Is Aikido a scam?

Is Aikido a scam?

I can't find any solid information on it being useful in any way. Any videos of it in action seem to be weebs larping in fields letting themselves be thrown around.

Does anyone here practice Aikido?

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youtube.com/watch?v=h__CdPeJoXo
amazon.com/Aikido-Dynamic-Sphere-Illustrated-Introduction/dp/0804832846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487691086&sr=8-1&keywords=aikido and the dynamic sphere
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I did it for like a year. if you are looking for a legitimate self-defense program, and get into Brazilian jujitsu or Thai kickboxing. Aikido is not a self-defense art. it is a philosophy and is therefore valuable. any aikidoka who will tell you their style is combat effective will quickly find they must use other styles to survive.

Aikido is very practical if you want to spar with other aikido students other than that it's not much. Aikido is based around the idea that you throw your opponents while pretending to clutch a sword or treating your arm is a sword. If you want to throw people in a semi useful way try judo or jiu jitsu

it does teach you how to fall but nothing or little or real struggles against trained strikers or grapplers. it is only useful against the untrained...or against other aikifags

The joint manipulation techniques seem good, until you try to perform them on a charging haymaker drunkard unwilling to cooperate for the sake of demonstration to gullible younguns.
Also, Ive never seen anyone IRL do a fucking backflip to get out of a forearm/elbow/shoulder twist.

If you want a martial art with some correlation to live fighting (as in blocking hits and being able to hit correctly), go for thai boxing. If you need to know retaining locks for your profession (bolis:DD), go with BJJ as well.

eh, it can be fun

If you are just doing it for the sake of self defence you're better off doing boxing/getting a gun etc

Akido is fantastic for what it is

The problem lies in fags like OP assuming it's like other martial arts.

It's a lot more about philosophy and strategy. It's good for mental clarity, similar to how yoga is basically physical meditation.

It's also great for flexibility, balance and hand to eye coordination. It's primarily good for women because it helps you control movement at a disadvantage, but has a range of application and use.

All that said, I've never actually done it so I'm just going from my experience of other martial arts.

>It's a lot more about philosophy and strategy. It's good for mental clarity, similar to how yoga is basically physical meditation.

Sounds like a waste of time bullshit voodoo.

If you like this you shouldn't be trying any martial arts.

Black belt aikidoka here. In an actual fight I'd be running away like the wind. That said, aikido can be somewhat useful against projected attacks by lurching drunk people who can't really fight or if you have a solid background in another martial art. Oh, and you do learn how to fall, which is arguably a more useful skill in real life than fighting itself.

get a gun and put 1000 rounds through it at the range

you are now one of the top 1% in self-defense, congratulations

Well steven seagal is apparently an aikodo master so its probably full of shit. Probably better off doing judo or something.

I think other martial arts like judo handle the falling aspect much better.

>Is Aikido a scam?

No, but quack senseis and McDojos are a dime a dozen.

>Is it useful?

Useful compared to what?
If you want to become fit, then there are better means than martial arts.
If you want to be able to defend yourself, then you're shit out of luck if your attacker has a knife or a gun or even a baseball bat.

I study aikido and accompany it with kenjutsu, naginatajutsu, and kyudo because it pleases me. I think I would be capable in a one-on-one fair fight, but that rarely happens in nature. Street fights are a dirty business and your opponent is either going to pull a knife or get their friends to hold you down while they smash your face in.

You want to know what the best style of self-defence is? It's called "running".

Judo and aikido are cousins so at least the falling techniques are not that different. But yes, judo is a great choice, although the competitive part might put many people off.

And if you want to be able to punch bare-knuckles through concrete and have punches and kicks bounce off you like a tire, take Kyokushin.

The problem with Aikido is the lack of rigor in schools. They go very soft, and don't spar. Standing joint locks, wrist control, and positioning can and will be useful for you in a self defense aspect, but only if you train like someone else is going to kill you. And good fucking luck finding that. Look into combat hapkido, or go to japan

Huge fucking scam, how many Aikido masters/background do you see participate in UFC or any MMA? If it worked, you'd see it represented in combat sports.

It's just a 'autistic stand your ground' judo designed to make give old geezers false confidence in 'technique over power'.

Makes for awesome bad action movie stars though, Seagal approved.

I believe you shouldn't underestimate Aikido. Now I know you may be thinking, "Why take a weakling martial art like Aikido seriously when I am learning Kendo?" I can see why you would think that, how can a peaceful martial arts like Aikido beat a powerful one like Kendo?

Well, I have a story to share with you.

Years ago, I was a Kendoka, I thought I was the toughest kid in high school, I would pick fights, and kick ass. I was full of hate, until I picked a fight with the wrong dude. He was a Japanese exchange student, I still remember his name, Noboru Takeda.

I picked on him because of his hilarious and thick Japanese accent. I told him I was going to beat him so hard, he would go back to China(Yeah, I was a little racist prick.), he never said anything back, made me wanted to kick his ass even harder.

Well, here comes the fight. I threw men and do strikes, he dodged them like I was a mere white belt. I was tiring out and he knew, I saw the smirk on his face that made me raged hard. I put all my strength in one amazing tsuki, and he grabbed past it to my wrist and threw me over. My back smacked on the hard cement ground, and I was knocked out for who knows how long.

When I woke up I was in the school infirmary, I asked the nurse who brought me here, and you guessed it, Noboru Takeda. The next day, he wasn't at school, he was back in Japan, and I never got to thank him, for saving my life and showing me the light. I soon learned that he was an Aikidoka and have been practicing Aikido ever since to show my thanks to him.

