krav Maga. But for a woman who is into Buddhism and energy work, Aikido is a great choice. It has a lot of spiritual roots. It is more of a martial art than Krav Maga, because well Krav Maga is more really a straight up military art. It teaches you how to disarm guns and knives like second nature though, so it's very adept for the streets.

Two months in Aikido will be enough time to give you a sense if it will be worth it for you. And really just a few classes should give you a greater sense of security and confidence when walking the streets. If a martial art cannot make you feel confident in your ability to defend yourself within just a few classes, then that is when you know it's time to switch to another style.

Here is the bottom line though. The techniques you learn won't make you a better fighter. The confidence you learn will make you a better fighter. If someone knows the techniques without the confidence, they may still not be good in a street fight.

This is why many thugs can beat trained martial artists. Because many martial artists are actually too soft to fight for real. In order to learn how to defend yourself properly, you need to get rid of that softness. You need to get rid of that hesitation and that fear. Because if there is any doubt in your mind then you have already lost.

A street fight is like that. It happens very fast, the person attacking you is very disturbed, and if you're afraid or you hesitate, that's not good. So again, it won't be solely the techniques you learn that will win you a confrontation, it will be the confidence you learn that will aid you in actually landing any techniques at all. That's what one needs to defend themselves properly.

zombiegirl

thanks for your reply Mr Serenity i was hoping you would comment here.

i hope to never actually be in a fight or in a situation where i have to defend myself. what i'm after, i guess, is just piece of mind. confidence in knowing that if something DID happen, i'm not completely helpless. i know that there are many other benefits to martial arts than this as well though. for example, i use tai chi all the time in my work. even just my limited tai chi practice has taught me the correct postures for distributing pressure during my massage work. since i do so much chair massage, i would kill myself if i didn't learn how to incorporate my entire body into my work. what this really means to me is, keep your back straight and your hips aligned or you WILL feel this tomorrow, lol. i heard somewhere that the average time spent practicing massage therapy is only 5 years, typically due to injury (usually, RSI/CTS). i suppose that's why they were so adamant that we learn tai chi at my massage school (well, also, my massage school started out as a martial arts school). i wonder if there are other jobs that martial arts can benefit.

Mr_Serenity

That's great that your massage school incorporates Taichi. Because not just does it help with pressure and proper body alignment. It is supposed to be used for gathering energy. Taichi is a lot like Qigong, in the sense where it really is about gathering Chi while you do the exercises. Originally Taichi was meant for combat, but as they slowed down the form it ended up incorporating movements that naturally generate chi.

So a massage that has Taichi incorporated into it must really enhance ones energy more so than normal.

You have the right state of mind though. You never want to get into a real fight. But martial arts is supposed to give you the state of mind so that if a fight were to come your way you could be prepared for it. That's not all it gives you too. Martial arts like Buddhism is supposed to teach awareness.

Looking at the forest not just the tree. That's how you can win a street fight or stop it before it begins. Just by being aware in the present moment, by being relaxed you may sense someone following you with bad intention. You may sense someone is up to something shady just by reading their body language. You may even sense someone hiding when you can't see them. I've done it before. It's not just about reading body language it's about feeling it.

Martial arts is supposed to give you a clarity so that when you're out in public you can see more, you can feel more. This is why the teacher of your art is more important than the style. The right teacher will teach you a lot more than just the techniques. You can learn techniques from youtube, but to make what you learn potent, that will take a good teacher.

So Aikido should be a fun experience, especially if it comes at a reasonable price .

zombiegirl

i love what you said @MrSerenity because that is exactly what i'm looking for. after the few breaches of personal space/area that i've had in the past (some of which i've discussed on this site in the past), i've sort of developed this ultra paranoia. i feel pretty safe in my city, but even so, when i get home late from work and walk from my parking spot to my door, i ALWAYS feel like someone's there. i am not relaxed, the paranoia clouds my vision. i'm a very jumpy person when alone. my girlfriend scares the crap out of me almost every time she comes home when i've already been there.

you know, it's funny that you mention energy work incorporated into massage. my school specialized in medical massage and manual therapies, and part of this meant that they only taught techniques and theories that were supported by medical science. so long story short, they absolutely did not ever mention energy work or any of that stuff. however, they offered free tai chi classes and the occasional qigong. they have tai chi classes at almost every one of the seminars i have gone to over the years to get my CEUs. they teach tai chi in our stretches... i had a class that specialized on scoliosis about a year back that had a technique that taught the patient to bring their awareness to the place we would put our hand via the breath. now, if you asked the instructor why, they would say something like, "well, it helps to stretch the internal ligaments and muscles that are compressed on the concave side of the curve." which is true, but what else does that sound like to you? it sounds a lot like energy work to me, lol. it's all very incorporated but they do it sort of tongue in cheek because they don't want to scare away doctors that view it as pseudoscience (my school mostly prepares us to work in the medical field). but the acupuncture/acupressure teacher was this funny chinese guy who would teach us all about chi anyways, against the school's wishes. i did learn a few awesome acupressure energy techniques that i incorporate into my work pretty frequently. i think i have a pretty healthy no-BS attitude about things though. people tend to respond very well to those techniques, so i keep them around, but i hardly ever tell them what i'm doing. one thing i've noticed as well is that all of my clients always comment that my hands are extremely hot. since one of the things i learned was how to bring awareness and energy to my hands, it doesn't surprise me that much, but i've always been slightly hesitant to say that it's because of the chi that this happens. i choose to just smile instead.