Has Aikido Lost its Touch?
To be frank, quite a few of you reading this title may simply say that I just gave this away by saying it. Many will also agree that Aikido has ‘lost’ its touch since its prime time when Aikido was extremely popular in the 80s and 90s when millions of people around the world joined Martial Arts.
In this era, learning Martial Arts became a rapid phenomenon thanks to the emergence of Bruce Lee films and notably Steven Seagal who did an excellent job in promoting Aikido in the 90s with the famous ‘Nico’ film (and other films he did after this one).
Many of whom, may dislike Steven Seagal for who he has become, but we cannot deny the fact that he has really promoted Aikido worldwide thanks to his films and many simply joined this Martial Arts after watching him in action.
I remember being 15 years of age when I watched his film for the first time and without knowing what it was about and I was shocked that this guy could beat people real bad even when outnumbered – soon after watching Nico, I had to check what Martial Arts he was doing and I was instantly ‘sold’ to doing Aikido.
Many would even say: “who cares if Aikido lost its touch? When O’Sensei was teaching Aikido he had very few students compare to what we now have worldwide and if it makes you happy then that is all you need to be worried about.” I respect this opinion, but I would not be satisfied still as to why Aikido would have ‘lost its touch’.
So I still think that we need to understand why many believe in the title, if we love Aikido this much (like I do)!
I have been practicing Aikido for over 33 years and I have trained with various instructors and learnt different styles of Aikido before Iwama Aikido and I have seen what works and what does not from my years of Bouncer work in night clubs, so I can see why Aikido has lost its touch to a degree, please allow me to explain:
Firstly, I want to appease anyone’s mind that this is not a point stating that Iwama is the strongest and the best of all the styles. I believe any good Instructors teaching any styles of Aikido can build strong students for the future generations and for them to possibly take the lead becoming new Teachers.
If you have read my previous Blog “Introduction to Aikido” (https://www.aspireaikidolondon.co.uk/blog/introduction-to-aikido) you will have read that I was at a cross point with Aikido and nearly gave it up until I found a book of Morihiro Saito Sensei who stated if you want to learn strong Aikido, one should learn Bukiwaza, so my experience helped be who I am today and continuing practicing and now teaching Aikido.
As a matter of fact, anyone’s experience will certainly differ from mine and I also wish to reassure that some could find the right Instructor with Aikikai, Birankai, Yoshinkan, Ki Society Aikido to name a few.
My main issue, if we stick to the subject of this blog, is that there are lots of Aikido teachers who teach Aikido techniques that will never work outside, some may even be aware of this and don’t really care as it is giving them a great feeling of sharing the Art with others who would happily comply and go with the flow to create beautiful fancy movements that look elegant and almost as if Uke is no longer attacking. If that is what they wish to do and they get students happy to do this kind of training, then, who am I to say such thing? I would say great for them wholeheartedly and I wish them best wishes for what they want to do.
But here is the fact and I would share what members of the public, as far as it is concerned, would truly think of Aikido when they see such ‘compliance’ and for those who practice another Martial Art, they would immediately see that something isn’t right with this extreme compliance with lots of ‘opening’ (weak angles) in their movements.
Again, this group of Aikidokas can quite rightly say: “who cares? We are happy doing what we are doing.” Who am I to judge them? And they would be right to put me in my place so to speak. But, what I can say is that they are judged by ‘external people’ (who do not practice Aikido) who will give Aikido negative reputation. This negative reputation can be damaging for the good community that teaches good Aikido as far as I am concerned, if I speak bluntly.
Another concern that I see is that Aikido has changed quite a lot from previous generations to now with some styles. If we see the Doshu and his son Dojo-Cho Mitsuteru Ueshiba, we can see that there is very strong Aikido lineage and that it is passed on faithfully from father to son and that Aikikai Hombu Dojo does have a strong future ahead.
However, there are some groups of Aikido styles where divergence can be noticed from one generation to the next that there is so much of a change and that it now has lost its effectiveness as a result of this.
