Exaggeration in Aikido? What do you think?

[Roy3]

(Formerly posted on Aikiweb)

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall." I can just see it, a 130-160 pound Aikidoka not backing away from a 275+ pound attacker(or multiple attackers), and seriously getting hurt; because falsely he/she felt their Aikido would shield them. I would like to pose a few questions that I have been sort of wondering/concerned with. Is it wise to say to new members at an Aikido club that by learning Aikido you will be able to take-on much larger attackers (or multiple attackers)? "In general," might saying this give a false confidence to the average Aikidoka? Just a concluding thought, In most confrontations its not just about the moves you can make, but what you can take.

[aikihazen]

Well I am a pretty big guy 6'2" 240 and I have had woman half my size handle me pretty well... It's a pretty well accepted universal truth that ain't the size of the dog in the fight but the size of fight in the dog that matters...A well trained Aikidoka on our system can handle themselves most of the time. I do agree though to reach that level of training does time time and effort.

William Hazen

[Brian Owens]

...Is it wise to say to new members at an Aikido club that by learning Aikido you will be able to take-on...multiple attackers...

Dealing with multiple attackers seems to be an area where Aikido, at least in the later stages of training, excels.

Because there is less emphasis on pinning and ground work than in, say, Judo, an Aikidoka is free to deal with more than one "uke" at a time, from what I have seen.

[TLR]

my teacher (Shinichi Suzuki Sensei) has always said until you can control your own breath there is no way you can expect to control another person... or as he always puts it breathe, breathe, breathe...

aloha,

Tracy Reasoner

[kinopah]

i certainly wouldn't use a term like "take on". maybe better to say that through aikido, you greatly improve your bodily awareness and ability to posistion yourself well among larger/multiple attackers... and obviously only after years of consistent training. i think it always needs to be emphasized to beginners that in any real conflict, no outcome is guaranteed, regardless of one's level of training. in the context of aikido, i've never actually heard of anyone [i know] "biting off more than they can chew", probably because the dojos/system with which i've been affiliated does a pretty fair job of placing importance on awareness/avoidance of potentially violent conflict.

[stoker]

Well I am a pretty big guy 6'2" 240 and I have had woman half my size handle me pretty well... It's a pretty well accepted universal truth that ain't the size of the dog in the fight but the size of fight in the dog that matters...A well trained Aikidoka on our system can handle themselves most of the time. I do agree though to reach that level of training does time time and effort.

William Hazen

I am a bit bigger and have several very small females seniors who have no problems making aiki origami out of me. Occaisionally I will find a five foot tall woman trying men strikes when they can't reach that high. That gives me about thiity seconds to two minutes before they aim lower.

[Xenophon]

The head instructor at my first school was a woman, and I easily outweighed her by a hundred pounds. But, she had no problems bouncing me off the mat like a basketball.

However, at that time, I was a brand-new white belt who didn't have any previous martial arts experience. She was (is) a sandan.

On the other hand, I have a friend with whom I currently train who is significantly smaller than me. (I'm 6'1" 250 lbs. and she's 5'2" 100 lbs.) We've been training for roughly about the same amount of time, except that she is slightly senior to me. Now all that being said, she is convinced that she could easily handle any committed attack I could give her. Personally, I don't think her aiki is sufficient yet to where she could "put me down" if I really intended to do her harm.

So all that being said, I think that a very good, accomplished aikidoka is capable of defending him/herself from a larger opponent. But I also think that there are variables that come into play: relative levels of martial ability, awareness, physical fitness, and (if all other things are equal) size.

Just my ramblings on the matter.

Eric Schmidt

(Yay! My first post! Woo-hoo!)

[TimothyKleinert]

If you train long and hard enough, you can do almost anything. So the question isn't really "can small Aikido-ka handle big ukes", but rather "how much training will it it take that Aikido-ka to get to the point where they can"?

In the end, it all becomes a question of how much training you willing to put into it. Some people don't mind spending 10 years to acheive their goals. Other can't wait 1 year.

It's all a question of if the pace of Aikido matches your own preference. If Aikido training is "too slow", you'll likely think its ineffective. But if you don't mind spending the time, Aikido will be effective, eventually.

[Brian Owens]

(Yay! My first post! Woo-hoo!)

Welcome, Eric.