Does Aikido Work?
By Paul Chapman
Renshinkai MelbourneIn the face of the huge popularity of spectator combat sports like Brazillian Jujitsu, MMA and Kickboxing as well as numerous systems of “Reality Based Self Defense”, Aikido seems to have recently taken a “king hit” in the ring of public opinion.
An NHK World Aikido documentary that begins by asking ‘does Aikido really work?’ Skip to 3:11 to go straight to the best part.
Let’s face it, compared to systems promoting aggressive and violent techniques, Aikido sounds pretty wishy washy! With words like ‘harmony’, ‘non-aggression’ and ‘unified energy’ commonly used to describe it, I don’t blame you for dismissing it as “a nice idea” but “useless for defence”.
In my experience, the truth is quite different.
