World Of Swords

Aikido is a Japanese martial art founded by Morihei Ueshiba aka 'O Sensei' or 'Great Teacher'. He learnt several ancient martial arts and combined all the effective techniques into Aikido. The martial art that had the most influence on Aikido is Daito-Ryu Aikijujutsu. O Sensei removed all the brutal and fatal elements from Daito-Ryu Aikijujutsu leaving only techniques that throw or immobilize. Aikido consists mainly of joint locks and throws. Punching and kicking are taught not as the main technique but to compliment the technique. It is used as a distraction, to imbalance and weaken the attacker. Anyone can punch or kick, it takes skill to be able to apply techniques. Most martial arts consist mostly of punches and kicks, that not only hurts the attacker but that also hurts the practitioner. Instead of clashing head on with the attacker and hurting each other, Aikido practitioners are taught ways to blend and redirect the opponents' aggressive energy away from themselves and redirect it towards the aggressor. The attacker gets thrown resulting in minimal hurt to him and no hurt to the Aikido practitioner. Aikido is a compassionate and peace-loving martial gentle yet effective arts that aims to protect not only the Aikido practitioner but even the attacker.

Aikido techniques are very graceful, beautiful and gentle. It is because of this gentle nature that anybody can learn regardless of gender or age. Aikido also provides spiritual and mental calmness to its practitioners. When you are able to apply the techniques correctly and get promoted through the ranks, this also helps to build self-confidence and self-esteem.

Aikido is made up of 3 letters:

Ai which means Harmony, Balance or Unify.

Ki which means Life Energy that is in everyone of us. Chinese people call it Qi.This life energy when used properly is even more powerful than physical strength.

Do which means Way. So Aikido is The Way of Unifying the Life Energy.

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The subject of oriental Martial Arts is one of the most memorable presents of Asia to the world. Who will not remember that Bruce Lee was first and principally a martial arts athlete before becoming a film star?

Martial arts pictures are a colossal hit with the ever-rising popularity of Asian cinema like 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and 'The House of the Flying Daggers'.

The Chinese are the first nation that come to mind if you think of such sports, but the Japanese are equally as sporty with a rich heritage of body contact sports in their past. Modern Japan still gives honour to the martial arts by holding tournaments and advertising their martial arts in foreign countries.

Aikido is one of these. It is fascinating to note the fact that the word comes from three Japanese characters from which is derived the one word. Ai is 'joining', Ki is 'spirit' and Do is 'way'.

From this we can see why Aikido lies beyond just the physical skills of it students, particularly since its first advocate, Ueshiba, focused on the spiritual and philosophical development of his students.

In Aikido, one is not educated in violence rather, one is trained to be in harmony with the opponent so that you are able to defeat him more easily. This might appear strange but it really works.

When approaching an opponent, the objective of the Aikido practitioner is to be one with the adversary so as to be able to tackle him where he is weakest and in so doing, deflect or immobilize him, but never to kill him.

This is where Aikido becomes an art form. Art is something beautiful to look at and something constructive and Aikido is all that. At least one of the contestants concerned in the combat is searching for concord and concord can only be achieved if there is grace in the actions.

The moves may be premeditated, but there is an air of elegance in performing these actions. Not a feminine grace, but a grace that emanates peace. The 'art of peace' is what they call it in Aikido.

It is one of the most affirmative influences of Aikido on its students and to everyone else who chooses to learn about this Japanese martial art.

Some of the moves in Aikido involve the following:

Ikkyo is the first process. Using this technique, you direct an adversary by using one hand to hold his elbow and one to hold near the wrist. This action is supposed to allow you to pin your adversary down to the ground.

Nikyo, the second technique, is when you perform a wrist lock which empowers you to twist the arm of your adversary which will in turn cause nerve pressure.

Sankyo, the third technique, is a technique that creates upward-spiraling tension throughout the arm, elbow and shoulder. There are numerous other techniques but the first three are enough to give you a basic insight.

When studying Aikido, it is crucial to remember that, together with building physical strength, you will have to improve your mind to become able to overpower your antagonist. Just| like in any other art form, it takes a lot of training and discipline to reach the summit of the art of Aikido.

The vital thing to keep in mind is that anyone who wants to get into the art must have the resolve to give honour to the art by performing it in the best manner that they can.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is now concerned with Mixed Martial Arts For Kids. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Mixed Martial Arts Quotes

Or will you be completely at a loss about what to do and only stand there stunned? Knife crime happens around the world on a daily basis, and if you look at the pictures it's one of the bloodiest and most traumatic events that can happen to a person. So before we even go to talk about knife defence, let's give one of the best rules you'll ever hear. An honest rule that saves lives. If you can avoid a knife fight by giving the criminal something you own, give it. No cell phone, wallet, cash, credit card, diamond ring or necklace is worth the risk of losing your life, or sustaining a bloody knife wound. You can get back all these things later. And this holds even more true if you have the person you love is with you. Material possessions can be replaced, human life cannot.

Next most important advice, if you can immediately run or escape, then go for it. This also applies when someone who isn't a criminal is just taunting or intimidating you with a knife, but without any serious intent to kill. The answer is simple: back off, don't let your ego get hold of you. This isn't the movies, and this isn't about being macho. It's about being wise and being confident enough in yourself that this unnecessary fight isn't worth your time. After all, you've got better things to do, like earn a decent living, provide good things for the people you care about, and just enjoy life.

But then there's the last possibility, where you just have to fight or die. This happens in cases when the aggressor is someone who is not in his right senses, perhaps because of being drunk or high on drugs. In such cases he may have a serious intention to kill. Hopefully this will never happen to you. But this is the part where we have to ask, are you capable of defending yourself or the people you love if and when it comes?

We're not talking about whether you've had some classes in karate several years ago. Real life cases have shown that many professional martial artists are ineffective in an intense real life knife fight, because they've been trained in drills and without real intensity in the gym. There have been reports of martial artists being severely beaten and even killed by an untrained criminal with a weapon using improvised moves.

What you need is an automatic and instinctive response against a knife attack, which will both defend yourself and do some damage to the opponent at the same time. It should be able to work in whatever angle of attack, especially since most attacks will be a surprise attack, and you won't have time to think. In such a scenario you can't care anymore how it looks, or if it's flashy, you just need it to work.

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Learn Escrima Knife Fighting Now Jeremy is a certified instructor in the Asian martial art of escrima. His goal is to provide people who do not have the time to be professional martial artists only the most practical techniques for self-defense. He has years of experience teaching ordinary college students arnis and knife fighting.