[bamboo]

did you think to put some tips here how t recognise real Aikido Dojo from Aikido McDojo. Something for beginers and people who are not shure what they are looking for.

Because Aikido is so young its very hard to be a fraud without being found out very quickly, this of course is great for aikido at the moment.

As far as tips for beginners I would say the most importanat thing to do is make a list of reasons as to "why" you want to practice and "what" you want to get out of it and then some research. Then take that list and go watch some advanced classes at the local dojos and talk to the senior students and the sensei. See how the chief instructor views aikido and that will tell you basically what is being taught. eg.- For some Atemi is important, others it is blasphemy.

If you want "effective" technique, watch to see that they practice with active resistance, if it is energy, then ask about thier ki development excercises, if you want to practice weapons, ask to see a class on weapons. It really depends on what you want from your practice.

As far as Mcdojos go, they have all the same warning signs as a regular mcdojo, we are fortunate to have less of them right now because it is gendai budo and such a close knit community.

Hope this helps

-bamboo

[bamboo]

i know it's not really about any techniques, but at least its a question about aikido.

It can be any sort of questions from what do we wear to what is "tenshin". I just hope to open a dialogue .

-bamboo

[jlambvo]

Bamboo,

In all the demonstrations of aikido I've seen, I can't recall a single instance where the aikidoka has changed his or her level in technique, instead keeping everything on a single horizontal plane. Are there ever instances of lowering and raising your structure to affect distancing in the vertical space?

[bamboo]

Raising and lowering the center is employed often but is most dramatic at the lower levels. A beginner uses big wide circles and lowers his/her center dramatically as need be. As you advance, the circles become very small and the raising and lowering of the center becomes so subtle that it is very hard to see (especially with the hakama on).

Technical

The raising and lowering of the center should not be done "during" the technique but rather at the moment of contact or even slightly before when intention has been determined. Example: A same height or shorter attacker is grabbing and punching in a bar type setting, as the attacker grabs you, at that moment step slightly off their center line and lower your center, this is the subtle leading and off balancing that makes aikido effective. If its a taller attacker, the center does not need to be lowered as he must alter his structure in order to attack.

Hope this answered your question.

-bamboo

[setsu nin to]

bamboo

As we may see Aikido is evolving realy fast. What do you think what will be with Aikido for 10 or 50 years?

[bamboo]

Setsu:

This is a very hot question right now in the aikido community. We seem to lose the some of founder's original students each year and soon it will be all third generation teachers leading and spreading aikido. Already, we see the splintering of organizations when leaders pass on (such as Saito sensei's son and his departure from aikikai). Thankfully, it seems that alot of the old ego battles are diminishing as the various uchi dechi are now getting together to share with the aikido community all the teachings of O sensei as he gave to each student.

****Remember, this is only my opinion****

In ten years I see mostly 3rd generation leaders (senior students of the present day shihan) taking the reigns. I picture aikido going into 2 directions: The martial and the very spiritual. The aikikai will still be around under the direction of a doshu but really as an umbrella organization and less than as a governing body.

In 50 years it will be people in my generation of aikidoka passing on and our senior students taking over. I sincerly hope that aikido does not turn into a sport and remains budo. With many of us already worried about about the dilution of standards, I think the 4th generation of teachers will strive to bring aikido back to the spirit of O sensei. We already have enough skeptics now, in 50 years I see aikido being widely accepted and better understood by the martial arts community. As well, right now many of the 4th generation students are still very much in the hard stage of learning, hopefully we will progress through this stage and realize what the founder truly intended and be able to pass on his message.

Its a tough question Setsu, ask me in 10, 20 and 50 years, we can share a beer and laugh at how wrong I have been about everything.

Have a great day

bamboo

[setsu nin to]

bamboo

I like what you wrote. In my opinion Aikido is young art and what is dengerous its popular martial art. There are many people who think that Aikido have to be more developed so they change many things, some things are Aikido experts and some are clowns. Also its not good that in the begining Aikido get so many diferent styles...
In my opinion Aikido lost many of teachings of O Sensei and it is losing it every day.
In future, ofcourse only in my opinion, Aikido will be developed in few diferent ways.
There will be spiritual part which wont have nothing to do with martial arts and Aikido. It would be made from people who whant money, something as milion reiki experts today. From that milion reiki experts one worth other are clowns.
Second part of Aikido will be spiritual/helth. Something like Tai Chi.
Aikido is more and more popular every day, so there will be somer or later some caind of sports Aikido.
There will be pure OSenseis Aikido too. There will be more and more too similar Aikido styles and people wouldnt know which one to pick up. Than someone will start teaching OSenseis Aikido and say in comercial "I teach pure OSenseis Aikido".
There will be Also Aikido as we have it today, some combination os OSenseis Aikido and Aikijujutsu or AikiBudo.
And in the end there will be Aikido which will be more Aikijujutsu or Aikibudo or maybe even some Jujutsu than Aikido.

[jerbo8]

is aikido the hand to hand art that the samurai practiced? what ties does it have to the samurai?

[bamboo]

Jerbo.

Aikido is a an art founded in the 1930s so it was never used by the samurai. However, because aikido is an off shoot of Daito-ryu, it can be said that it has links to the samurai. The techniques of aikido are those of control, not to kill. Here is an clip from the official Daito Ryu website (enough not to violate copyright law). Remember , they are talking about Daito-ryu and not aikido.

The actual founder of the art is said to have been Seiwa's descendant Shinra Saburo Minamoto no Yoshimitsu [1045-1127], who lived in a mansion known as Daito, hence the name Daito-ryu. The art was then handed down through his descendants, the Takeda family of Kai Province (modern-day Yamanashi Prefecture), until that family's destruction five years after the fall of the its most famous member, general Takeda Shingen, in 1573. A distant relative of Shingen's, Kunitsugu, made his way to Aizu in 1644, where he was taken on as a karo (senior councilor) under the Aizu lord Hoshina Masayuki [1611-1673], son of the second Tokugawa shogun, Hidetada. Daito-ryu tradition asserts that Kunitsugu taught his family's secret techniques to his lord Masayuki, who combined them with the principles of court etiquette that he had learned as oshikiuchi, into a system of self-defense for use within the palace. This amalgamation, together with the Itto-ryu Hoshina later studied, became the basis for the martial arts training of the succeeding lords of the Aizu clan, as well as for its highest ranking members.

So as you can see, it was not "everyday" samurai/bushi that would have learned this art. It was considered secret until Sokaku Takeda decided to share it with the rest of japan. As far as a "hand to hand" that the samurai would have used, there was no one art. You could say heiho or jujutsu as generic terms but each family had thier own systems, from that schools/styles or ryu-ha (school/style = ryu ha= branch) were born.

I hope this answers your question.

-bamboo

[Gong||Jau]

Could you list some of the more well-known branches/factions of modern Aikido and maybe give a short summary of what about them is different, either in principle or in practice, from the rest?