Josh Gold
“Aikido has an elegance as a strategy which is rare in the realm of conflict.”
This blog was originally written as a comment in reply to The Martial Artist’s Dilemma: “Traditionalism vs. Innovation,” by Charles Humphrey . I found it to have several valuable perspectives and thus worthy to stand on its own.
“Ueshiba did this, why can’t you?…” The man had a powerful physique in his youth. He wasn’t born doing this quasi-no-touch stuff. He went through a whole process to that eventual end. You must do the same. Be traditional, but be smart, use your traditional curriculum as a tool, and use that tool in accordance with what we know to work well when learning skills. Read up on neuroplasticity and various ways of working the memory and nerve growth and body maps and all the wonderful research out there. It beats the pants off this fuzzy mysticism we often get trapped into because we’re afraid of being limited by the state of current scientific knowledge (and I’m guilty of this as much as the next guy.) Yes, science can’t explain everything. Yes, if you stick to a scientistic point of view, which is inherently limited by the state of progress and the limits of specialization, you will become just as calcified as you would by sticking to the mystical traditionalist approach. But scientific research combined with personal experience can be a springboard of immense value that can launch you into a realm of understanding well beyond the limits of mystical dogma AND scientific rigidity. All it takes is a bit of courage, common sense and a desire to be the best you can be…”
Couldn’t have said it better. Techniques don’t work, at least if you think of them as techniques. Techniques work (nearly) perfectly if they are ingrained into your body as, say, touch typing. Go for a walk in the Sierra foothills. If you aren’t following a deer trail or something similar, you’re working too hard. Go ahead. Bush-whack your way up crag and down canyon. I give you maybe half a day if you’re really stubborn to stop “innovating” and “go with nature”. In aikido we’re blessed with such trails. They’re called techniques. Once you learn how to follow trails you also become better at finding them. I haven’t been very many places, really, but it is no trouble for me to find trails in new ones. Variations of techniques are similar. Deer trails have parameters of slope and size of obstacle which can be a bit challenging to us bipeds, but generally much easier than the alternatives. I would propose the same for Aikido. I have no problem with other martial arts. If they didn’t work, they would only survive in environments where they are athletic recreation. I happen to have spent a long time with Aikido. At least the way I visualize it, it’s comprehensive.
I know many folks go to other arts for, say, strikes and kicks. I wouldn’t ascribe that to a deficiency in Aikido as much as a deficiency in the style they studied. I grant that I know no Aikido technique that relies on a knockout punch or kick. But even in striking arts, knockouts are regarded as having a large element of luck. Many boxing matches are decided on points. Few MMA matches end with knockouts. Lots of people in daily life get concussions falling down. Especially as I get older I’m not too proud to let gravity (may The Force be with you) do the hard work.
There is something else about striking, it involves setting up, if only briefly, a stable platform from which the strike may be launched. Obviously striking with the hands doesn’t require a long interval, but it’s there, especially for a powerful strike. Kicking adds range to strikes but costs time as a stationary platform. Think about it. Even a “flying crane kick” needs a launch pad. Here’s a thought, the longer the range, the more time it takes to establish the launch pad. There might be a curve to this. Shotgun doesn’t give you a lot of range, but also doesn’t require a lot of time to get off the shot. Archery (recurve or long bow without sights) might be about equal. Pistol might be about the same as a kick at “powder burn range”, assuming you practice, and otherwise is probably about equivalent to archery or shotgun. Rifle has a definite tradeoff between time and accuracy at distance, but you get a lot more accurate range for time expended than with a pistol. The only exception that occurs to me is where final targeting and kill is “subcontracted”, a missile fight in aerial combat for example. Even that requires some time to establish a lock on the target. In Aikido the platform, target acquisition and lock-on, might be seen as setting up the throw. But, like the missile, the damage happens when the body arrives at the ground propelled largely by gravity and its own initial momentum, the warhead if you will.
Aikido has an elegance as a strategy which is rare in the realm of conflict. Douglas MacArthur summarized his Western Pacific strategy as, “Hit ’em where they ain’t.” Really good Aikido is hard to see for a similar reason.
Antonio Aloia
Mr. Warren:
Your article and insightful comments ring true.
Douglas MacArthur indeed espoused the “hit em where they ain’t” philosophy. However, as he himself later acknowledged in an interview with Life Magazine’s Clare Luce Booth, he was merely borrowing a well-known baseball expression of the time. It actually was first made famous by “Wee” Willie Keeler (he actually said “Keep your eye clear, and hit ’em where they ain’t”) who played major league baseball from 1892 to 1910, and whose 1898 season-end career average of .385 is still the highest out of all players with over 1000 hits. Keeler’s achievements are more remarkable in that he was actually “Wee”, being 5′ 4-1/2″, and 140 pounds. In this regard, perhaps, attribution of the remark to him is appropriate when thinking of Aikido principles, and also perhaps because Keeler’s achievements were made by individual effort, despite his small physique, whereas MacArthur’s achievement (while not to detract from his brilliance as a general) was an operational one, involving a huge Armed Forces organisation.
As it’s the day after Easter I have no qualms about citing the Bible about how there’s nothing new under the sun. MacArthur may not have invented the term, but his Western Pacific campaign exemplified it. Now, you could argue that he was just half of Patton’s maxim, “Hold ’em by the nose and kick ’em in the pants.” Nimitz was holding the nose in the Eastern Pacific.
No art is better than other arts. Just one practitioner is better than the other.Please watch “Black Belt” to understand the Karate.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Nga
Agreed. Aikido is a good fit for me, so therefore I do aikido. There are reasons why it’s a good fit and there are reasons why a lot of people have successfully applied it, but that could be said of any art.