Is Aikido Effective?

Well, of course you would be expecting my answer to be saying: “yes, Aikido is effective!” as I am an Aikido Practitioner and I love this Martial Art, so naturally I would advocate it.

However, to be truly honest, each Aikidoka should ask this question to themselves every now and then, when studying Aikido.

I can only speak for myself and I will say this: “Each time I practice or teach, I strive to practice Aikido that works with effective Aikido techniques”. I understand that we are all individuals, as Tony Sargeant Sensei wisely quoted in his recent successful Aikido seminar back in September 2021, so inevitably some Aikidokas will have a penchant to practice Aikido more spiritually than martially, or that they use Aikido as a way ‘to communicate’ with their body and feelings and be less focussed or worried with the Martial aspects that Aikido offers.

I do respect any different approach, however, it is not a path I have or would personally consider, and I genuinely do not mean to criticise anyone, as the way I see Aikido from my perspective, is like each one of us is having to climb a mountain, which seems impossible at first, and we, each one of us, must find our individual path to reach a higher level and with a step at a time, to reflect and carry on ‘climbing’.

So in effect, we can all agree and say that there are multiple paths that we are all free to choose from, but we must accept that some paths will lead towards the top whereas some will simply lead to an impasse.

This would naturally lead to another question: “How would I know if my Aikido works?” I will simply give my answer based on my experience of Aikido training in the Dojo and outside the Dojo that I have gained to date.

Some may already know about my past work experience working as ‘Bouncer’ in night clubs and it would be fair to say that I have had my fair share of real fighting situations which quickly helped me understand some very crucial elements that make our Aikido effective and/or ineffective.

I also would like to reassure anyone that you do not have to go through what I have experienced with real fights to understand or to test your Aikido! It was indeed a risky experience that I would not advocate you to follow but based on my experience, here are the main points that I am happy to give away in order to help you understand if your Aikido is effective or not.

So, I will focus on what makes Aikido effective rather than the opposite. In my view and foremost, we must control our partner’s balance. He/she may be the quickest fighter, but if his/her balance is broken, he/she will not be able to fight back.

Our brain is simply conditioned ‘to be feeling grounded on our feet or balanced’ before we can retaliate. This is a fact of who we are and how we function as human beings. This is very important to remember!

So, if you understand this, you will inevitably work on doing an Aikido that will affect your partner’s balance from start to finish and you will be on a strong path to build a strong & effective Aikido, in my view.

But this is not enough, there are still a few more points that one should need bearing in mind.

The next essential thing is to make sure that you use your body to perform a technique, to be exact your hips must move and be connected with the technique. Fact: your hips are the biggest joints of your body so the effect will be far more powerful than the joints of your shoulders, which are smaller than the hips.

So, you can overcome someone taller and stronger if you work your hips! So, use your hips instead of your upper body, which will help you build a stronger and more effective Aikido.

Then, I would add the next important point in a question: “Are you in the best position to handle multiple attackers at any points? Or is your body positioned correctly at the right time and location?”

If your Aikido is just working on ‘one to one’ basis, then it will have its limitations with ‘one to one’ only, so if you are faced with multiple attackers, you could potentially put yourself at risk. I learnt this from real fighting situations.

To remedy this, adopt a different mindset: feel that you are surrounded all the time. Indeed, if you focus with one against multiple attackers than one on one with your partner, you will be surprised how easily you will overcome your partner. Why is that? Because your mind is no longer just focussing on your partner, but you are now extending your awareness with what may come next. I invite you to try this and you may find that your Aikido will be on another level of consciousness.

I think, it is also fair to say that Aikido effectiveness seats on a ‘thread’ so to speak, meaning that it can easily become useless, if we are not moving at the right time and location. This naturally brings into equation ‘Awase’ (blending), which remains an important element in keeping our Aikido effective.

Interestingly, this word ‘Awase’ is not mentioned frequently with Aikikai but more prominently quoted with Iwama Aikido due to the extensive Bukiwasa training, I think. Again, it is an observation and not a criticism.

Finding perfect ‘Awase’ is not easy: if we move too early, the attacker can deviate or change the attack or if we move too late, the attacker will successfully attack us so we would be too late to respond.

Perfect ‘Awase’ to me is not just ‘moving as one’ with your partner but moving when the he/she has reached the point that his/her attack can no longer be changed or deviated, in another word, his/her attack is fully committed.

By bearing these in mind, ‘Awase’ is possibly the hardest thing to do, hence why it takes years of practice with the Bukiwasa, which helps our Taijutsu tremendously. One must adopt an empty mind and live in the ‘now’ moment to make this possible. Also hard to do…

So, truly speaking, you can see that to make Aikido effective, one must work on the physical  aspect to perfom, but also use our mind to focus rightly and connect with our partner as ‘one’ unity moving together.

When we work with Awase, we sense a deep feeling between ‘life’ and ‘death’. One lives (Tori) and one dies (Uke) in its true terms like when we do Ken practice with Kumitachi for instance.

If we pick Irimi Nage for instance, it is a technique that requires Tori to step in behind Uke’s attack or behind Uke’s body. The ‘stepping behind Uke’ is a difficult one to accomplish, as it must be done with the correct timing (Awase) and there must be a feeling ‘it was close’ meaning a second too late, I would not have made it or a second earlier it would have been too early.

Another important point is to keep Atemi (strike) where they are meant to be! I understand that some people dislike Atemi (strike), because perhaps they think they do not have a place in ‘spiritual’ Aikido and if one thinks Atemi are not necessary, is going for an impasse in my view.

Atemi are there for a reason, to preoccupy Uke’s mind so that they are blocking with the other hand, whilst you move for the next step, ie affecting his balance further.

So truly speaking, we are practicing frequently ‘on a thread’ between what I would call effective and useless Aikido.

So to stay on this ‘narrow path’ or ‘the thread’, one must and should question frequently if our Aikido is still effective or not if you wish it to retain its full Martial benefits of course.

Some say that Aikido techniques don’t work. I firmly disagree with this approach. Techniques, if properly executed, are designed to work. If you are struggling to make the technique work, it would be because you are not applying the technique correctly. Some techniques will take years of repeated practice before understanding how to do them.

It is very easy to lose its Martial aspect and create something that looks great but would never work outside the Dojo and sometimes, we see this when one trains with the same partners. Hence why I think we must train with different people all the time, training with the same partner over a period of time could cause another well-known issue: Uke could very easily cooperate or offer no resistance when he could. Also, very often Uke knows what is happening so he/she is no longer training in the moment (now) so to speak but is already thinking of the ending before it has happened! And this means, Tori can easily fall into thinking his/her Aikido is good or working when it isn’t.

To conclude this, I believe the key, is to be honest with ourselves and to speak from our heart not our ego. The truth may be unpleasant for anyone, but I am certain, it will surely take you to a whole new level of learning like a new path reaching a higher level with each one of us climbing the mountain, which is Aikido…