What does "Aiki" mean- The reason Aikido exists.

[@ItsSoStevie]

I'm glad you're back

[@turbopowergt]

Thank you for creating an approachable framework for aiki that shows the entire continuum, and I like the approach for working back up towards friendship and love.

[@ChuShinTani]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@CryoToast]

Very well explained and impactful concept. This truly is something that martial artists need to focus on to be any good, whether anyone realizes they're doing it or not.

[@andersstorgaard6828]

Hello Mr. Hein. As a former Aikido student, I love your channel, thank you for your hard work. It seems to me that your work are very similar to the system created by Edmund Parker Jr. Called "Paxial arts" you might want to check out his system. BTW he is not an aikidoka, but has developed a system that seeks "consensus" and not conflict. He has a KZbin channel and a website. Cheers from Scandinavia, Europe 🙏

[@ChuShinTani]

I'll check him out. Thanks for the comment!

[@GarethBruce]

Beautifully articulated. A while ago, during a yudansha session, my Sensei posed us all a question. "If you could describe Aikido in one word, what would it be?" After much thought (and several days later) I answered him after class one night. "Synergy" I said. "Working with what you are given to create something that is more than the sum of it's parts." I feel this definition holds in your own framing as it has no polarity. It can be both a positive synergy (towards friendship) and a negative synergy (towards conflict). Thanks for the introspective video.

[@kristianOLS]

For aiki being a term used for aikijujutsu. It was also used in kito ryu an art that uaeshiba studied as well

[@surfkraken8182]

Nice way to show the uniqueness of Aikido in all martial arts.

[@AlphonsoFrett-xz6pi]

I thanks for sharing

[@jansoerenhoffman]

I really like your point of view and it is definitely worth it to create something like this. On the other hand I am not sure if you can link this fully back to Morihei Ueshiba. Are there any transmitted "Verbal Aikido" techniques and strategies from Ueshiba that work for de-escalation in the non-physical levels that you have heard of? I am asking because I have developed a program called Aikido de-escalation & self-assertion course and offered this for kids and teenagers from the local schools for 2 years. To do so I had to develop some verbal Aikido and strategies on my own to fill the gap besides from the things you also say like keeping the distance, free yourself from grabs and as a last resort some techniques to escape and get back to distance again. If there is material out there form Ueshiba that could be used for this please let me know so I can add this into my program.

[@LuckyCookie88]

Heinz Sensei is the only sensei that will speak the truth about aikido

[@ChuShinTani]

I'm trying!

[@LuckyCookie88]

@@ChuShinTani i don’t understand why aikido teachers do not explain to their students that aikido only works when we hold a weapon? No one is going to grab our wrist and not let go otherwise. When have our backs taken, our opponent will grab our waist and not our wrist if we r unarmed. I have good friends in the dojo not taking ukemi because they confused and it gives bad feeling when practicing aikido. Good people are being labeled jerks in the dojo for being confused and not taking ukemi. Some real jerks that are bigger are actually jerks and not respecting the hand blade that is Supposingly a knife. There are a lot of martial arts that explicitly state that it is a weapons are like FMA or kendo etc. it’s not like those practitioners are going around with blades stabbing ppl. Why can’t we just share this information? The practice and movements will make a lot more sense too for beginners , otherwise aikido is being alienated into so weird forms.

[@GeorgeMoon-p1t]

Would you say other weapon arts such as the ones in south east Asia such as Filipino kali and Indonesia Silat is more sophisticated than aikido is? How different are the techniques between them? Small knives and machetes seem to be more in use in street assault and warfare than the katana and the bayonet that is replicated as a bokken or Jo those two things are bulky things but machetes and knives seem to be a trickier weapon to defend against because of how compact they are. What is your opinion on this?

[@ChuShinTani]

Well... Sophistication is a difficult thing to sort out here. Do Indonesian and South East Asian weapon systems have more sophisticated techniques than Aikido does? I do not believe so. I've not really seen any techniques in those systems that don't have analogues in Aikido. If you want to get the most sophisticated weapons systems and far as techniques go- I would look to Western martial arts. If you want to look at the weapons themselves, longer weapons tend to be better- unless you have to conceal the weapons on your person- or you are in a close quarters situation. I believe in that case, pistols are far better (with only a few exceptions) and more sophisticated weapons. As far as defending against weapons, longer weapons are harder to defend against. The reason for this is because they can hit you from farther away than shorter weapons do.

