Adding some Aikido to the mix.

[KarateGeorge]

Well, it was an unexpected and bittersweet day at my karate school the other day. Due to some personal/family issues the instructor has going on, of which I won't go into detail about, we were informed that the school is cancelling classes for the next month or two, possibly longer.

So...I've been wanting to cross-train in Aikido for quite some time, as I've always found it rather interesting, but just haven't found the time to start. With my karate school putting classes on hiatus, I decided this will be the perfect opportunity for me to look into it. There's a local Aikido school that has added a 2nd "location" at a local YMCA on Saturday mornings. You pay the YMCA on a per class basis, so there's no real commitment.

It works out perfect, so that I can try out something I've been interested in looking into for a long time. If I don't like it or if my karate school opens its doors back up, I haven't put out a significant sum of money. If I do like it, then whether or not my karate school opens its doors back up, I can still always continue cross-training in it and start going to their regular dojo which has classes all throughout the week.

I'll be attending my first class this coming Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes!

[Toptomcat]

Do you have some past experience in some more resistant grappling system, such as judo? In my opinion aikido can make for an interesting and useful supplement for something more resistant, but taken by itself as a first grappling art it can lead to bad habits. Happy exceptions like Yoshinkan aikido aside, of course.

[KarateGeorge]

Some, but not significant. I've trained about 6 years in karate, but as I'm sure you're well aware, karate doesn't have much ground work.

One of the other black belts at my karate school had a background in wrestling and BJJ as well, and taught a once a week grappling and ground fighting class for about a year at the school as a supplement for any of the students who wanted to expand their training outside of the primarily striking techniques of karate. He didn't rank us or anything, as it was considered a supplementary class, but we did practice against fully resistant opponents. Unfortunately, he stopped training a couple of years ago though.

When I was taking Wing Chun, the instructor had some BJJ training in his background as well, so we would occasionally do some ground work just to change things up a little, but he didn't do it very often since it was a Wing Chun class and not a BJJ class.

[Toptomcat]

That ought to be enough. You just need enough context to think critically.

[DWx]

That's too bad about your karate classes George, cool that you get to try out something new though.

[KarateGeorge]

That ought to be enough. You just need enough context to think critically.

Thanks for the advice! It's good to get some insight from someone who's trained more extensively in ground work.

That's too bad about your karate classes George, cool that you get to try out something new though.

Yeah, it was a sad day. Ultimately, if and when classes start back up again is going to hinge on the sensei finding a new place to teach. They're starting to look into some options, but ultimately, they have the family matters to deal with first, so its not high on the priority list. I'm looking forward to learning some Aikido though. Its quite different from what my main focus has been, so I think it will provide a good compliment and hopefully bring some new insights and understanding.

[KarateGeorge]

Well, I went to my first Aikido class today.

It was REALLY fun and interesting. I think it will add some nice compliments to my existing karate and wing chun backgrounds. It will present some challenges for me though, because it has some very different approaches to things from what I've done in the past. It doesn't contradict anything I've learned, they just come at it from a different approach. The footwork is especially going to be an area for me to focus on. My prior background used very direct steps into and away from the attacker or at angles. Aikido seems to use a lot of circular stepping, working around your opponent as you bring them down towards the ground.

I enjoyed it quite a bit and I think I'll definitely gain some new insights from training in Aikido. The hardest part for me I think will be initially "emptying myself" so that I can learn the new stuff, and then again at later stages, incorporating them together into a more cohesive whole.

[Mistassailant5]

Aikido, I personally believe is a very useful art to blend in with Any art. One of the first arts I ever learned was Muay Thai and I even thought Aikido went nicely with Muay Thai, even though the styles and philosophies are about polar opposites. KarateGeorge brings up an excellent point in which the need for groundwork is essential if you want to be a rounded fighter, but I believe that even Aikido without a groundwork background could be sufficient if you can adapt to it's uniqueness.