I watched that video a dozen times and I still don’t understand where the angular momentum came from. That guy must have been trying to throw himself, right??
OP here. Lots of comments from non-aikidokas. Interesting and unexpected to me.
The thing about "throwing himself" is pure self preservation that advanced students acquire with time. It looks nice on public demos, but you can practice the same techniques slowly in a way that the partner feels grounded, unable to create momentum. In those cases, the partner will feel a lot of pressure on their limb/join or back. Do that to beginner students and you'll see their eyes pop-out in desperation because the pressure is too great and don't even know they can tap to ease down.
In advanced practice, if you don't do self-preservation, you'd end up with snapped tendons, broken collarbones, toes etc. If you are already injured, you have to tell your partner in advance "I can't roll today. Don't project me." or "Don't apply the elbow lock", and so on. So you won't see great projections either.
Those are the details you can't imagine just by watching videos; you've got to be in the mat. It's like me watching fishing videos. To me, fishing can't be anything more than: throwing bait => pulling line.
Aikido demonstration is cooperative. Uke and nage. Somebody throws and somebody receives the throw. I'm not one of those "Aikido is fake" people, but Aikido has no tournaments and isn't represented in MMA for a reason.
If you're in a real fight and properly distributing your weight, things you see in Aikido just don't happen. That's not shade on Aikido. It's a worthy effort for anyone who wants to devote themselves to it. It's just not a real representation of what happens in combat and this is much more true about Aikido than just about any other martial art you could practice.
The philosophy behind what the submission author wrote is strong. I was pretty moved by it and it effectively communicates what most people call beginner mindset. That mindset has brought me a ton of success in life.
> Aikido demonstration is cooperative. Uke and nage. Somebody throws and somebody receives the throw. I'm not one of those "Aikido is fake" people, but Aikido has no tournaments and isn't represented in MMA for a reason.
Judo and Jiu Jitsu have Uke and Tori for demonstrations. Same concept. Except when Uke gets thrown, they really get thrown. They will cooperate with the move but they aren’t providing the momentum.
I don’t know if Aikido is “fake”, but I do think it’s more of a performance than a martial art.
Judo and Aikido founders were pals in the military. There is a handful of koshi nague throwing techniques that are identical in both schools, and are done without any of uke's momentum.
Citation? They were contemporaries who knew of each other and apparently respected each other, including having students cross train across the test disciplines. I didn’t find anything saying they were military buddies.
Aikido, B-Jiu-Jitsu, Ballet, and running laps all have their place in training for "real combat" - the stamina, the reflexes, the flexibility, the locks, being able to roll all help to come through with minimal damage.
Still, the annals of Stand Up, Don't Fall Down comedy eight minutes of Jesse Enkamp entering a Jiu-Jitsu tournament to Prove It Doesn't Work still entertains - the training montage is priceless.
Getting back to Aikido, one master is of the opinion it's not in MMA as its either ineffectual non damaging ritual OR it's high damage, crippling, lethal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtibobLK56I
> Getting back to Aikido, one master is of the opinion it's not in MMA as its either ineffectual non damaging ritual OR it's high damage, crippling, lethal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtibobLK56I
Both are true. Pulling off some of these moves in real world situations is absurdly hard -- much harder than other techniques you could be learning. But also the reason people throw themselves is because for some of these moves the alternative is the damage described. It's more complicated than that -- every traditional martial art has its issues.
I stress again that I'm not throwing any shade at it. It's one of those things that's poorly understood by outsiders and even most modern practitioners. There are Aikidokas out there who can absolutely whoop ass in a standup fight -- it's just that the level of nuance and understanding within the art form to get there is immense (comparatively). But then that's defeating the point. The whole point is about _not_ fighting. Spare everyone the damage. If that's your guiding philosophy and you're still intent on training, Aikido is for you.
It should also be noted Aikido’s original purpose was not for battle. It descended from Morihei Ueshiba studying Daito-ryu and wanting something less violent to practice after returning from war.
Also there's nothing fake about standing joint locks. Aikido just isn't the only martial art where you can learn them. Wing Chun, Hapkido, (Japanese) Jujutsu, etc...
But standing joint locks will only help you in dealing with belligerent drunks, not defending yourself against someone with real intent on your harm.
Aikido is beautiful and historically/culturally relevant.
Judo and Aikido founders were pals in the military. Those schools were all connected at the time and were complementary. What we see today is a kind of a "commercial struggle" between different schools and martial arts for $tudents. I practiced judo and BJJ as well throughout my life, and that wasn't an issue. I see that the ideal practice for anyone could be an MMA having the self-defense and the non-competitive healthy side of things. We don't see that mindset around.
Yes, he’s throwing himself. Aikido is often practiced solely as a non-competitive art.
If you want to see what competitive throws/takedowns with a kimono/gi look like against live resistance, watch Judo. Example https://youtu.be/fLD87nqwp3Y
Doing ukemi to save himself. This is just the first step of the practice. Uke (receiver) co-operates in a way that tori can practice the thing being taught. Only after that things start to change: uke changes something, tries to evade, resists etc. However, this phase is rarely shown in demonstrations. Even more rare if you see the step(s) after that.