Martial Arts Aikido?

Martial arts aikido three words which mean so much.
Recently I’ve seen and heard these words used together in the topic of whether or not Aikido is just that(a martial art),any more.
Maybe we’ve become complacent and feel that our art is the best and that we live off O sensei’s reputation, is it my imagination or have our teachers become overweight and unfit? Or has it become the nature of our modern aikido that brings it higher practitioners to this condition, or could they have just become lazy without realising it?
In any of the video’s that I have ever watched I’ve not once seen O sensei slouched, overweight or in anyway resembling laziness’ even in his eighties his spirit was unshaken, solid and steadfast as always. Should we not then, come down off our pedestals and remember that O sensei founded Aikido as a martial art “aikido” to be learnt and practiced vigorously and with joy, to help promote good health not just in body but mind and spirit as well and as a self defence.
It is not enough to just turn up, we must learn aikido as a martial art aikido as a budo treat every practice as fit you are facing life and death, that it is real only then will you know that your aikido will be true. Fight the urge to become complacent, lazy or deluded practise as if it’s your last and above all love what you do. Breathe it use your breath gain your strength and power from it and flow with the universe within you.
Always practice the art of peace in a vibrant and joyful manner (O sensei’s words)

Jo Kata 31 movement with Morihiro Satio Sensei

If you're interested in jo technique (short staff) then this is a must watch video.

Here Saito sensei demonstrates the 31 move jo kata that O Sensei taught, this is a great video to help you learn this kata. As the video progresses he shows what each part of the kata is used as certain attacks are implemented.
Don’t just watch the jo study how Saito moves how he positions himself, see the ki in his technique as his opponent is thrown and try to implement this in your own practise as you learn Aikido.

Try and imagine that you are being attacked as you perform this kata and see in you can sense when and what moves are most useful and effective when training either on your own or with a partner. This is when you’ll get the most out of it when you learn aikido.

Essence of Aikido

Always practice the art of peace in a vibrant and joyful manner

Respect for One and Others

One of the most important aspects of aikido is repect, that for yourself and of others. Without this we cannot practice this amazing martial art safely.

We need to remember that the techniques that we learn in aikido are and can be very dangerous and without any repect for each other we will end up damaging and loosing our fellow students.

Every time we practice aikido we should preform the techniques to the very best of our abilities and not slip into the habbit of practising for the sake of practice, as this diminishes aikido and its tradition. Thus reducing your own respect as well as that with whom you learn aikido with.

'O' Sensei's words written in the art of peace by John Stevens :- As soon as you concern yourself with the "Good" and "Bad" of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with and criticizing others weaken and defeat you.

If you can repect where you are," in your studies of this art."

Then we should be able to repect where and at what stage everyone else is at. Not only in Aikido but in all aspects of life.

To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury is the art of Peace. These are some more of the amazing words of 'O' Sensei

Aikido and combat

As I learn aikido there is a thought that sometimes raises from deep within my mind,(does this really work), we are taught in Aikido not to fight, we train and practice to hone our minds, spirits and bodies to be prepared so we can take care of ourselves. But because we don't fight each other we have nothing that proves aikido works and that can leave a doubt within. We are constantly reminded that aikido is and art and the highest level / principle is to resolve a situation without conflict. This in its self is a hard thing to understand and do, we live in a world today where everyone seems angry, has no time for one and other and are so ate up with material things that they can't see what they are doing.
This video shows an outcome of an incident on a train in Japan involving Terry Dobson Sensei some years back. I found it very enlightening and comforting to come across it. We learn aikido not only to learn how to defend ourselves but to help us live a better life, it takes time and is a continual journey if you want to fight you don't have to learn lots of techniques. Aikido helps you see trouble coming and how to avoid it, this is not cowardice, be prepared to use your techniques only when there is no other way.

