Aikido?

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I was thinking about trying a martial art. I've looked online at a few and this one seemed to pop up quite a bit. Is it suitable for a young(17) female aspie or is it quite rough?(More suited to guys)
Has anyone tried it?


Thanks.

I did Aikido for several years (tested for 5th Kyu, trained up to 3rd/4th), and it's an exceptionally good martial art for females. Hell, for about two years my instructor was a female half my size. It isn't about force or strength, but rather understanding the elegant flow of body movements to use an attacker's momentum against them. It may be a little rough at first when you're initially learning the movements and throws, but eventually it's all smooth. As one of my instructors put it "You've truly learned how to do Aikido when you can do it properly and be lazy."

I did Jiu-Jitsu for about 6 years when I was younger but I trained with some Aikido guys at some conferences and events. It's all about being fluid and, like DNF said, using the attacker's momentum against them. Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I saw it mostly involves takedowns and submission techniques (arm bars, leg locks, etc.) and not very much striking.

I'd say any martial art is good, they'll all teach you valuable skills that could come in handy, improve your flexibility and fitness, and they all offer something different to their students. Aikido will probably help your proprioception (your awareness of the position and movement of your body) more than most because you've got to focus on fluid movements, whereas others involve more striking and traditional fighting.

Give it a shot if you're interested in it. If you find it's not for you, there are plenty of others for you to try.

You're correct, Aikido was developed by O Sensei as a pacifistic martial art, so it's focused on the peaceful response to an attack without doing (too much) intentional harm to your attacker. However, you do learn how to strike and use weapons (staff and sword), but the focus isn't about striking. It's about learning the mechanics and flow of a strike and how to respond to them.

Two of my friends were into it for quite sometime - I believe they were 13 when they started doing it. Both female.

Aikido is great. With aikido you can see a 100 lb. woman take the balance of a 250 lb. man. It's not a blood sport; the emphasis is on defense. It takes a long time to learn and be able to implement effectively but it's rewarding. From my experience it was however quite expensive as far as martial arts go. We had monthly dues and anual dues paid by individuals to Aikido Schools of Ueshiba headquarters. Membership dues was the only revenue sources. The club was nonprofit, the members physically maintained the dojo. It was also harder to train for on my own than karate. I regret that I had to retire from aikido due to an injury with an unrelated cause.

My understanding is that Ueshiba cultivated the mechanics of the sword to create the empty-hand art. Aikido seems to be very much the opposite of that dynamic tension content used in some karate dojos.

I had a few informal Aikido lessons. I was surprised how quickly I was able to learn something useful for self-defense. When you see someone skilled in Aikido bringing down a much larger opponent it looks faked, but once you are shown the technique, you know it is not! When the technique is applied to you, you want to go down!

I agree with the other posts so far. Aikido is the best martial art I know of for a small person. I also learned some Kung Fu. I think Aikido is even more practical for a small person to learn than Kung Fu. I liked Kung Fu for the meditative effect it has on me when I do the forms (exercises.) I would guess Tai Chi would be similar in this respect.

Actually I think Kung Fu could work for women as well, though they'd need to focus primarily on use of elbows (stabbing, slicing) as well as gauges and limb destruction. I guess it just depends on how brutal they're willing to be.

I'm not that big of a fan of Aikido. It's a fairly good way to fight an untrained fighter (even better if you're small), but when matched against a kung fu or, say, traditional karate, it's not quite as good. As far as kung fus goes, Tai Chi Chuan would definately be the best for a small person in my opinion, as size and strength is a complete non-issue in the art. The problem is finding a school that both teaches actual Tai Chi Chuan (as opposed to just the form) and teaches it as a martial art.

I actually like Tai Chi when its taught in its martial art form - seems like many of the health practitioners shortion the arm motion, curl the hands more, and what you end up with at that rate - if you ever wanted to use it - is rather dangerous to yourself rather than helpful. Seems like if done right though, all of the motions (part the wild horses main, single whip, brush knee push, etc.) each indivually have three possible uses - a lock, a strike, and a takedown. That in conjunction with practical Kung Fu and Chi Quong with weights for the Chi Quong ruler is quite a synergistic combination.

I do Wing Chun, I recommend this for male and female as self defence and fitness. It can be light to rough depending, but you won't be doing full on sparing for a while anyway. I think people really don’t know what to expect from a martial art until they have tried it, I know I didn’t.

Wing Chun is perfect for a slight person like me because you don’t need brute you use the other person’s momentum against them, you use relaxation to turn on an of the power and use the power of your whole body.

My advice is you won't be able to use the same training partner (male or female), be prepared to cross train. It is the best way to learn. Training partners are supposed to help each other out.

If you have some tactile sensitivity it may help, but it is severe you might want to sort the out first.

