by Mr Patrick McGrath

by Mr Patrick McGrath

Aikido is a wonderful martial art to learn / practice, it is about harmony, blending and spirituality. I’m writing about this topic for two reasons, first is I recently suffered an injury to my leg nothing to serious luckily, the second is I came across a thread while participating in an on-line forum, this one was about Aikido and death. Quite a title gets noticed; unfortunately this does happen if not death then serious injury. What are some of the common aikido injuries and with what techniques could they occur, there’s injuries to wrists, elbows and shoulders, these can happen while applying pinning techniques such as ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo. Other injuries that can occur while employing throwing techniques such as shihonage, koto-gaeshi, irimi-nage, tenchi-nage kaiten-nage, koshi-nage are head, neck, knees and back. Aikido is a martial art and the techniques come from ancient traditional Japanese fighting arts so the potential for damage is great. So Aikido-ka,s should be mindful of there uki (partner) at all times to minimise risk. For example when practising shihonage the arm is twisted and all joints arre put under great pressure as you project your uki forcing him to make a hi break-fall (ukemi) which has the potential break o strain the joints and also to cause the head to come into contact with the floor or mat (tatami), which makes this a high risk technique. There have been incidents where trainees have died through head and neck injuries caused by their head being slammed backwards too hard into the floor when practising this technique. I suppose you can say that our ego’s have a part in the occurrence of injuries in aikido and this is something that we as aikido-ka,s have to learn to control and accept. Part of this and something closely related to this subject of injury not only in aikido but also in almost every aspect of our lives, (both in males and females) is what we call the sizing up ritual. This in aikido is normally accomplished after a few throws have been executed often with a little resistance thrown in for the thrill and once this has ended and the so called pecking order has been established, we can concentrate on the real practice ahead. You could argue that in aikido where we alternate between throwing and being thrown in practice that we all have the potential to becoming victims of injury and that we should, each and everyone of use be thinking responsibly about this. Unfortunately as in every day life we’re up against the fact that human beings are competitive, some more so than others and this in every day aikido practice after one has shown their dominance either by physical and/or technical superiority is the crux of this issue. It is sad to think that true aikido is practised on implicit trust and with certain individuals this trust is violated. I can only surmise, for their own inadequate pleasure, we all know these individuals and we know their name. They are the “crunchers”, mainly men although it does happen with some women to a lesser degree. It seem that most dojo,s (practice halls) have them and usually as a senior student and in some cases sadly the teacher. A couple of favourite techniques of the cruncher are irimi-nage, nikyo and sankyo, let me say that in practice there are rules and one of these is that when a tap is submitted from your partner (this tells you that your partner has reached his pain fresh-hold), that you release your technique and commence to the end application if warranted, as with nikyo when your arm is being twisted severely. With good sane aikido-ka,s this is adhered too but with the cruncher they take this as a signal to take you further nearly ripping your arm off and hence bringing you into manhood, hence they’re doing you a favour in their mind because they like you and you should be honoured that they’ve taken the time to show you. May be its because it’s a martial art that this type of person/ attitude is tolerated, I don’t know but I think that this issue should be addressed and keep getting addressed until it is shown that this is wrong. After all we all have jobs to go to and I know that some have been force to discontinue from learning aikido, which in its self is very sad. Teachers should keep a lookout for this and let the said persons know that it will not be tolerated and that they will not be welcome there if it persists. I know that this is not a subject that is popular within aikido but it is there aikido is a wonderful martial art and I would encourage anyone to learn aikido not only as a martial art but also to aide you on your spiritual path. O Sensei said that, “Aikido Is The Art Of Love” lets think of his words as we practice it.

Always practice the art of peace in a vibrant and joyful manner

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