Man... I remember learning the 31-Jo Kata. This brings back many memories of my Aikido training.

Saito-Sensei is awesome.

As a side note, the Jo was developed to defeat Musashi's two-sword technique, or so the legend goes. The Bo staff was too long to get close enough to Musashi in a duel (this was when Musashi was using wooden swords to duel). The Jo, on the other hand, was shorter, and quicker to setup a defense and counter-attack in the rematch.

Wish I could upvote, but we're both probationary members...

What the hell? This is the worst crap I've ever seen. Hes a Fat numb nuts who does not deserve to teach any classes any where. Look at that ridiculous hair, most traditional Dojo that teach traditional arts (Judo, karate Do, JuJutsu, Aikido, AikiJutsu, and the respective sword schools) have rules about how the hair can be worn. Long hair must be in a ponytail, fingernails must be trimmed, feet must be clean, and clothes must be in good shape(washed regularly).

A school that is like this, is not a Dojo. A Dojo has a kamiza, practice area, places for equipment, and a quiet atmosphere even when practicing.

This guy needs to be put in his place, very harshly. With prejudice as the lawyers say.

I don't downvote, but I wont vote for this.

I agree, "collusive" (what you normally see in aikido)practice is useless. Forget about all that stuff they teach about ki and inner power. all it amounts to is good balance, and attacking the attacker.

I do like good discourse about the difference between art and discipline.

MMA is sport, as is kendo (fencing) and there are rules, as in all things. But in real "combat" (rare) there are no rules, and if only we could train like that can we be sure of any thing.

BTW That video below ... is really funny.

In reply to this comment by chilaxe:
Thanks for your response. I think if practitioners are used to their opponent giving them an arm to manipulate and not putting up resistance, they'll be very surprised if they're ever in combat with a determined attacker.

I think the momentum in the martial arts world is in favor of MMA, and the challenge for Aikido in the modern scene is to prove to skeptics it can be effective in that context. Relaxing the taboo against competing with other disciplines would probably go a long way. Also, the UFC has no rules against most Aikido moves, so if they were as effective as they're supposed to be, one would expect there would be at least one UFC fighter training in Aikido rather than the usual striking arts combined with submission wrestling/BJJ.

My concern is just that most people would be better off studying MMA-proven, combat-oriented disciplines .

In reply to this comment by NordlichReiter:
The aikido you see on youtube is demonstration. This Kiai master is not Aikido. He is Ki society. Until you have trained for a class in aikido Hapkido, or any of these types you cant understand that in certain holds you cannot fight without loosing a limb in the process.

I can speak for my school that there are serious students and there are the "I want a black belt type." Most of the time people are "I'm a black belt type." These people diminish the training. In the classes that I attend there are 2 wrestlers(judo), 4 bjj guys, several karateka(Japanese Schools), and 2 boxers. The rest are martial undergrads with no previous experience.

The one thing I have learned in 15 years of martial training, is that you cannot train to win, only train to survive. No situation is a surething, you may think you will win but even then you could trip on a pebble and fall on face.

In reply to this comment by chilaxe:
Don't be fooled. In aikido practice, if you resist the moves they're doing on you, they don't work and it's just embarrassing for everybody. Kind of like this classic vid: http://www.videosift.com/video/Kiai-Master-Gets-Owned

Empiricism is better than faith

Tags for this video have been changed from 'self defense, knife, aikido, stab, disarm, armlock, reverse guillotine' to 'self defense, knife, stab, disarm, armlock, reverse guillotine' - edited by laura

Thanks for your response. I think if practitioners are used to their opponent giving them an arm to manipulate and not putting up resistance, they'll be very surprised if they're ever in combat with a determined attacker.

I think the momentum in the martial arts world is in favor of MMA, and the challenge for Aikido in the modern scene is to prove to skeptics it can be effective in that context. Relaxing the taboo against competing with other disciplines would probably go a long way. Also, the UFC has no rules against most Aikido moves, so if they were as effective as they're supposed to be, one would expect there would be at least one UFC fighter training in Aikido rather than the usual striking arts combined with submission wrestling/BJJ.

My concern is just that most people would be better off studying MMA-proven, combat-oriented disciplines .

In reply to this comment by NordlichReiter:
The aikido you see on youtube is demonstration. This Kiai master is not Aikido. He is Ki society. Until you have trained for a class in aikido Hapkido, or any of these types you cant understand that in certain holds you cannot fight without loosing a limb in the process.

I can speak for my school that there are serious students and there are the "I want a black belt type." Most of the time people are "I'm a black belt type." These people diminish the training. In the classes that I attend there are 2 wrestlers(judo), 4 bjj guys, several karateka(Japanese Schools), and 2 boxers. The rest are martial undergrads with no previous experience.

The one thing I have learned in 15 years of martial training, is that you cannot train to win, only train to survive. No situation is a surething, you may think you will win but even then you could trip on a pebble and fall on face.