Don’t be afraid of sweat, not just your own other peoples. Some people sweat buckets, there is usually at least one person who does (in my case it happens to be one of the instructors). Heck there may be times when it will be you that is sweating buckets. There reason why I say this, is it is one of the reason people have been put off. I am deliberately stressing this, in fact most days it isn’t really that bad. The better you become the more you are conserving energy, because that is a major aim for survival not to get overpowered.

In terms of improving propriopecetion, coordination, etc it is really good. These things will take a number of years anyway.

I have an admiration for some Aikido I've seen. Strangely there are some similarities, and I can see where it can be useful interfacing with Wing Chun.

Personally I would suggest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. You get to work against a resisting opponent and with positions like the guard. At about a minute and forty seconds they show how a woman can break a man's arm if he gets on top of her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXU-0MDzjyA

I've been doing Aikido for 10 years.

Non-martial (Asperger symptom) benefits: It was absolutely invaluable in HELPING me. I don't know what else would've helped. I was a complete slave to rigid mental routines, down to being "afraid" to order a different burger for once, and was unable to function fluidly in changing social circumstances. I kept applying "patterns" from previous social engagements to new ones, in attempts as futile as predicting the stockmarket.

Aikido movements do not work unless your mind is fluid, and eventually they helped me THINK fluidly. It worked with me, the movements connected with the mind, and they moved the mind slowly like a lever, over the years.

In less unique aspects, Aikido (like many others) was also an activity where I got to interact with people on MINIMAL social basis, easing me into being around people and validating my social persona.

In a way, it is my savior. Without it, I would be in a very confused and dark place by now. It acts as an anti-depressant as well, and not just because of endorphins. It's the movements themselves. They reprogram our subconscious traps and plateaus.

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Female side: I'm male, but Aikido is very friendly to women. We have a number of women in the dojo and a few female instructors who are somewhere in 5"3 110lbs range and have strong technique.

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Martial side: Aikido in itself is 90% complete when it comes to self-defense arsenal. However, people stuck on its "pacifistic" side tend to develop ineffective technique. You need to see how Daito Ryu , Aikido parent art, is executed, and why. Also, experiencing the intensiveness of Judo is helpful in understanding the CORE of what makes Aikido work.

A number of Aikido techniques considered "impractical" can be, pacifistic mantra aside, forced on a fully resisting and active opponent, however it does not look like in the dojo (it is very fast and rough) and it is not done from a wrist grab, and it will very likely result in injury.

Mind you a person who is throwing a sincere, singular attack is going to be easier to handle with Aikido's classic training, and most people in real life attack exactly that way. But if you're interested in fending off attacks from trained individuals, with enough exploration outside the art you will get in touch with the core of the art which is direct, reliable and severe.

Trained attackers don't offer ANY energy to be manipulated, it is a pipe dream for classic Aikido practitioners that they do. This is why you need to learn to generate it yourself.

Learning basic strikes is also very important. Most Aikido practitioners don't even do the stylized attacks correctly ! They don't know what a fight is really like, so they either move very rigidly or very lightly. Real strikes are snappy and powerful and yet light. Training with sincerity, even in stylized fashion that Aikido offers, is mandatory.

But also don't forget that the founder said that training should be done in an atmosphere of joy. Without that, fluidity is lost, and fluidity is mandatory to martial execution of technique.

I would like to note that Aikido can be very agressive.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h__CdPeJ ... re=channel while it's not traditional for sure, it uses many Aiki elements in that demo.

Personally I recommend Toshin-do above all others. I have tried TKD, Judo, More traditional Okinawan arts, a few "home brew" systems, and TSD.

Toshin-do is one of the most elegant, graceful, most brutal, most effective arts I have tried. At the dojo were I go (went, I moved but I still visit) quite a few people were female. Scary females.

http://www.questmartialarts.com/ is my dojo. It's in Portland Maine. However TSD is all over the world. I would give you a history but google can do it for me. Not a single person at the dojo is a jerk. All are very supportive caring people who help eachother reach the next point.

That is the only TSD place I have trained though. There is No Kata and no pointless classes.

As a friend put it: "Toshin-do is a very nasty art practiced by nice people"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zySkIGcXxgw decent promo vid for the art, several females featured.

Some people laugh because its "Ninjitsu". If you can find a Quest Center near you try it. You won't be laughing, but you may have a great time while learning how to throw people into walls

1) Aikido is great! Has helped me be anti-clumsy & kick ass I've also studied Hakutsuru & grappling to supplement.

2) Don't knock the katas... they are very useful too.

3) I don't laugh at Ninjustu, just people saying they're ninjas... No such thing as a ninja anymore, sorry But I hope that was just being cute for the movie.