Seagal smokes rocks?

[Ari Bolden]

Seagal aside, there are numerous techniques in aikido that are great. It all depends on the medium you use them in. Will all aikido techniques work all the time in a real fight? Nope. Will all 10th Planet? Nope.

If Eddie has taught any of you anything, its think outside the box. I pulled two aikido techniques and adapted them really well to my 10th Planet game (the Soviet and the Overdown Lock).

I've always look at my martial arts training as "each one has strengths in certain areas".

The problem is that people equate the art with Seagal. Its much more than him and his 'interviews'.

[Tyler Timmermans]

Seagal aside, there are numerous techniques in aikido that are great. It all depends on the medium you use them in. Will all aikido techniques work all the time in a real fight? Nope. Will all 10th Planet? Nope.

If Eddie has taught any of you anything, its think outside the box. I pulled two aikido techniques and adapted them really well to my 10th Planet game (the Soviet and the Overdown Lock).

I've always look at my martial arts training as "each one has strengths in certain areas".

The problem is that people equate the art with Seagal. Its much more than him and his 'interviews'.

im sure akido has its place

[Tyler Timmermans]

fucking blackberry play book, anyway i think they just maded that shit up about being able to throw someone by there arm and the real aikido techniques that work are pain compliance techniques that the cops use on drunk peapole.

[Dylan Ehrnreiter]

Too often one of those big-belly masters will tell you that his internal power has sunk to his stomach; he's not kidding, it is sunk and gone! To put it bluntly, he is nothing but fat and ugly.

-Bruce Lee

[Jonathan Wylie]

Seagal aside, there are numerous techniques in aikido that are great. It all depends on the medium you use them in. Will all aikido techniques work all the time in a real fight? Nope. Will all 10th Planet? Nope.

If Eddie has taught any of you anything, its think outside the box. I pulled two aikido techniques and adapted them really well to my 10th Planet game (the Soviet and the Overdown Lock).

I've always look at my martial arts training as "each one has strengths in certain areas".

The problem is that people equate the art with Seagal. Its much more than him and his 'interviews'.

Hey Ari, who was the other 10th planet instructor that trained akido?

[Chris Herzog]

Seagal aside, there are numerous techniques in aikido that are great. It all depends on the medium you use them in. Will all aikido techniques work all the time in a real fight? Nope. Will all 10th Planet? Nope.

If Eddie has taught any of you anything, its think outside the box. I pulled two aikido techniques and adapted them really well to my 10th Planet game (the Soviet and the Overdown Lock).

I've always look at my martial arts training as "each one has strengths in certain areas".

The problem is that people equate the art with Seagal. Its much more than him and his 'interviews'.

I don't think theres a real issue regarding Aikido on this thread, but rather Seagal himself that people take issue with.

[AJ Camacho]

The problem is that people equate the art with Seagal. Its much more than him and his 'interviews'.

What else could they equate the art with though? There's no high level Aikido competitions, I can't think of any Aikido based top level MMA fighters, and I don't recall any Aikido practitioners cross competing against other styles in their respective sport.

I respect aikido and many of the techniques do have great value. There's a reason why it tends to be modified and incorporated into the self defense system of most martial arts because the mechanics work. However, can we really expect the average person to have any public awareness of Aikido beyond Steven Segal? And I ask that question respectfully... the practitioner will define the public opinion of their respective martial art. The Gracies define BJJ, Lebell defines Judo, Lee defines Jeet Kun Do and whether we like it or not Steven Segal defines Aikido.

[Ari Bolden]

I am certainly not saying Aikido works in a MMA setting (hence the reason you don't ever see it exclusively used in the cage). And as Chris pointed out, this is about Seagal's weird ass comments.

I personally don't use MMA as the measuring stick for everything that is practical in life. It is an easy out in my view. What don't we see arnis or kali used in the cage? How is the knife fighting defense by MMA practitioners? It isn't applicable to what they do so they don't learn it for their medium.

I personally don't consider Seagal the person who defines aikido. I suppose what AJ is talking about is a popularity contest. Who has the biggest name and therefore, which person does the uninformed attach the art too. I suppose its like saying Frank Dux is the ninjitsu representative (Blood Sport), Jeff Speakman is Kempo (Perfect Weapon), and Tommy Lee Jone is Kali because he did it in the "Hunted".

As I said, Seagal's comments are certainly from a different planet and I shake my head when he speaks but I know that the value of the art goes much deeper than his silly interviews. In the end, I have learned much during my time in that art and its saved my ass many times over out in the concrete arena. When the situation allows, I will use locking techniques from Aikido, as well as Japanese Jujutsu, Judo, or BJJ when it allows also.

[AJ Camacho]

Don't worry Ari, I would never angrily point my finger into your chest since I would immediately get my wrist broken. I definitely respect the art.