Contrary to popular belief, the best self defense there ever is or was is always vigilance.

learn to assess threats before it could happen, and believe it or not it all starts with eye contact, not a stare down, mind you, but that split second eye contact.

The point is you let people know that you 'know' that you are aware of them, this reduces their willingness to 'jump' you, not only this but you should and always try to avoid fights, but you do not deny them, you do not tell yourself that 'I'm never gonna be in a real life and death scenario anyway', you should never live in denial, no matter where you live, it doesnt matter that youre living in a first world country, shit will always try to make things happen.

Heres a basic rundown how to survive

1. is always Vigilance, assess them before it happens, and always do your best to try and avoid fights, steer confrontations from fist fights, apologize if you must, a slightly scratched ego is better than getting stabbed.

2. learn Boxing, I dont give a shit what people say around here, but Boxing IS the best striking art there is for a normie, enrolling in almost any boxing class will give you balance and coordination which is very important more so than power when it comes to life and death

Note; I said 'normie', there are alot of more complicated striking arts which are arguably better than boxing in most cases, but to attain that level you must be a competing fighter, so for people with jobs and only have a few time per week to spare, boxing is actually your best bet, you benefit so much for so little time.

2.5 If its a boxing gym with only a couple of sparring PER MONTH, quit it ASAP, its a fucking boxercise gym, a good way to know if youre in the right place is if your place is having sparrings ATLEAST once or twice a week.

cont.

3. Ground work Bjj, Judo or wrestling, this will almost 80% of the time allow you to come on top in a street fight (aspalt and all) but is very situational compared to striking, you use this when you want to skip all the bullshit and just end the fight as quickly as possible, BUT you do not use this when your aggressor is with a group, you dont want to get your head kicked in.

Note; You do not prefer one over the other, train them together.

4. EDCs, knives, whistles, tasers, sprays, the works. Almost any knife with at maximum 4 inch of blade length can be passed off as a 'tool', if you ever decide to bring an EDC, YOU MUST ALWAYS bring it with you, it doesnt matter where, you must have it at all times, its always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Also, it doesnt mean that you carry a knife that you must personally SEEK confrontations, just go fuck yourself

>BUT WHAT ABOUT Veeky Forums? CAN I INTIMIDATE PEOPLE WITH MY MUSCLES?

As Mike Tyson once said "weights have as much resemblance to punching power as a cheesecake"

For the reason for this, you have to go deep on why being buffed doesnt necessarily scare people

the main reason for this would be; Ego. especially for criminals or people with ill intent, they are not scared of your muscles, they see it as a challenge, and will make them want to confront you as a group instead, having a big physique intimidates them but doesnt trigger a flight response, but rather the opposite, these people will want to see you fall, they want to humiliate you, especially when youre with your girl, they want to assert dominance.

dont get me wrong, being 6'6 has its perks, but people will bleed out the same when slashed in the thighs, people will fall the same when their knees are pushed in, or their throats smacked

5. maybe redundant with #1 but, NEVER LIVE IN DENIAL

I want to say that you should never get comfortable, ever, but that maybe pushing it, just get this, never live in denial

7. guts

When everything is all said and done, when you've trained enough, you've started to carry a knife, or have decided to finally be more aware, it still comes down to whether youre willing what to do what it takes to survive, and 'what it takes' doesnt always feel nice.

>Are you willing to use your skills to bring down your aggressor?
>Are you willing to use these skills to hit the throat, the knee, the shins, the eyes, the ears, the balls in order to put yourself in an advantage?
>Are you willing to put these skills aside and just apologize to avoid a physical confrontation?
>are you willing to get your ego a bit damaged?
>are you willing to use that knife when it comes to it and never pull it out until the body stops twitching?
>are you willing to take down your aggressor on an aspalt ground?
>are you willing to run for your life and leave a crime scene?

obviously this applies to the most extreme of cases but should be treated the same nonetheless

[spoiler]check em [/spoiler]

Aikido is a meme martial arts

Train hapkido to know the weak points of the body and train thaiboxing to make your body stronger against punches and kicks

I practiced Aikido for a few months, I found it to be great in many ways. But scheduling conflicts forced me to stop. :(
Would like to pick it up again as it really gave me more energy and flexibility.

Why do you ask if it is a scam?
What are the claims being made here, I've seen several very different Aikido dojo foundations, from spiritual healing to how to take down whole street gangs by yourself to those poor McDojos that take your money. (every martial art has McDojos)

What are your goals and what are you comparing it to?

I practiced it for some time and in a confrontation i broke a dudes finger.

It lacks practical application. If this is solved it is useful. There is an aikidoka training mma fightersi n the uk, i dont remember his name tho.

check this out

youtube.com/watch?v=h__CdPeJoXo

to be honest,
i think there is not only aikido

>jumping

>Le discipline and attitude is the path to mystical powers meme

Martial artists are the biggest fucking dorks, you training once a week with your dom fetish sensei doesn't make you a magical hermit

Aikido has some sweet throws & locks, but you would be better off training both a striking art and grappling art.

If you are interested in aikido's techniques, you can actually pick up some of them yourself by watching videos & with good books.

This book is amazing and I wish the illustrator would make a book like this for every martial art. The book is a worthy addition to any martial artist library:

amazon.com/Aikido-Dynamic-Sphere-Illustrated-Introduction/dp/0804832846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487691086&sr=8-1&keywords=aikido and the dynamic sphere

Aikido is to Judo what Tai Chi is to Kung fu

Allatrial arts are scams unless it is a proper full contact sparring dojo. But those tend to get sued or people leave them after injury.