Sounds like good training!
Some dojos are less "realistic."
But even cops have problems when they try to use their modified Aikido
techniques. A good reference is former police sargent and Yoshinkan 4th
dan David Dye in Costa Mesa, California.
Ever try to handcuff a berserk guy strung out on meth? Better have
about 4 or 5 officers to do that job. I don't know of any dojo that
replicates that experience.

-----Original Message-----
From: yoshinkan@yahoogroups.com [mailto:yoshinkan@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Brown John
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 3:54 PM
To: yoshinkan@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Yoshinkan] Aikido as a "martial" art

Heyas,
To add to the thread Aikido is a martial
art.Depends on how you train as individuals,and your
instructors lesson plans.Just to add fuel to the
fire,O'sensei was martial.As far as the street is
concerned I had no problem in that venue as well.Law
Enforcement people that train in it,and train for a
reason.Self defense is a good offense,and to quote the
old man"touch them first" that is an offensive
defense.Waiting for someone to set you up is why alot
of people beat on Aiki people and give "US" as a whole
a bad rep.Gordon,in our dojo where I train,we deal
with alot of live attacks,our shomen attack is a punch
to the face.Yea,we can deal with the chop to the face
thing too.=p

--- "Shumaker, Gordon"
<gordon.shumaker@...> wrote:

> I believe Aikido is a budo and not a martial art in
> the usual way we
> think of that term. As a budo it is a "way" of life
> organized around
> martial principles.
>
> As to effectiveness, if you mean "street
> effectiveness" as in actually
> engaging in fights, no traditional "martial art" is
> readily effective
> for that. Every art has to be modified for street
> effectiveness. Arts,
> such as karate, that rely on kata have to be
> modified. But it is not
> the techniques so much as the underlying principles
> that can make an art
> street effective. The kihon training is aimed at
> allowing us to
> discover those underlying principles that will
> enable us to adapt to a
> street situation.
>
> Another distinction needs to be made. That is
> between "fighting" and
> "self-defense." There is a major difference between
> a fighting art and
> a self-defense art. Aikido does not translate well
> either in spirit or
> practice to fighting. It can, however, be
> effectively adapted to very
> efficient self-defense. The evidence of this is the
> many law
> enforcement and security agencies worldwide that
> have adopted Aikido as
> their "martial art" of choice.
>
> Bottom line: No art coming straight from the dojo is
> going to be
> effective on the street. There has to be
> modification. So, basically,
> we train in kihon because it promotes budo. We
> don't train with a view
> toward using our kihon in street encounters,
> although we could and we
> could do so effectively in many circumstances. Just
> think of evasions,
> which are part of kihon waza. If you know how to
> evade effectively,
> isn't that a great martial street skill? If you
> remove the target, you
> can't be struck.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: yoshinkan@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:yoshinkan@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of captain_black_belt
> Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 1:36 PM
> To: yoshinkan@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Yoshinkan] Aikido as a "martial" art
>
> I have question that has long since plagued my mind.
> How do you, as
> Yoshinkan practitioners, reconcile the fact that you
> devote so much of
> your time to a martial art that isn't really
> 'martial'. I mean, we
> understand that the training curriculum is quite
> standardized with a
> strict focus on kihon, but the curriculum does not
> have any venue for
> actually testing the effectiveness of aikido in
> violent situations. We
> train the kihon, develop the principals, and improve
> our timing and
> power through jiyu waza. But how do you reconcile
> the fact that this is
> a 'martial' art without any means of testing its
> martial quality. This
> certainly isn't a dig at aikido, considering that I
> practice it quite
> regularly and have been for over a decade. I'm just
> curious to see how
> the wider aikido community reconciles this aspect of
> the art. Or is
> this aspect of it even important to many of you?
>
> CBB
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


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