What exactly is Yoshinkan Aikido?

 

In a nutshell, Aikido is a very powerful Japanese martial art that is defensive in nature. It is non-competitive and non-agressive. It does not meet force with resistance or brute strength; instead it redirects an aggressor's force with well-timed, flowing, circular movements that lead an attacker off their center of balance.
Rather than relying on our strength to protect us, the attacker's own motions and momentum are utilized to compromise their balance and stability. Once they are off-balance they are subdued or dispensed with by using any of a large variety of joint locks, pins or throws.
The tremendous popularity of Aikido in Japan probably dates back to 1954 when an exhibition of Japanese martial arts was organized in Tokyo. Masters of many Japanese martial arts participated but Yoshinkai Aikido’s founder, Gozo Shioda's astonishing demonstration resulted in his easily attaining the top award. As a result of his exhibition many sponsors offered support and so Gozo Shioda's now-famous Yoshinkan (House for Cultivating the Spirit”) Dojo was established.
Yoshinkan Aikido is now taught nationally in Japanese schools and the Tokyo Police Department as well as to the general public. Yoshinkan Aikido has also spread worldwide. In 1990, Gozo Shioda established the International Yoshinkan Aikido Federation (IYAF) to bring together and organize virtually all global Yoshinkan Aikido dojos and instructors.

The Yoshinkan Style of Aikido

Yoshinkan Aikido is occasionally called the "hard" style because the strict and sometimes gruelling training methods are a product of the pre-war military period Gozo Shioda spent as a student of Ueshiba.Yoshinkan Aikido uses six fundamental training movements and about 150 common defensive techniques which are practiced repeatedly. Mastering these basics conditions students to be able to execute the remaining techniques, which are thought to total about 3000 in all.Yoshinkan Aikido is not a sport. It is the cooperative development of both physical and mental dexterity. But there is also an incredibly powerful and practical self-defense side of Aikido that is available to all, irrespective of size, age, gender, race or culture.

 

Here's a video from YouTube.com:

 

Aikido Definition

Aikido is one of the least known or understood forms of Japanese budo. The word "aikido" is actually three Japanese words that can be loosely translated as " the way (do) of harmony (ai) with nature or universal energy (ki)." As might be gathered from its name, aikido is not a conventional fighting art. Rather, it is an art of defense, one that stresses learning to make harmony with opposing forces instead of combating them. It is a way of uniting body and mind to defend the self through non-resistance rather than strength. This aspect of aikido---its defensive rather than offensive approach to aggression---makes it a unique and powerful art.

There are several thousand techniques in Aikido that have been developed to respond to any conceivable attack situation. The integrity of Aikido as a traditional Japanese martial art depends entirely upon an unbroken line of continuity from one educated and dedicated teacher to another. Aikido cannot be sustained through books and writings alone, but must be perpetuated through the minds and mental and physical memories of advanced teachers. These men and women represent the present in a history of Aikido technique, discipline, and philosophy that can be traced back several hundred years in Japanese and Samurai tradition. While many people teach Aikido classes, this select group of Aikido teachers represent the reservoir of knowledge and skill to which all other teachers refer, and with whom is invested the responsibility for the continued integrity and future growth of Yoshinkai Aikido.

Aikido is written in three Japanese characters. ai-Ki-Do. Each character captures an aspect of the meaning of Aikido--The Way of Harmony with the forces and laws of Nature.

AI: An appreciation, acceptance and respect for the way things are, acceptance of nature in the most general sense. In the winter, it is cold; in the summer, it is hot and humid; children are childlike; the aging process is natural and inevitable and has certain characteristics; gravity is real, as are the many physical forces with which we must interact; and while individual differences must be acknowledged human beings are essentially the same throughout the world. The acceptance of and striving for harmony with nature is fundamental to the philosophy and technique of Aikido. Good Aikido movement and technique blends with and strives to achieve harmony with force. We do not fight force, or try to overcome force with counterforce. This attitude is quite different from the many gambits and ploys that human beings have devised to apply a sort of universal anti-perspirant to nature and the nature of things.