Some say Aikido evolves. I would concur but we need to make sure it evolves keeping all the right principles in place or we simply deviate away from what O’Sensei taught. Some would love to ask me, what are the Aikido principles? This would lead to whole new topic, but for many, I am sure that they would concur with what I am writing so far.
Some may say that O’Sensei made lots of changes and created his own Martial Arts now known as Aikido, implying that we are ‘free’ to do the same and that “Aikido needs to evolve”. But, speaking truthfully, I have not seen anyone to date, having such talents like O’Sensei and I think it would be quite pretentious for anyone to claim that they reach O’Sensei’s level of skills in Martial Arts skills to start modifying or altering or creating something completely afresh or new.
The truth is that no one has been near what O’Sensei was in terms of Martial skills to this day – why is that?
Well we live in a different society and one cannot possibly train hours of Martial Arts daily, as many of us have to work to feed our families. So, we simply do not have the time that O’Sensei had in his lifetime in my view.
To me, it would bring the question that Aikido is not mine but for me to share what it is for others to understand it. It is a vast subject to be fair that it would lead to another discussion about preserving the Art as best as possible, which I wrote a blog specifically (https://www.aspireaikidolondon.co.uk/blog/how-do-we-transmit-authentic-aikido-to-our-younger-generations).
In my view, Aikido “has lost its touch” WHEN Teachers teach things that will not work in reality. Some say that there are too many clubs, too many Instructors given ranks and yet do not have the skills to teach the Art correctly and therefore, it would be best that Aikido ‘shrinks’ with fewer Teachers but the ones that stay are the ones that have been successful in teaching strong and good Aikido that answers to the need of the young generations. So to keep ‘Aikido in touch’, I think it is fair to say that we should understand what young generations are looking for to or expecting to see.
I have noticed that Aikido has once appealed to the younger generations of the past now becoming an older generation still training faithfully but we are noticing a decline with the young generations from joining.
Could it be that the young generations have it all too easy? Meaning that parents will provide for their kids with all the technology they want, mobile phone, tablets, pc, computer games etc, that they no longer want to work hard to get it? Many want to do MMA, or BJJ or other new Boxing Arts, because it is quick to learn and they will get a level fast and once they get to a certain level, they will tend to stop and cease to attend.
As you know Aikido really takes years of practice to get to a good level and when someone gets serious to it, they will soon realise that it will be a lifetime journey of great enjoyment and discovery that one never stops learning and progressing until we can no longer practice or until we pass.
Does this mean that this it is ‘too much to take in’ for our younger generations? I don’t really know the answer to be fair. However, I have had numerous discussions with several Teachers and I discovered that the ones who have been successful in teaching Aikido attracting young generations is simply because they are answering to their needs:
They want to see something dynamic, so the Teacher will show dynamic Aikido,
They want to see real punches and what one can do to defend themselves so they show this side of Aikido,
Some want to see kicks, so again they show this side and once they see that yes Aikido works,
They want to see if it works against multiple attackers, so they get to see this from the teacher.
Quite cleverly, the teacher will gradually show the basic forms so that Aikido is taught keeping all the principles in place but with a mixed of dynamic Aikido that they want to see.
Whereas some teachers simply teach the same old as they taught Aikido years ago, which was ok then but no longer becomes relevant for the young generations. So, I think that we, as Teacher, should reflect, step back and see what we can do to make it more appealing.
I am not suggesting changing Aikido at all, but to show what Aikido can do with all its appeals it offers. And I have witnessed some very successful Instructors who do just this and things have been working tremendously for them even during pandemic crisis. Bearing this in mind, I would concur that Aikido is evolving but it does so keeping all its principles in place to create strong Aikido BUT we must learn to adapt with our society evolving too.
You see, Aikido follows the same principles of the universe constantly moving our surrounding planets with earth traveling 220 Km per second and revolving around the Sun. The solar system is continuously moving retaining all strict rules applied with many principles such as gravity and spirals. Aikido should be doing the same in my honest opinion.