so... Aikido, and perhaps what?

[Nick_sam]

hey all, this is my first post!

after years of sidetracking and considering i finally got around to taking up aikido and have been doing it now for a mere 5 or six weeks. what an amazing art! with little or no effort you can send someone twice your size to the ground and it gives you such a better concept of balance too!

since taking it up i have looked around on forums and the suchlike and discovered more different martial arts than ever imagined to be! And its got me thinking that i may want (at a later date, when i have a better grasp on aikido, or course!) to take up another art - perhaps one that compliments aikido, or that offers skill in another spectrum, ie more offensive, or even a weapon based art.

I am tending to favour arts that have a more fluid / circular motion to them rather than rigid linear based ones - it would be nice to be able to take certain aspects of aikido and apply them to something else!

anyway, ive been rambling! any ideas?

thanks,

nick

[White Warlock]

Hello Nick_sam

There are, as you say, plenty of systems out there. It is hard to say what compliments aikido. Much easier to determine what compliments you. In any event, it is something you have plenty of time to contemplate, for your studies in aikido have only just begun.

If i were to provide one bit of advice... it would be to take your time. Many people rush through a variety of systems and only grasp the basics of each one. Aikido, as some other systems, offers quite a lot. It would be a shame not to dedicate yourself to it for an extended period of time.

On the other hand, if you're merely shopping around for systems, so you can find your niche', i suppose the best advice is... look at what is available in your area, check for 'clubs' and garage instructors who are passionate about their studies. Clubs, sometimes with free membership, are usually great for 'swapping' ideas, concepts and techniques, but not often will you find a club that is wholey dedicated to a single system. As to garage instructors, that is merely a definition (which i unashamedly borrow from Shorinryu Sensei) for those instructors who are not geared towards maintaining a school or making a profit, and merely wish to find persons truly interested in studying the system, or systems, they have to offer.

Clubs can often be found posted at colleges, libraries, community centers, etc. Garage instructors don't generally advertise, but sometimes they do (obviously such instructors vary widely in skill, temperment, ability to teach, motivation, and availability. But, the same can be said of anyone).

Schools in your area, those renting or owning a building and plastered with signs to attract clients, may very well be good schools, with good instructors, and passionate students. You may find a school that interests you, assuming you don't find any clubs or don't find any garage instructors. Just be aware that many high profile schools have geared themselves towards profit to such an extent that they compromise quality.

So, visit some schools, get into discussions with people in your area, take some martial art, boxing, wrestling, fencing, judo, etc courses at your local community center, high school, college or university. Taste what is out there without heavily impacting your finances. Pay attention that a style is just as dependent upon itself as it is dependent upon those who teach it and those who learn it, so don't make knee-jerk judgements on any one particular system until you've experienced the same 'problems' at more than a few locations, or from more than a few instructors.

Catch you later.

[Nick_sam]

thanks so much for the reply. dont worry, i have all intentions to carry on aikido for a very long time, and taking things slowly before trying out anything else. you have a good point, "whats suits me best". i think i have found the right art for me in aikido and its so rich and endless i think im gonna be at it for a while!

i guess im looking for a more "offensive" art that follows similar smooth flowing movements, as opposed to hard rigid motions. my knowledge of what all (or at least most) of the different arts involve isnt particularly extensive, so any input is appreciated!

thanks again!

[MenteReligieuse]

Bagua, Tai chi..very long and flowing/circular movements, will take you many many years to be able to grasp and use the basics functionally. For something quicker, maybe White Crane kung fu.

But don't spit on the arts you say to have "hard ridgid motions" ..."hard" MAs usually have a "soft" core. Like White Warlock said, look whats around your area and shop around.

edit : Oh, and are you sure you got time to study two MAs at the same time? I know many people do on this board...but I find myself lucky if I can get to class 4 times per week, which is not much really considering you can spend a lifetime studying 1 art without having touched everything it has to offer.

[taiji fajin]

If you want a style that comliments aikido, Bagua would be a very good one. It is a powerful art, and some reputable people have suggested that it may have influenced the development of aikido. It also has many things that you've said you enjoyed (balance, circular movement, control of larger people). It's next on my list of things I want to learn as well, and I'd be taking it now if a qualified person was near me.

If you want a weapon based one, I can say that one of the arts I do, Kuk Sool Won, has a lot of weapons in it. It is not a fully weapons based system, I will warn you up front. But it does include many - short staff, staff, long staff, double staff, throwing knives, short sword, sword, inverted sword, double swords, rope, bow and arrow, spear, jool bohng(nunchucks) - both double and triple, and fans. Those are all the ones I can think of, there may be more. I've heard that at the headquarters the highest ranking people sometimes practice them on horseback , but I doubt many people get to that point.

And of course I have to throw in that you should take taiji, but I think everyone should take taiji so that's a pretty biased suggestion

[Nick_sam]

what exactly is Bagua, by the way? i mean, what does it involve? and what is taiji too? and what does kuk sool won involve too? (as you can tell i am new - but enthusiastic - to all this!)

and no, i dont think i have enough time to do 2 at the moment - as it is, the dojo i do aikido at only has it twice a week, which isnt enough, for me at least!

thanks again for the patience!

[White Warlock]

Personal thoughts...

twice a week isn't enough, which means you should try to hook up with someone in the class and practice regularly outside of class, and/or take up practice with someone you trust and do that regularly, and/or work on the movements in your spare time. I recommend 4 to 5 days a week, minimum one hour per day, for things to become ingrained.

[taiji fajin]

Bagua and Taiji are both Chinese internal martial arts. Kuk Sool is a Korean martial art. Since people can (and do) write books about these (and every) martial art without covering everything, I'll just give you a few sentences on each, and you can do more research on whichever you like.

Bagua involves lots of walking in circles. It trains disappearing from an opponent, taking them off balance, etc. It is an internal martial art that places strong emphasis on qi. This is the art that I know the least amount about of these three, unfortunately. B.K. Francis does Bagua, I would check out some of the articles in his library that deal with it: http://www.energyarts.com/hires/library/masters/index.html

Taiji (you have have seen it spelled Tai Chi) is an internal martial art that can be fairly well summarized by the Yin & Yang symbol. You learn mental and physical stability, gain health and gong (foundation). It also bases strong emphasis on qi and meditation, like bagua. The ultimate result is that whatever comes to you, you can handle it. A good book for it is "Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power" by master Yang Yang, or look at his website, specifically the articles: http://www.chentaiji.com/articles/ (if you can read Chinese go to http://www.hunyuantaiji.com.cn/ for grandmaster Feng's webpage)

Kuk Sool can best be described as a combination of all Korean martial arts. Instead of focusing on a few aspects, Kuk Sool tries to combine them all: Meditation, weapons, joint locks, strikes, etc etc. Kuk Sool schools are generally more miltant (not to the extreme, just that type of atmosphere) than bagua or taiji schools. The official Kuk Sool webpage is: http://www.kuksoolwon.com/

Hope that helps.

[Nick_sam]

again, cant thankyou enough!

i like the idea of hooking up with a class member and practicing too.. i may do that when i get to know a few of them a bit better!

[Enviroman]

Circular arts (southern-style kung fu, tai chi, and others) will complement Aikido's soft and circular nature. I've studied both Aikido and a "hard" striking art. I feel that it might be to your detriment to study both as a beginner. I'd recommend sticking to just Aikido for a little while.