Tenkei Aikido Dojo

Self Defense and Mixed Martial Arts are different. In addition to training UFC fighters, boxers, grapplers, and special forces soldiers, I also host a site on self defense and receive many emails from people asking if martial arts training will help them defend themselves.

We can expand that question to include many of the popular combat sports training programs out there, including boxing, judo, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, karate, UFC style MMA, etc.

Ok, so what’s the answer?

If you become proficient, you will be better able to defend yourself than if you have no training whatsoever.

However, it is important to understand the following differences between self-defense and mixed martial arts (including UFC style MMA).

• Karate, judo, martial arts, boxing, etc are all governed by a set of RULES. A self-defense situation has no rules: you can be kicked in the groin, poked in the eyes, bitten, and even worse have a bat, knife, or gun pulled on you

• The “other guy” is not drunk, on drugs, pissed off, and wanting to maim or kill you. In every self defense situation, you have to assume your very life is in jeopardy.

• In mixed martial arts, you know ahead of time when you are fighting, who you are fighting, what size they are, what style you will be fighting in, and can prepare. The majority of self defense situations will come when you are ill prepared and least expect it, your opponent can be bigger or smaller, and could be anything from a punk with a knife to a drunk ex-marine.

• Mixed martial arts, taekwondo, jiu-jitsu, kenpo, ect are considered sports. As such, you are doing this voluntarily for money, a trophy, respect, etc. You know there will only be one opponent. In contrast, you are usually not in a self defense situation by choice, and there can be more than one attacker. There is no “winning” in a self defense situation; there is escaping without major injury.

• Most sporting events last a while, you catch your breath between rounds, there are score cards and judges, and you try to win by scoring points (and in some cases by submitting or knocking your opponent out). Almost all self defense situations end in less than 30 seconds. The bad-guy is not going to stop just because you connected once, tap, say ‘I give”, or appear to be injured. There is no doctor standing by to immediately help you, and no referee to make the attacker stop.

• Luckily, in training for mixed martial arts (mma), karate, etc the person you are facing will use defense AND offense. In reality, a bad guy is going to concentrate mostly on offense (attacking you). In the opening seconds of the encounter, the odds are they will not be expecting you to know any defensive technique, or to attack them!

Here is a critical rule to remember: You react the way you train

When taking classes in a “sport” type of fighting, mostly you train to score a point in a competition. You train for a 2 or 3 minute round. You get rest breaks. You engage 1 person at a time. So, in wrestling, jiu-jitsu, etc, you often go to the ground (you cannot fight more than 1 person if you are engaged in grappling).

If you know these differences, then you can optimize whichever classes you are currently taking, be it mixed martial arts, karate, aikido, kenpo, judo, kickboxing, grappling, taekwondo, etc. You will get incredible fitness benefits, and be more skilled in a self defense situation.

Aikido is often seen by some as the modern Japanese Budo. This martial art places and emphasis on a person developing their physical and spiritual selves. This far eastern philosophy basically means a way for the body to harmonize with the spirit. It is also a study of the laws of nature and how best these laws can harmonize perfectly with the mind and body of an individual.

This is a Japanese all-encompassing martial art. A practitioner of these arts will be taught methods of using both armed and unarmed combat effectively. If you have to execute armed attacks you will have different throws to study which can guarantee you maximum efficiency. Other things that you will have to study include strikes, joint lock techniques as well as vital points. You will also learn mystery attacks that teach you how to immobilize your opponent without physically laying your hands on the, Armed attacks will also involve the use of different kinds of weapons such as swords, knives, sticks as well as spears. Anything that can be used as a weapon in Aikido will be employed here.

On the whole a huge number of Aikido classes are taught using some weapons exclusively these weapons are the jo or staff, tanto or knife and the bokken or sword. These three weapons are the main weapons of choice and combat when practicing this discipline and there are a number of reasons why these are the choice of weapons. Aikido has a strong foundation in different martial arts and proficiency with these weapons will lead to equal proficiency with other different types of weapons.

Aikido’s founder Morihei Ueshiba who was also called O Sensei or Great Teacher by his students was particularly skilled with the use of the staff. He incorporated the use of the staff as a weapon technique with some basic circular movements. Of all the weapons however, the most influential of the lot is the sword which has its influence on all the development stages of this art and its techniques.

Martial arts students can measure the distance between attacks with effective weapons training. Distancing is called ma-ai in Aikido and it is very important in the timing or defense of an attack. If you’re considering defense it is also necessary to train with weapons as well since Aikido techniques which are advanced involve you training against people who carry different types of assault weapons.

One other weapon which is used when training in Aikido is the katana, which is a single edged and slightly curved sword which is known in the world of martial arts as the sword of the samurai. Weapons training in Aikido will involve you also learning how to handle the tanto which is a short blade. The tanto was a favorite of male and female samurai during their time as well.

One more weapon in Aikido training is the ninja-to , a sword which is a favorite of Ninjas. Samurais also have wakizashi swords to use as well. These swords are two feet long and can be used together with the katana. The jo is a four feet long wooden staff which is used in Aikido and other martial arts. When you use Aikido with a jo , the resultant technique is known as Aiki-Jo. This involves and integration of the techniques learned, along with the use of the jo to show the principles along with a weapon.