Aikido’s Purported Self-Defense Techniques
With the explosion of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) organizations and competition, debating martial arts has become, on the internet, a staple exercise of nerd-passion. One reason for this is that there is now a more realistic context and perspective for the use of martial arts in competition–MMA. There tends to be a split in ontology between the arts for competitive fighting and those for self-defense. Prizefighting arts usually include western boxing, kickboxing and Muay Thai, various wrestling (Greco-Roman, freestyle, Sambo, Judo), and the grappling arts mainly based on Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ).
The most renowned self-defense arts include Krav Maga (Israeli), Japanese Karate (e.g. Goju-ryu) and various American adaptations of Karate (Kenpo). However, there are some arts that claim to have a leg-up on other schools by some creative and innovative use of movements and techniques. In addition they may claim to have a spiritual and philosophical foundation that allows those who master the art to have an advantage over brute force and aggression; e.g. Aikido. There are even some sensei (masters) who purport to hold fatal techniques involving pressure points that when used in a super-precise manner can disable and even kill an opponent. However, it is my opinion that many of these fringe styles are basically operating in unrealistic and thus, useless, conditions, or else completely fantastical, and have no relation to real life combat situations.
One problem for any martial art is as follows: how do you practice potentially deadly or damaging techniques without disabling all of your practice mates? This problem is adequately resolved in traditional striking sports by toughening the practitioner for a period of time to acclimate them to full-contact sparring and by wearing adequate protective gear. In wrestling and grappling arts, most of the time, techniques in practice and competition are made safe by the conscious concern for safety among participants, but certain prohibiting rules, and by the ability to “tap out” of a given hold. On the other hand, some arts resolve the problem by a combination of feigning punches and strikes and omitting resistance to techniques during practice. It is my contention that any art which requires the uke (the reciever of a technique) to omit resistance and feign the efficacy of the techniques–this kind of art, as demonstrated by the example of Aikido, necessarily fails to develop effective defense techniques and should not advertise as such.
Here is a sample of Aikido techniques from youtube:
This video even sets the techniques in a street setting with a knife attacker, but almost all Aikido videos have the similar throws and holds. To be sure Aikido contains some useful techniques, but the useful ones (like standing arm bar) are all taken from Japanese Ju Jitsu. The techniques unique to Aikido, characterized by flowing circular throws and transitions are only achievable with a willing uke (reciever) to go along with the technique. For example, the first throw of the video is typical. The tori (the practitioner) avoids a horizontal slash from his left to right side, then steps inside to control the knife hand using a figure four wrist lock, like this:
So far so good, that is a standard technique of many grappling arts. Where Aikido looses good sense is when, after securing the wristlock, tori proceeds to circle to his left, pulling uke with him, which apparently off-balances uke enough and allows tori to toss him in a near-complete circle, rotating the 180+ pound man 235 degrees about his center of gravity like he was tied to a gyroscope. This simply cannot happen with the hold and positioning which prior to the throw. The same throw occurs at 0:08 and similarly goofy throws at 0:14, 0:26 and 0:36 and throughout the rest of the video. Now, let’s compare those clips with competition video in Judo:
The Aikido video has two instances of a throw like this one (te garuma) where tori grabs high with one hand and grabs a leg with the other hand. They occur at 0:26 and 0:48. However, it should be clear that the Judo player had a much tougher time putting his opponent on his back and the throw had much less air time than in the Aikido example. How is this possibly we might ask? Surely the black belt Judoka would be better able to score a big throw than the self-defense practitioner in Aikido. That’s all Judo players train for–throwing. The only explanation for this is that the Judo player’s opponent was more prepared and resisted more and/or the knife attacker was grossly passive to the Aikido practitioner.
Defenders of Aikido might point out exactly what I did in the previous sentences; that Aikido techniques might not work in a Judo or any other competition setting, but are still street-worthy because real-life criminals and aggressors don’t expect you to fight back. An analogy to that statement would be to take a BB gun to defeat a stone-age village, because the fact that BB gun’s are worthless in a gun-fight doesn’t exclude the confidence that a BB gun would subdue a band of villagers armed with stone axes and clubs. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how different the BB gun is to a shotgun, it matters that a BB gun cannot stop even a single determined human being (withholding the very unlikely case of scoring an eye-shot).
And, though it’s hard to put in words, any kinesthetically experienced person can see that you can’t throw someone in a circle with only one arm or one side of his body in your control. Take a look again at the first throw of the Aikido video. Now just imagine yourself in that wrist lock, on your right arm. Then your Aikido opponent, like in the video, swings out away and to the right–how much easier would it be for you to simply straighten out your arm than to keep it bent and flexed so that it carries all the torque of tori’s throw to your whole body for an air-born flight? It’s ridiculous. In Judo, these kinds of throws are called uki-waza, or floating technique. They are legitimate techniques but they are rarely used in competition. But, just for comparison, here is such a throw executed in top competition by Kosei Inoue:
Firstly, this was a counter throw. If you watch closely at the beginning seconds, the champion’s opponent extended his right leg out for a leg trip attack which the champion, Kosei Inoue, countered with uki otoshi. Also note that even though his opponent was already off balanced Inoue had to throw his whole body weight into the throw and ended up with his knees on the ground and his chest on uke’s downed body. He didn’t at all, cleanly flip his opponent while staying on his own feet. The point of this comparison is to show that throwing techniques take considerable strength, speed, and force when done on a live, resisting opponent. And I just don’t see the point of practicing loopy foo foo movements where the master somehow control’s his students’ whole bodies with a wrist control from 4 feet away; that is, I don’t see the point of techniques where the student has to throw himself in order to make his master look good.
And if you read articles about Aikido it doesn’t even seem like they care to present themselves as a fighting art. The wiki article “Aikido” starts by declaring the art a fusion of it’s founder’s “martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs” and in third paragraph it states that the art diverged from its Ju Jitsu origin in 1920 “partly due to [the founder's] involvement in the Omoto-kyo religion]. So, fine, Aikido is more than a self-defense art; it has a philosophical and spiritual foundation. I don’t have anything against that, in itself–I am a big fan of Capoeira which is usually called a Brazilian martial art, but is really more of a cultural folk art involving dance and combative movements. However, Capoiera never tries to demonstrate supposedly effective self-defense techniques against armed attackers. Organizations baring the name “Aikido” sometimes do just that; the which is actually plain wrong. Morally wrong, because I sincerely believe someone who tries to use an Aikido floating throw in a serious situation would be putting himself in great danger by doing so. And it’s the Aikido sensei’s responsibility that his name and tradition not be attached to such crockery.