In reply to this comment by chilaxe:
Don't be fooled. In aikido practice, if you resist the moves they're doing on you, they don't work and it's just embarrassing for everybody. Kind of like this classic vid: http://www.videosift.com/video/Kiai-Master-Gets-Owned

Empiricism is better than faith

You have to find what is right for you. Maybe krav maga can be right for you, its an interesting system like aikido but more intense, the way it is meant to be.
But like all arts they have superstitions. You have to find the Martial part of the art, and forget about the art part. <-
By no means am I saying that Aikido is a good thing, I'm saying that I can do a good sankyo!

>> ^chilaxe:
The final straw for me when I took Aikido was a move that was something like your opponent is on one knee and has one arm extended in front on him, and you slide your hand hard down the top of his arm to make him stand up and control him with chi or something. I asked the instructor to do it on me because it seemed to be placebo, and when he did it on me I wasn't willing to resist and embarrass him in front of his class.
I watched a friend's black belt test in Aikido. Looked like WWE, with him doing all this crazy stuff that has nothing to do with combat.

The final straw for me when I took Aikido was a move that was something like your opponent is on one knee and has one arm extended in front on him, and you slide your hand hard down the top of his arm to make him stand up and control him with chi or something. I asked the instructor to do it on me because it seemed to be placebo, and when he did it on me I wasn't willing to resist and embarrass him in front of his class.

I watched a friend's black belt test in Aikido. Looked like WWE, with him doing all this crazy stuff that has nothing to do with combat.

are there some hardcore aikido videos out there?
i trained it for a few years, and what i liked the best that i learned from it, was to break all kinds of falls. useful stuff and some of the tricks from aikido worked well in medieval sword fighting practice as well.

The aikido you see on youtube is demonstration. This Kiai master is not Aikido. He is Ki society. Until you have trained for a class in aikido Hapkido, or any of these types you cant understand that in certain holds you cannot fight without loosing a limb in the process.

I can speak for my school that there are serious students and there are the "I want a black belt type." Most of the time people are "I'm a black belt type." These people diminish the training. In the classes that I attend there are 2 wrestlers(judo), 4 bjj guys, several karateka(Japanese Schools), and 2 boxers. The rest are martial undergrads with no previous experience.

The one thing I have learned in 15 years of martial training, is that you cannot train to win, only train to survive. No situation is a surething, you may think you will win but even then you could trip on a pebble and fall on face.

In reply to this comment by chilaxe:
Don't be fooled. In aikido practice, if you resist the moves they're doing on you, they don't work and it's just embarrassing for everybody. Kind of like this classic vid: http://www.videosift.com/video/Kiai-Master-Gets-Owned

Empiricism is better than faith

you may be confusing stereotypes of Daito Ryu, with aikido. Try and resist sankyo, or Kote Geashi, shihonage, or rokyu. You may end up with less than a broken limb. These techniques were used for war, to say that they are useless is folly.

Now as chilaxe explains, I to do not believe that some of these things work, however most of the techniques in basic aikido do work, if you train hard enough at them. Your enemy has to give you an attack that means something, if they just flop their weapon out there you will never learn any thing.

Don't be fooled. In aikido practice, if you resist the moves they're doing on you, they don't work and it's just embarrassing for everybody. Kind of like this classic vid: http://www.videosift.com/video/Kiai-Master-Gets-Owned

Empiricism is better than faith

This demo reminded me of Yoshinkan Aikido. If this had been Ki Aikido, Uke would not slam on floor, but land softly and flowingly with Ki, fluidly returning to stand. Akido sense of flowing with Ki can be utilized in friendships, business, personal relationship with almost any aspect of experiencing being alive. If being attacked, Aikidoka will be thankful for Uke joining him and hope that Uke will be his strongest in order to provide good practice, and again flow with circular movement of Ki. When Uke is immobile and controlled by Aikidoka, Aikidoka may converse with Uke to learn why Uke attacked, in order to assist Uke in a more intelligent plan.

I think this aikido defense could use a bit more "ai" (blending), if you know what I mean. His demonstration of irimi (entering) is not in good flow with the attack. Although there is some good technical skill demonstrated, there's little likelihood of the defender achieving a similar result outisde of the dojo.

That is used to give the "victim" and attacker time to compose themselves before attack to lessen the danger. If the victim doesn't move fast enough he is going to get clobbered. Ive been struck with a bokken at least 5 times in 8 months of training in this school. There are some partners in this school that will miss on purpose most videos show that. What you don't see are the ones who actually intend to hit the victim. I can attest to the sentence before this one: broken nose, and large mouse on my eyebrow.

In reply to this comment by Chaucer:
swing.. long pause.. swing.. long pause.

Doesnt seem like much danger to me.

In Aikido, balls hit bat. *actionpack!