From: jchristian@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Aikido Question (no, this is not a poll...)
Date: 12 Dec 92 02:30:38 EST
Organization:  Wright State University 

In article <H.eg.cotSNYhqHxY@lionbbs.escape.de>, UweKloss@lionbbs.escape.de ( Uwe Kloss ) writes:
> In <1g38kuINNfh0@master.cs.rose-hulman.edu>, acharya@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU writes:
> 
> Nonsense!
> What do you want to do?
> Practice aikido or beat him up?
> 
> Aikido as SELFDEFENSE against a 'realistic' attack is the last resort!
> Just if nothing else works.

Wait.  I'm confused.  Are you saying that you WOULDN'T use aikido as
self-defense?  Or that you would only use it as a last resort?

While I don't practice aikido, the style I practice has some similarities in
its ideas and executions.  A good book on aikido I recently read (written by
the founder's son, I think--my apologies for forgetting the name) asserted that
aikido is concerned with harmony.  An attack is disharmonious, and the
practioner of aikido takes the chaotic energy and harmonizes it (hope you can
muddle through my paraphrasing).  He says that this principle of harmonizing
energy is the ESSENCE of aikido--one cannot understand the art without
understanding how it is supposed to maintain harmony.

My question is this: what does it matter if you're practicing aikido against
someone in a dojo vs. someone on the street?  If you understand the ESSENCE of
aikido, it seems like it shouldn't matter one way or the other.  Don't you run
the risk of demeaning your art by making it a lab idea that never gets put to
use?

We tend to say, "Good theory, but not good in practice."  Hindus say, "If it's
good in theory, then it's good in practice.  If it doesn't work in practice,
then something's wrong with your theory."  Don't you run the risk of having a
theory that may be flawed because you're not concerned about whether it works
in practice?

> 
> I decided, that if someone does not believe in aikido to be
> effective, this is his problem, not mine!

Well, it's still your problem if you find yourself incapable of showing aikido
to be effective.  You're not trying to get converts, you're just trying to show
that what you do works.  If you can't show that, then YOU have a problem.

> I DON'T WANT TO BEAT PEOPLE UP!

Well, who does?  Most serious martial artists practice in the hopes they won't
have to beat people up.

> I check for effectiveness in my techniques only with people
> from whom I know that they can cope with my answer to their
> 'realistic' attacks.

You have to be careful of "training-hall syndrome."  People can get sloppy with
their realism in the dojo, unless they concentrate on that aspect of it.  And I
don't know of a whole lot of judo/aikido people who can throw a convincing
punch.  (I'm not knocking them, just speaking from training and observation
experience.)  Realistic in the dojo isn't always the same as realistic on the
street.

> 
> Just tell the guy that YOU teach AIKIDO.
> If he as a newcomer wants to beat someone up he should go
> somewhere else.
> 
> Uwe
> 

I admit that I'm curious about your attitude.  Did I totally misinterpret you? 
Can you clarify what you meant?

Jeff