#4 Aikido
Aikido is a modern Japanese martial art. In layman’s terms, ‘Ki’ implies spirit/spiritual force and ‘Do’ implies the art of executing a given job. Put together, ‘Aikido’ implies the ‘Way of combining forces’. Aikido involves the usage of both striking as well as grappling.
However, it is mainly a defensive martial art. The whole point of Aikido is to defend against an attacker, whilst ensuring the safety of yourself as well as the attacker. This, in turn, has been a big drawback of Aikido, especially in a real-life physical confrontation and self-defense scenario.
Aikido’s primary focus is the neutralisation of the situation. Instead of initiating the attack, an Aikido practitioner will wait for his opponent’s move and time his opponent’s attack in order to counter. Aikido requires its practitioners to use the force generated by the opponent’s attack, and direct that very force in a given direction in order to place the opponent in a neutral position.
Aikido involves several joint lock techniques, drags, strikes to critical places and pinning one’s opponent on the ground, to neutralise threats. Now, Aikido has several striking techniques as well. However, these striking techniques are derived from various other striking arts such as karate, boxing, etc.
As a result of this, Aikido striking techniques are considered to be rudimentary and lack the finesse of the traditional striking arts. Aikido does involve techniques where the practitioner can initiate a grappling or striking attack on his opponent.
However, these techniques are limited to versions of a traditional punch or karate chop, with the emphasis on maintaining focus on one’s ‘Ki’ (life force/spiritual force).
As far as Aikido practitioners in MMA are concerned, there aren’t many, so to speak. Barring a guest appearance from Hollywood actor Steven Seagal as an MMA fan, there aren’t other notable Aikido practitioners to be spotted in the MMA community.
Aikido is one of the most widely criticised martial arts in today’s world. The main reason for this criticism of Aikido is that it lacks an actual full-combat experience.
Now, let us place an Aikido practitioner inside an MMA cage and study the clash of styles.
Since no Aikido practitioners have made it to the big leagues in MMA as of yet, let’s assume that a decent Aikido artist steps inside the cage. The key word here is assume. Every MMA fight starts on the feet, and since Aikido practitioners rely on their opponent initiating the attack, the MMA fighter has the first chance to strike.
Another important fallacy of Aikido is the lack of spatial movement in the Aikido training sessions. Now, mind you, Aikido practitioners have good pivoting skills and are trained to turn in different directions, in order to fend off multiple attackers. However, MMA involves a whole lot of lateral movement, and this movement comes from one opponent only.
Not multiple opponents. In an Aikido training scenario, the ‘tori’ (practitioner) is supposed to execute techniques on the ‘uke’ (opponent). Now, both the tori and uke have their designated movements and steps, like a dance session.
However, in an MMA fight, the Aikido practitioner cannot expect his opponent to inform him about his movement and entry patterns, beforehand. This, in turn, gives the MMA fighter a significant advantage in the striking battle.
Now, let’s assume that, somehow, the Aikido fighter gets the MMA opponent to the ground. In that case, the Aikido practitioner can lock on a submission attempt on his MMA opponent. This, right here, is a scenario where the Aikido practitioner has a legitimate chance of winning the MMA fight.
However, most MMA fighters being well-schooled in BJJ, know the art of defending joint locks. Furthermore, Aikido techniques such as the usage of karate chops to an attacker’s neck and punches to an attacker’s chest are banned in MMA.
Besides, even if the Aikido practitioner manages to land the aforementioned karate chop or punch, they would be telegraphed due to the lack of live-sparring experience of Aikido practitioners. If there’s one lesson from Aikido that a martial artist can utilise in an MMA fight, it is the mental training aspect of Aikido.
This mental training involves focusing on keeping oneself calm in a dangerous situation, relaxing one’s body while falling to the ground, among several other training drills that are focused on strengthening one’s mind.
