TomanGaidin

Lousy MA? Nowadays, maybe, but back when he was running his aikido dojo, before he got into movies, he was good. The black belt tests for his students involved a three on one attacker scenario, and it was essentially NHB. He also did live knife training. He used to be exceedingly good. Now, though... he's just /strange/.

There are a good number of political reasons why the French didn't support the US; it's not so much a matter of not agreeing with the war, nor is it a matter of gratitude - though I do agree that being saved by one country in a conflict should not mean an automatic 'subscription' to future conflict. Badly worded, but I can't be bothered re-wording it ;p. But that's getting off-topic. Anyone have some more info regarding french cane..? Primary principles, fighting distance, striking/locks/throwing or grappling, etc?

The Matrix's selling point with the teenage audience is for the most part, the 'cool factor' - i.e, the slow motion fight scenes, et cetera. How it got the acclaim it received, however - special effects aside - was the philosophy that indeed has a large place within both films. More than a mere ten lines of pseudo philosophy. The philosophy also has strong religious overtones/reflection - the brothers who created the films are Christian, though I could be wrong. In any case, they're big anime fans, and anime is never light when it comes to matters of philosophy. They took inspiration from some of the 'slick' techno-ish animes and placed what symbolism and concepts they wanted into the film. And, of course, ticket sales-wise, there's that 'cool factor' . The fact that there's a 'cool factor' doesn't necessarily make the film shallow, however. Just like an 'uncool' film can easily be as deep as a 2d sprite.

Keep in mind that modern day Pankration, as taught, is probably (guessing, here) more akin to a mixture of Muay Thai and BJJ than 'authentic' Pankration as it was all those years ago.

I guess it could be most likened to a standard straight 'karate' punch. And.. not all of us can do it. Only the seniors. Though I didn't just mean the grab.. sure, a quick punch might escape them, but either way they'd have at the least moved off-line and be ready to grab and throw/lock. Response to boxing style jabs and quick punches is a weakness, though, and likewise there is little in aikido's usual curriculum, from what I can tell, to defend against low kicks. Of course, the idea is not to actually be there when the kick comes - preferably a city block or two away, but... That's just the ideal. Low kicks and fast punches are a weakness, though not necessarily to all aikidoka. Me, though, definitely . I think scraping to the sensei and so on, including how traditional things are, would depend largely on the dojo. I'm sure there'd be a few dojos around where everything is reasonably informal.

Just make sure not to judge the entirety of the art on the classes you saw . We've practiced catching punches that are retracted as soon as the strike is done - I've yet to see a black belt mistime and not get the grab, or end up in a position to do any one of several throws or locks. Out of curiosity... is Wado Ryu also derived from Daito Ryu? I heard vague reference a while back to such, I think, but can't remember the whole thing completely.

Should've been 'I'd give a spiel', not 'I give a spiel'... but anyway... Iwama is one of the more 'traditional' styles of aikido. Not necessarily more martial, as that depends on the dojo, but the particular one I'm in always stresses integrity in each attack and movement, etc, to ensure that it's the technique that's working and not just the other person 'giving' it over. One of the trademarks of Iwama Ryu seems to be a bit more weapons training, and from earlier on. In the dojo I'm in we start straight away with an hour of weapons work, bokken (wooden sword) or jo (staff) with occasionally some tanken/tanto (knife) work afterward before moving onto an hour of unarmed techniques. In other styles such as Yoshinkan I've heard of the training being completely unarmed based before a certain rank, yet again this would be dependant on the preference of the instructor at an individual dojo.

As with most styles, it'd probably depend on the dojo. Some instructors focus on self defence, some on traditional weapons, some on ki/spiritual aspects, some on all of those combined. But, it could be said that some associations have different focus overall - but just a note that does differ from dojo to dojo. Anyway - Yoshinkan - They're one of the harder, more 'martial' styles of aikido. The few clips I've seen of Yoshinkan students have left me impressed. Tenshin - The style sort of formed by Seagal, it seems to focus quite heavily on quickly applicable techniques. Some of it seems a bit like old school jujutsu, and their randori is intense enough that it can go to the ground and continue on with the 'thrower' trying to get to their feet and just continue on. Realistic training, in other words. Shodokan/Tomiki - Don't know too much about these, but they have sparring in them with an unarmed person versus another person with a rubber tanto (knife), and I'm not sure, but Shodokan at higher levels I believe has unarmed vs unarmed sparring. As said, though, I'm not sure. Seems like it can be a fairly hard style. Aside from those, I'm not sure... I give a spiel for my own style of aikido, Iwama Ryu, but... that'd be cheating ;p.

