 Aikido IntroductionWhat is Aikido? Aikido is a unique and still relatively young martial art. Aikido has often been refered to as the gentleman's fighting art. Created and developed in the early 1900's by O Sersei Morihei Uyeshiba in Japan. Aikido was a secret known only to a relatively few privileged Japanese up until as recently as 1948. |
| Aikido is: "The Way of Chivaalrous Spiritual Harmony". The master, Morihei Uyeshiba, originated it after having spent many assiduous years of search, practice and development. There is no duality, no struggle, no opponent; and Aikido techniques are the realization of this harmony. It is both a total practical martial art and at the same time so powerful in its ability to bring transformation into its practitioners' lives that it almost needs another name to describe what it truly is. |
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The main purpose of Aikido is to build a strong mind, body and spirit for use in the daily life. Aikido also trains its students to learn to live in harmony with themselves and with one another. Aikido is a method of self - defencewhich can be used against any form of attack and at its highest level, a "way" of harmonizing all of man's vital power. A man who studies and practices Aikido correctly desires only to defend himself without hurting others. |
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 Aikido Training.Being a beginner is always hard and the first step in learning anything is to say the words: "I don't know". Saying this words means understand and wanting to learn. Training means disccovery, growth. Aikido is practiced by many people all around the world today, and the number of people who train seriously in this martial art is encreasing. Morihei Uyeshiba wrote: "The notion of enemy does not exist in Ueshibas Aikido. It is an absolute mistake to consider Budo (the way of the martial art) as a method of beating an enemy or to dominate him. In true Budo, there is nighter an enemy or an oponent. The central purpose of Budo is to realize the unity of the Universe's core".Aikido trainig functions on many levels; the aim: development and integration physically, mentally and thus functionaly. Aikido is at once sophisticated, complex art, and at the same time, a simple way of relating to motion and energy. |
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Aikido training is characterized by a particular sphericity of action and smooth extention of power. Not only man but woman, children and older people find the combination of mental and physical activity to be simulating and of such a nature that it can be safely adapted to the needs of the individual in actual training. |
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Principles of Aikido. Aikido techniques, originally based on ancient Jujutsu, are exceedingly effective for actual combat. So dangerous are the techniques that no competition system has been adopted for Aikido, and traditionally it has been taught through the method of form repetition. Although certain general movements and technical applications evident in the art have been drawn from sword and spear fighting as well as from various ancient schools, they have been expanded and developed with certain unique additional and modifications. Aikido techniques principally use empty - handed movements, without any weaponns. Composed primarily of Nage (throwing), Kime (bloking) and Osae (pinning and controling)techniques, Aikido is executed with breathing power and joint manipulating, as well as by calculating the proper Ma - ai (distance between one and the other) and by using the opponent's force and physical weak points to one's own advantage. (The above paragraph is based on Kenji Shimizu's book "Aikido, The Heavenly Road", 1993). |
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