KI: Ki is the energy of life, of nature, and of the universe. Another word might be spirit as in spirited horse or energetic person. Everything in nature is vested with Ki-energy or spirit. Oceans and tornados are vested with tremendous energy and power; a falling leaf has less; each with its natural and appropriate measure. Human beings are vested with a human measure. The primary focus of Aikido is how to tap and utilize the Ki-energy of which we all have a human measure. An analogy might be made with a stereo amplifier and receiver. There are many stations to tune in, and the tuning control provides great variety. For many people their life is stuck on one or two stations, and their volume control is busted. The goal of Aikido is to give people confidence in their humanity and in their individual strengths and capabilities, and to enable them to tap the tremendous reservoir of Ki-energy and spirit with which we are all vested as human beings in nature. In Aikido technique, Ki-energy is symbolized and expressed in the basic stance with open fingers, the emphasis on powerful forward energy, and the focus with which we strive to permeate all movement.

DO: All Aikido techniques, if done well, express the principles of Aiki---Harmony with, and the expression of the energy and spirit of nature. The Do - the Way - is another matter. Just as going to church or practicing a religion does not guarantee that a person will be more moral, there are no guarantees that the practice of Aikido will lead inevitably to the upward path toward more perfect humanity. If there is one lesson that we can learn from history it is that spontaneous morality, and personal growth toward a more mature life cannot be forced. Such human development can only come through interaction with real physical and social situations that encourage, enable, and foster growth.

Aikido has evolved through hundred of years of Oriental, specifically Japanese, tradition to provide in the process of its practice the conditions that foster growth toward more natural humanity. Thus, Aikido is not merely Aiki, but Aiki-DoÖ The Way of Harmony. Regardless of the difficulties in assessing the many intangibles that define the Way, it is important to emphasize that in Aikido the point is not only to exercise the body and learn techniques, but to find peace and mastery of the self and ego, and to transcend narrow personal and cultural biases toward a greater Harmony through Aikido that is derived from and expresses our more fundamental humanity.

In Aikido training we always work with a partner. Historically, Aikido comes from a battlefield situation where it was necessary to defend oneself from an attack. In modern aikido, one partner provides the power of an attack (uke), and the other executes an appropriate technique. Shite Aikido is a defense or responsive art in that Aikido techniques utilize the force that is generated by an attack. Rather than meeting force with force, Aikido techniques use the energy and force of an attack to achieve power that is circular rather than linear. The initial response to the power of an attack is then followed by a throw or immobilizing pin. Thus, the effectiveness of Aikido is achieved through graceful blending of movement, timing, anticipation, and knowledge of many different techniques learned through repetition. You must do Aikido to learn Aikido. Aikido is movement which can be learned only through many, many repetitions of many different techniques.

Physical Fitness: Many people ask about the fitness value of Aikido. Fitness for what? Fitness for the mirror, or fitness for a healthy, enjoyable long life with maximum spirit and vitality? Through Aikido training you can achieve the fitness for living that requires a strong heart, good circulation, strong legs and body trunk, enough upper body strength for everyday activity, overall body flexibility, and an increased ability to move with grace and confidence. Aikido training emphasizes and develops a strong, graceful and supple body. It can also provide as demanding an aerobic workout as any heart would ever need!

In this connection it should be emphasized that Aikido is not a sport and is not competitive. We have no competitions of any kind. Advancement in rank in Aikido is only through a systematic testing and examination program designed to ensure that each student develops a strong base and a repertoire of correct Aikido movement and technique that makes continued growth and development both comfortable and challenging. In sports someone must always win at the expense of another person's loss, and in sport the criteria of success are always artificial, stilted, and essentially shallow. In Aikido the real opponent is our own ego---our own small narrow mind, shortsightedness, selfishness, parochial attitudes and biases that so distort and limit our capacity for open relationships, and stifles in so many ways our ability to act as fully-functioning human beings. In Aikido the emphasis is upon moving with, not against your partner. Two people do one technique many, many times in hard training with harmony.

Self-defense: Is Aikido training good self-defense training? To overstate a point to make one, anyone that is advised to learn physical defense techniques as primary training for self-defense is very ill advised. Good self-defense training should emphasize learning to recognize, anticipate, prevent and avoid dangerous or compromising situations. The greatest strengths that we have for personal self-defense are our intelligence and awareness of our surroundings, not our muscles. Martial arts training for the purpose of self-defense may often, like buying a handgun, provide a very false, and therefore dangerous, sense of security. Aikido techniques are very powerful and effective when applied correctly, and since they do not require muscular strength or some difficult gymnastic-type skill, can be learned by anyone. Furthermore, Aikido is an art that gets people out of trouble. As a reactive responsive art Aikido does not start trouble nor does it escalate trouble. In the course of many classes and many techniques the Aikido student learns to move and react automatically to a variety of confrontation situations, and though Aikido is not taught as self-defense, the experience gained through training can serve a person well if necessary.