I am, but not Aikikai which is the most common style. I study Yoshinkan Aikido, very effective and quick. If you ever go near Haywards Heath pop in and visit. www.yoshinkan.co.uk This is Yates Sensei: This is one of my teachers:
There looks to be a lot of similarity there with the taijutsu that I study as part of the ninjutsu umbrella. Effective joint manipulation and swift takedowns. The third move in the first video is something I seen, and done, a lot of.
Yeah, Aikido came from Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu so shares a fair bit with other traditional Japanese arts.
Looking at getting the book 'Aikido and The Dynamic Sphere' by Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratti, has anyone else read it. Meant to very interesting. Also, has anyone read The Book Of Five Rings?
Sorry to dig up a bit of an old one, but I'm new here and into MA, so I thought I'd at least post I'm five and a half years into Tang Soo Do at the moment, First Dan. I've also done about 6 months of BJJ and even had a go at Iaido, but TSD is where my main interest is. I only wish I'd started younger than at 28. I've got it but not read it yet shamefully. Funakoshi's 'Karate-do, my way of life' is a great book, as is Shotokan's Secret, even if some of it is a bit fanciful.
Where the hell in Cornwall can you train is such a relatively obscure system? It's hard enough finding "mainstream" dojos.
@TSDAdam: NO worries, Necroposting is a thing of the past (Sorry, I'll get my coat...) Havn't managed to find a martial art i've stuck with for longer than 6 months, but otherwise I've studied: (Havn't studied any in years, but still remember the basic forms) Boxing + Kick Boxing Muay Thai Tai Kwan Do 2 forms of Karate Tai Chi (my favorite so far, still study it when I remember to and/or have the time) Jujitsu Taijutsu Kendo (for a short period, was quite fun and intense) Judo MAs I want to try out: Systema Krav Maga Eskrima (Filipino MA, seen some videos and it is hellish hard the training) --------------------------------------------- If I cannot avoid a fight, I tend to hit low, hit hard, and hit fast (still go by the unwritten rule not to crush a man's berries, unless he has a weapon and I don't) Take out their base (legs, hips) and move up rapidly to restrain them in head/arm locks. (My brother, who is 2-3 times my size, cannot break out my locks go me!)
You'd be surprised. My instructor has been teaching down here since 2001, and his instructors before him. He's been training around 18 years in Cornwall now. I've just started my own class in Truro, but we've got classes in Pool, Penzance, Falmouth and soon in St Austell. Unfortunately because the 'Tang Soo Do' name isn't well known (not compared to Tae Kwon Do for example), it often gets re-badged as Karate - which effectively it is. It's basically just a Korean take on Okinawan karate. We study the same traditional forms as karate, but also have a lot of additions that came in from the founder who also founded Soo Bahk Do.
I've been told a kick to the nads then a nice hard knee to the face works wonders, also punching someone in the neck will drop them like a sack of potatos. I'm a small guy so I would usually run away from the situation. Most of my friends are big too, I've seen one of my friends pick up a person by their neck and throw them at a wall. It seams impressive, but my friend is 6'8" and weighs 350 pounds. I got another buddy that broke a kids femur during a wrestling match, he was in 8th grade at the time. I'll stick to running from the fight.
If they grab you face on, a knee to the balls and a follow up head-butt to the face works wonders. Ideally you don't wanna be that close though. Ideally you wanna be about 5 streets away running in the opposite direction.
I did a bit of aikido once got quite good but gave up in the end Never used it much in situations except the odd need to restrain someone when breaking up a fight i tend to do the old fashioned headbutt and go to work on there face with either the fist or my boot, quick KO
I do kickboxing atm. WAKO rules - British Championships coming up and then a black belt - unfortunately the xmas weight is not coming off very quickly and i've fallen out with the new scales at the dojo! also enjoyed: wu shu, tai chi, capoiera (spelling sry!?), tae kwon do, ju jit su and akido. would love to spend more time doing them but dammit have to earn a living sitting at a desk being bored to pay for the classes! let alone the computer building habbit I seem to be wanting to develop and the computer games I want to play and the girlfriend who overules all the above distractions and hobbies at will...
The implication is that you get into fights regularly enough to have a 'usual' method, which is pretty worrying to be honest. And kicking a person in the head when they're down basically makes you a psychopathic idiot in any situation outside of the military. You'll just end up in prison that way, deservedly so.
Calm down batman I was being sarcastic i avoid any physical confrontation, but in terms of a mugging and the red mist sometimes you can't control yourself. Course i would never hit or kick when somebody is down in 1v1 situation, but then again it depends on the situation if its a group of chavs that usually hang round outside nightclubs for people to come out to deliberately beat the crap out of them then ofcourse the tables are turned there going to kick me when im down course im going to do the same when i get my chance, its something you lose control of you don't think of the morals when 5 18 year old guys are smashing you over the back of the head with bits of bottle and rock. 99% of fights i've been involved in are with me restraining friends or people, and the serious fights i've had throwing punches i could count on a single hand (That include serious damage to me and them), all of which include large amounts of alcohol and stupid decisions
This alone is a very compelling argument for you not being allowed to learn any martial art. This kind of loss of restraint is precisely what martial arts systems are designed to restrain and temper through mental and physical discipline. If they haven't done that, stop learning them before you further increase the possibility that you'll one day kill someone. We're all only human, and nobody deserves to be kicked when they're down (no, they really don't, not even 'chavs'). If you think I'm being too serious about this - I'm really not. Peoples' lives may depend on your self-control. To learn martial arts is to arm yourself with dangerous weapons, it's not recreational. To arm yourself in this way when you know you might lose control of it when someone's vulnerable is like giving a kid a gun. edit - I realise how patronising this reply sounds, but I don't mean it to be. I just worry for your sake. You really are putting people in danger if it's true that you lose control in the ways you've described.
Isshin-Ryu Karate Black Belt, Hells Angel training, and more self restraint than any Boy Scout troop has. john /edit Oh and Springfield Armory 1911-A1. 6 decades and now I mellow out.
Completely agree, how would you feel if someone did that to you? And if you answer that you couldn't control yourself, then you need to seriously learn some self control Just use some empathy.
