Aikido?

Z

Zen-bert

Guest
i've never trained in any grappling, however i've always been interested and have trained in tkd and kickboxing, so my strking is decent. obviously bjj or sambo are the prefered styles to train for mma, but what does everyone think of aikido? i ask because they offer classes at a convenient time and place for myself, whereas the bjj school is way too far. thanx for the opinions
 
Aikido has about zero practicality for MMA. It is just not intended for use in that environment.

Depending on the school you go to, it could be useful for self-defense. Schools that teach closer to aikijujutsu will have you practice against resisting opponents and will stress making the techniques work for real. Schools that are more mainline aikido will hardly ever do anything with real resistance and are nearly worthless for self-defense. In those schools it is practiced more for its traditional and aesthetic value than anything else.

It's one of the most traditional Japanese arts too. So if you like that stuff, it might interest you. If you can't stand it, look elsewhere.
 
In general, take judo, sambo, wrestling or bjj over aikido for grappling. Unless you find a very rare aikido school, you will not learn any grappling. If grappling/mma is your goal aikido would not be on the list of arts to train.
 
Check it out first and see if what they do seems effective against a live opponent.
 
Yup, basically crap. Don't bother with it.
 
Jitsuman said:
Aikido is crap.

The end.

Yup. Had black belt aikido instructors come do a few classes of BJJ and they all say the same.

- J.
 
In the place where I train BJJ, before our class there is an Aikido class. There are like 2 fat chicks who have the black sash. A few older dudes are like the masters.. One of them seems legit, has a the Ryu Certificate and it looks very real. He has pictures also plastered on the wall with some asian fellow who is either the son or grandson of someone very important in Aikido.. I don't know the name. Anyways, I usually arrive like 20 minutes early to my class and I watch them train.

They do this sort of dance things that are supposed to like throw people and shit. They also train a lot of standup but I would have to say that the Intermediate White Belts on the BJJ class would for sure destroy all of them in a real live scenario.
 
Aikido takes years before you will feel like you have gained anything that you can use. I personally like TMAs just for enjoyment but this one is not going to give you what you want. Aikido can be very dangerous if practiced in the traditional form. I hurt my back pretty bad because there is very little in the way of warming up. You can sometimes sit for a very long time before you start taking big falls. There are also some traditional ritualized things that kick off and end every class and if you aren't into that then it can be very frustrating.
 
I was talking to an aikido black belt with ten years of experience. He told me that aikido tries to emphasize personal development and conflict resolution and mastering the mind and all that hippy stuff, which is cute and all. But he then said that you can get the same effect from two months of BJJ. Which was why he had quit aikido and started training with us.
 
Trytohitme said:
Aikido takes years before you will feel like you have gained anything .

It takes so long to get good at in fact, that you've only attained mastery in it after you've been dead over a decade.
 
Back
Top