Aikido?

Compared to other martial arts (which date back hundreds of years), Aikido is relatively new. It was founded (created) in the 20th century by Morihei Ueshiba (we call him Osensei, which means great teacher). Translated into English, Aikido means (ai) harmony, (ki) energy or power, (do) the way. So we describe Aikido as the way of harmonizing power. In Aikido we use circular movements to avoid attacks and many different throws and pins to control our attacker. Our goal is to resolve the conflict (fix the problem) between attacker and defender. That means we defend ourselves confidently and do our best to avoid injuring our attacker.

 

 

Aikido is Peaceful
 After a few classes you will notice that none of the techniques you are learning involve striking the attacker. This means that you will never learn how to punch or kick someone in order to defend yourself. This is a very important part of Aikido training. Aikido’s main goal is to make each student into a more compassionate human being. That means learning ways to deal with problems without creating more problems. We treat people as we would like to be treated and if we were to strike someone else then we should expect to receive the same treatment. This doesn’t mean that Aikido techniques are weak, in fact it means exactly the opposite. Aikido techniques are so dangerous that we have to take extreme care when we apply them on our practice partner. As an Aikido student you should always set an example for others – an example of a kind, generous, compassionate human being.