Aikido - Michele Quaranta Sensei 20b

i saw no attacks in that video. what i saw was two men holding each others hands/sleeves. out of the thousands of fights and attacks i have witnessed i have never seen an "attack" like these. i dont see any useful practical appllication of aikido, and believe me i have looked!!

The attack is called "Ryotedori" which means "grabing both hands". You might not see it as well as the students dont see it, thats the reason he does it rather slow and explains every step. Since most Aikidokas are rather aimed to not harm anyone attacks tend sometimes to get ... weak. In well practised Aikido you consume attacks which makes them look, uhm, not serious (even if the opposite tries to hit you very seriously). This makes students (and unfamiliar people) often think they are not important and away from reality but in serious Aikido this is a important task and the result is what you see in the movie above.

i saw no attack. in this video or in any others. i do not mean to be offensive, i am merely pointing out an observation on the subject. i train in shotokan at the liverpool red triangle, when my sparring partners attack me, i expect cuts, bruises and indeed have recieved cracked ribs. with attacks like these, you quickly learn to defend real attacks. not someone taking hold of your sleeve then following your lead....

He is not following the lead, he tries to attack but the Quaranta M. just won't let him. Its after all defensive and not offensive (in any way). So as a matter of fact there is the question: Do you want to beat the man or the situation? If you want to make sure that its working as defensive martial art I suggest to take your try in a local Dojo (I saw there is a 5th dan around your area - should be enough - even though the dan system shows the expirience but not the quality - limited relationship of course).

by saying the attacker follows his lead, i mean that in a genuine situation an real attacker would not move as the attacker in aikido is taught to. in reality a) they would not grab your wrists. b) they would not keep hold of your wrists. c) if they did grab your wrist, and keep hold, they deffinitely would not move in the way you see in this video. it is totally unnatural, it is a taught reaction.

There are other attacks in Aikido that deal well with punches and cuts, fortunatly they are easy in comparison to cope with an the first ones we use for randori (multiple attackers, attackers choose from a set of attacks). I asked a sensei and friend of mine: He said in the last training was a 2.kyu who trains shotokan karate, he has same problems with not facing and after first try he tried to hit and go to defense and attack again - as a matter of fact he couldn't do the second hit and was at the floor. I think we train these because if a attacker lets the hand go he will get hit by our hand (which is also part of the training). So once again: maybe you should go to a local aikidoka (prefer a master) and he might be able to show you what you don't see.

if the "shotokan fighter" attempts to grab your sleeves, then the "shotokan fighter" needs to move to another dojo and learn to punch and kick. karate is not an esoteric art. it is for attack and defence. there is no religious or spiritual connections. it is purely for fighting.

peace out.

those are traditional aikido uniforms. have some respect for other countries' culture. i bet if you walked up to a scotsman wearing a kilt and saidhe was a pansy, he'd kick yur ass.

You are looking for the violent part of the Martial Arts. Study what this man is doing and maybe you will see the real power in Aikido.

and I was bored out of my mind. "grab my wrist"...wtf who does that anyways? And in the video the attacker looks like he's trying to hug the guy, not hurt him.

segal that is

steven segal is on tour with his band "thunderbox" this year. he is in my home town on feb 15th i think. i hope he plays guitar better than he makes movies.

If you understand english you'll se what he is talking about the atacks.

don;t entrust their lives to a weapon. hand to hand combat is real fighting.