Pins vs Immobilizations
Originally posted by TomW
Hello.
However, I want to suggest that if you manage to make it to the pin, you're way past the "point of impending doom" of your attacker, and you have already managed to SUCCESSFULLY choose non-violence.
Originally posted by TomW
Hello.
However, I want to suggest that if you manage to make it to the pin, you're way past the "point of impending doom" of your attacker, and you have already managed to SUCCESSFULLY choose non-violence.
I would like to point out that Aikido isn't a "submission" fighting art. If you have had occasion to do Aikido with someone who is experienced in submission fighting, in which the opponent is either knocked out or submits because he is locked up in such a way that he must submit or be injured or choked out, you will know that in the majority of Aikido pins there is nothing that forces the opponent to tap out. If the opponent wants to really beat the pin he usually can eventually do so in most cases. A good ground fighter can work his way out if given enough time.
Originally these pins were not "submission' type pins but were rather immobilizations that simply held the opponent down long enough to access your backup weapon and dispatch the attacker. This is represented in symbolic form in the older styles of Aikido by a knife hand strike after the pin has taken place. There are plenty of photos of O-Sensei himself ending his technique this way.
There are some pins that seem to have the potential to lock an opponent up in such a way that he has to submit but in many cases if you really look at those pins and practice with a partner who really resists you will find that there are only two ways that you would get into the pin: a) you executed a locking technique or atemi that disabled the attacker before you applied the immobilization or b) the pin wasn't really a pin at all but was really a breaking technique that was executed very quickly and powerfully as a follow-up to the original takedown. If you try these techniques against a strong and experienced ground fighter you will find out that these techniques really can't be done the way we do them in class.
The point I am trying to make is that much of what we take to be the non-violent nature of Aikido exists in the dojo but doesn't exist in the same way outside the dojo when real martial application is required.
George S. Ledyard
Aikido Eastside
Defensive Tactics Options
Bellevue, WA