I've been doing Iwama Ryu Takemusu Aikido for a bit over a year now, and thoroughly enjoy it. Wouldn't mind trying a bit of judo sometime when I've got the extra time and money for a spot of randori to better timing and such, but in any case that'd only be in addition, not a replacement. I enjoy aikido too much .

It depends upon the style of aikido. Tomiki and Shodokan have tanto-randori, where one has a tanto (knife) and the other is unarmed. The former scores by stabbing/slashing their opponent, the latter by throwing/pinning/locking/disarming their opponent. I'm not sure if they have any set method for sparring with both practicioners unarmed. Most forms of aikido that I know of, however, don't spar. Most work is done via paired kata, with one person delivering an attack and the other defending with a lock or throw, etc. There is jiyuwaza, however, where one or more attackers go after someone who tries to throw them and move about the mat in the most economical fashion, pretty much, trying not to get hit or taken down. Jiyuwaza for most styles only arises, from what I know, during the later kyu grades and onwards from there, though. As for differences with judo - well, judo involves some groundwork, whereas most aikido don't, the aim being not to get taken down in the first place. Other than that, and judo's focus on randori, there are a few throws/locks in judo that are similar to some in aikido, no doubt thanks to Kenji Tomiki's influence. Aikido's sometimes referred to as 'judo at a distance'.

Just a question... what is shukokai karate, exactly? What are the 'signatures' of the style? Emphasis on kata, or sparring? Any groundwork, or just stand up striking with no grappling? Basically, I'm just after... any information at all, pretty much ;p. Any would be appreciated. Thanks.

One good thing about aikido... the other gods don't look at you funny. You're among your own kind.

Ah... no problem. Was pretty much meaning that overall, however, aikido is probably less strenuous in the training than, say, muay thai , so it could be seen as both soft in terms of training and soft in terms of dealing with force. From one of Seagal's old dojo footage, though, I'm not even sure if that could be called soft in terms of dealing with force ;p. Some of his entry throws he just cuts through them as though they're not even there. If they resisted, it could maybe be called 'hard', in a way... though they'd probably only hurt themselves by doing so ;p.

I'm only speaking of experience from my own dojo, but I can say that we do an hour of weapon's practice, then an hour afterward for empty hand. Reason being that many of the movements tie in, especially the bokken/sword - many of aikido's unarmed techniques are based loosely around swordplay. On the matter of 'reality defence', we also practice tanken/knife disarming techniques on occasion, and make sure that in each unarmed technique we minimise our own openings throughout so as for the 'opponent' to have no easy way to kick without only losing further balance, etc. We don't exactly have any ki development, as such. As for aikido being soft... depends on the dojo, really. Ours can be a mixture. We try to resist/test against someone's technique to make sure they're applying it correctly, but we don't go out of our way to break necks . On the other hand, I've heard the Tokyo Riot Police Yoshinkan course usually comes up with several broken bones and dislocations along the way. Hard/soft varies from teacher to teacher, dojo to dojo - but overall, it probably could be assumed that aikido is 'softer' than most other arts.

In addendum to my last post, it usually is a punch or tegatana strike where aikido techniques are concerned, but from what I've been taught, 'atemi' refers to a strike of any type. Also, Steven Seagal's aikido actually looks better - at least, in my opinion - off the cinema screen and in his old black and white training videos, when he was running his dojo in Japan. Younger and more powerful in his technique then, I think. As for fighting tournaments - aikido doesn't lend itself well to competition. True, there are two 'sub-styles' of aikido (Tomiki/Shodokan) that practice randori with an unarmed aikidoka against another aikidoka wielding a foam rubber tanto (knife), but this isn't mainstream to most aikido styles. Most aikidoka simply don't go in for fighting competitions. In addition, given how long it can take (dependant upon learning speed of a given practicioner, of course, as with any art) to be 'effective' in aikido, then I don't find it surprising that there are few aikidoka fighting in tournaments. Lastly, most aikido techniques rely on solid intent - that is, intent to harm. It'd probably be easier to apply a technique on someone gunning for you completely than on someone in a fighting arena, where everyone knows they'll be alive and recuperating afterward.