Seagal is a beast

[legkicker]

I did Aikido for a few years while I was doing Shito Ryu and I liked Aikido but I didn't have the best instructor.

My instructor at the time knew I also did Karate at the YMCA and 2 other private dojo so he would use me in demonstrations a lot having me throw strikes while he tried to show the effectiveness of Aikido techniques. This was ok with me a few times but it happened a lot and a lot. I got the impression he was trying to show Aikido was much more effective when in reality this was a demonstration without me resisting anything.

One time he asked me to throw a rear left leg roundhouse kick/hidari ashi mawashi geri to jodan/head. I complied and had to pull back or I would have connected. He looked startled by this and said something weird like "oh, I thought you were going to throw with your lead leg, not your rear" and he had me do it again. Same thing, I had to pull back and he had me do it again. On the third time I connected and dropped him. Now, this was coreographed and he knew it was coming. Also, head kicks aren't the hardest thing int he world to defend against, especially when you know they are coming. I was 16 or 17 at the time and quit Aikido after this. I never showed back up again.

Personally, Aikido isn't for me, at least right now but maybe when I'm older and can't spar "more full contact" anymore. I have to agree that for most people Aikido takes much longer to be able to applly. I think this has to do with too much compliance and not enough resistance in training. Aikido is done heavily as an art and not applied by too many people for combat....I said, by not too many people but by some.

Seagal is not Tomiki Aikido but he is known to do a more "street focused" style. As far as I know Seagal is Aikikai. Seagal also doesn't run the dojo in Japan anymore. That was his father in law's dojo and his x wife(fujitani) is in charge of it from what I understand, anyway.

As far as supplementing Aikido with other arts or "having to". This can be said for any art. Many "masters" and such have also studied more then one art. Jason DeLuca who was one of the guys to fight Royce in the early UFCs now teaches a more combat oriented Aikido style that is worth looking into. Other people also try to apply Aikido more "realistically".

[elbows_and_knees]

Aikido is one of the slower martial arts styles and takes a very long time to actually work correctly. I'd say about 6 years, if not more, of training Aikido is enough to defend oneself. Also, Aikido is not too effective left alone, it's usually a complimentary martial art to be worekd with another form. Steven Seagal himself wasn't only a 7th degree black belt in Aikido, but he had ranks in i think 3 other styles including Judo, Shito-Ryu karate, and another style im not sure of. What i'd like to do is use Aikido's locking techniques in place of some of Karate's blocking techniques.

I don't think that's it. ueshiba had only studied aikijutsu, I believe. Something about the training HAS to be much different than it once was. 6 years is too long... WAY too long.

As for locking in place of blocking, I don't think it would work too well. you would be better served by using the evasive foot work instead of blocking, not locking.

[elbows_and_knees]

I did Aikido for a few years while I was doing Shito Ryu and I liked Aikido but I didn't have the best instructor.

My instructor at the time knew I also did Karate at the YMCA and 2 other private dojo so he would use me in demonstrations a lot having me throw strikes while he tried to show the effectiveness of Aikido techniques. This was ok with me a few times but it happened a lot and a lot. I got the impression he was trying to show Aikido was much more effective when in reality this was a demonstration without me resisting anything.

One time he asked me to throw a rear left leg roundhouse kick/hidari ashi mawashi geri to jodan/head. I complied and had to pull back or I would have connected. He looked startled by this and said something weird like "oh, I thought you were going to throw with your lead leg, not your rear" and he had me do it again. Same thing, I had to pull back and he had me do it again. On the third time I connected and dropped him. Now, this was coreographed and he knew it was coming. Also, head kicks aren't the hardest thing int he world to defend against, especially when you know they are coming. I was 16 or 17 at the time and quit Aikido after this. I never showed back up again.

Personally, Aikido isn't for me, at least right now but maybe when I'm older and can't spar "more full contact" anymore. I have to agree that for most people Aikido takes much longer to be able to applly. I think this has to do with too much compliance and not enough resistance in training. Aikido is done heavily as an art and not applied by too many people for combat....I said, by not too many people but by some.

Seagal is not Tomiki Aikido but he is known to do a more "street focused" style. As far as I know Seagal is Aikikai. Seagal also doesn't run the dojo in Japan anymore. That was his father in law's dojo and his x wife(fujitani) is in charge of it from what I understand, anyway.

As far as supplementing Aikido with other arts or "having to". This can be said for any art. Many "masters" and such have also studied more then one art. Jason DeLuca who was one of the guys to fight Royce in the early UFCs now teaches a more combat oriented Aikido style that is worth looking into. Other people also try to apply Aikido more "realistically".

there is an aikikai dojo in my city. I may check them out some day.

[juey palancu]

Dude, Seagal has incredidle tai zabaki!

----

Nidan, Traditional Shotokan

[tanuki]

From what I've heard Seagal studied at Tohei Sensei's dojo rather erratically. He did attain the rank of Shodan from the dojo and I guess he gave himself the rank of 7th dan as he went along.

His dojo was in Juso, Osaka and as someone pointed out, it was his Japanese wife's father's dojo.

His taisabaki is normal for a shodan for a person who trained in the Ki no Kenkyukai.

I guess when a person gets famous, his background gets a little "larger than life".

[Robin]

My impressions of this demo is that his opponents know how to fall more than he has skill. Don't get me wrong, I love his movies. But whenever I try to see exactly what's done, I get the feeling it's mostly choreography. Stronger, larger people won't let him manipulate their arms quite so easily. And there are strong people out there. People that know how to fight (strike) will do it quite fast and without using their entire force to be later manipulated by a fast opponent. It appears that if the attacker does not put his entire energy into the attack, the demo above would not be applicable. Personally, I'd like to see Aikido in response to attacks other than those that assume the attacker will fist you. What if I don't want to play Aikido? Will Aikido still be applied so easily?

- Robin

[BlackBeltKid]

That was a great video.

[BlackBeltKid]

Real interesting.

[janos]

wow, yeah, they do not call him Steven Segal for nothing. The man is amazing.

[Konoko]

they do not call him Steven Segal for nothing

Is that not his name? Does it mean something special?