Always practice the art of peace in a vibrant and joyful manner

Learn Aikido

New Article on Aikido

Just a quick post as its Christmas time, are we all full and fed up of drink and chocolate and thinking of how we,re going to cope on our first major practice back. Even if we don't practice over christmas we still learn aikido and take our aikido with us and what better time to think and ponder what aikido is, than Christmas. This is when O Sensei's art and the peoples spirit are / should be closest because we should all be thinking of divine love for all things. I have put this ink here aikido articles because there are a great many views and opinions about aikido some good, some bad, keep an open mind and a free heart as you peruse these pages, take what you need and disregard what you don,t.
Merry Christmas and have a Very Merry New Year.



Always practice the art of peace in a vibrant and joyful manner

Kyu Grading

Earlier this month we held our kyu grading and I would just like to congratulate all who took part and passed. They all practiced very hard and have great spirit when they Learn Aikido. Part of the test is for our young members to do homework and write what they think the technique should be like. Here are some of their attemps the shortest is by our youngest member, I hope you all enjoy them. Just double click them to enlarge.












Hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas

Staff Technique

Saotome Sensei,s take, on the Jo is slightly different to that of Saito sensei, who,s techniques are quite formidable and are a great delight for me. Saotome sensei seems to flow softly as he displays his kata but I have no doubt that it would be very painful to be on the recieving end of his strike.

Below Saito sensei demonstrates a 31 move jo kata. See how powerful and precise his execution is, there are many years of practice here and we can hope that maybe while we learn aikido one day we may achieve it.



This is a gem, a video of O Sensei showing not only Jo technique but sword as well. Watch as he moves with speed and focus you can almost feel the force as he wields that Jo.


I hope that this will be of some inspiration to you and remember.
Always practice the art of peace in a vibrant and joyful manner.

Articles

It’s amazing to think, that since aikido was founded and in terms of martial arts, aikido is still in its infancy. It has blossomed the growth and expansion too most parts of the globe has been incredible and with the success of the internet has come a medium to help spread not only the physical side of aikido but the spiritual side also.The amount of information and news that is placed here is astonishing, there is so much to look at it can almost be daunting.
I wonder what Morihei Ueshiba would make of it?

May be you have some thoughts on this, leave me comment, I look forward to your views.

Some interesting places to find this information are, we all know about youtube ( which has many fantastic video’s), there are article sites like ezine and goarticles, just click on the links and take a look. You’ll be amazed, you could read for hours and find out an incredible amount about how to learn aikido and much much more.Or enter your own seach words in the google search box at the top of my page, to all who want to learn aikido or those who are just curious I hope you find what you are looking for.
[Always practice the art of peace in a vibrant and joyful manner]

Takemusu Aiki

I was thinking about Aikido, as I often do and came to this question, why do I practice Aikido? As I said before I have practised for many years and have enjoyed it very much but sometimes I think, am I just going through the motions.
When you practice the same things over and over again with the same people it is easy to get in this frame of mind. And as you ascend the grades maybe you feel that you already know the techniques and don't pay as much attention to them, so you fall into bad habits along the way and your pride (not always a good emotion), stops you from looking at where your Aikido has got too.
How does this relate to the question, well ask yourself! why do I practice Aikido and be honest. You most probably find that the reason was different when you started,to what it is now. I practice because I enjoy/love it, not just because it is a wonderful martial art but it helps me with life. I don't learn aikido to be the best fighter or indestructible, nor do I for praise and wonder of others. I practice aikido because its makes me feel good and at peace, I wish I could keep this feeling always. May be one day but as I am still only learning and feel that I still have some way to go I try to find way to help me, hence the title of this post Takamusu Aiki. The founder Morihei Ueshiba said that it is the manifestation of love where techniques are born by uniting with your opponents in a spirit of harmony creating infinite techniques. It is amazing to see O sensei moving with fluidity and power while in his seventies, smiling while he's practising what he so clearly loved.
I have attached this video which I found on youtube, it is one of three, which I have saved in my favourites. Just follow the link learn aikido favourites video,s and hope you enjoy.