[@GeorgeMoon-p1t]

@@ChuShinTani which western arts are you referring to? There’s a lot of machete and knife incidents in uk at the moment. I’m not criticising aikido btw it’s just it seems limited you’re always dealing with a ranged lunging attack sometimes things happen really close on the draw . Self defence Is tricky in uk because it is illegal to own a firearm or carry a knife

[@GeorgeMoon-p1t]

@@ChuShinTani which western arts are you referring to?

[@GeorgeMoon-p1t]

@@ChuShinTani I don’t mean to be argumentative but I would of thought a longer weapon would be easier to defend against as if you close the distance it’s more difficult to move the weapon around to hurt you

[@ChuShinTani]

Aikido is systematic. Ideally we will always be keeping a distance so that the attacks will have to be lunging ones. And while I agree with your point that sometimes things happen "really close on the draw"- that is not where we put the emphasis in the system, because if it's happening at that range we've probably already lost (they are bigger and more capable than we are). All systems have to skew where they spend their time. For example Bjj skews towards the ground, boxing skews towards close quarters hand strikes. If you were studying all ranges all levels your system would be enormous, and it would be like a brick (clumsy). Historical western art examples: Liechtenauer and the German tradition, Fiore and the Italian tradition. Pacheco and the Spanish Tradition, Silver and the English tradition.... etc. Look up HEMA. If you can't carry a weapon, and you feel that improvised weapons (read: fire extinguishers, chairs, tire irons, tree branches etc.) aren't a legal option for you, you'll have to stick to unarmed methods- study MMA for a few years, lift some weights and develop a fast 5K.

[@williamcorreiagusmao9836]

Great

[@mjsuarez79]

I remember commenting on another video - which I believe was critical of aikido - that perhaps looking at aikido as a martial art or combat system is the root of the problem. If one approaches aikido as a philosophy or approach to conflict resolution, it might be more impactful. In short, aikido should focus less on the physical exercises (5%) and more on the study of interactions and relationships (95%). Then again, my perspective is from the outside looking in.

[@AikiCircus]

Asymmetric conflict: my opponent is in conflict with me, but I'm not in conflict with the opponent. Mental aspect: it is as it is, and social emotions are not active. When the social emotions are off, there is no myself and it's the state of observer. In a state of observer, I do not act because there is no I. Action is caused by body reflexes and spontaneouty. So it's not about moving along this scale vertically. It's about leaving the scale. Practical aspect: one can test that in a dojo from curiosity, but three points need to be taken into account: accept everything wrong what uke does, accept own errors and accept interriptions from the trainer. Stay in the observer state. From current masters that I know personally, Philippe Gouttard understands that well. He always speaks about acceptance and requests ukes to fight.

[@ChuShinTani]

I think I coined the term, "asymmetric conflict".

[@AikiCircus]

​@@ChuShinTani Yep, but your understanding of asymmetry is parallel response, though in opposite direction. I speak about no-response and "not-doing" (I suspect, Castaneda has invented his story of not-doing because he practiced karate) 😊

[@ChuShinTani]

@@AikiCircus The relationship is always on a scale of relationship- you can't remove yourself from that scale unless, you stop having a relationship. Not having a relationship is the opposite of "making human beings one family." Families are relationships.

[@lyfe_of_lai]

Well here’s the thing: lots of martial arts teach de-escalation. It’s not unique to aikido. Furthermore, combat techniques were created in the event that conflict resolution fails. Fighting is always a last resort, but necessary at times. This is where I, and many others, disagree with the philosophy of aikido

[@ChuShinTani]

If by "teach" you mean that most martial arts say something to the effect of: you should only use fighting as a last resort, or always avoid fighting- I agree, most martial arts schools say this type of thing. If you mean that they actively teach de-escalation, I disagree. Grappling arts teach closing the distance, limiting mobility and taking your opponent down- that doesn't do much for de-escalation. Striking arts teach, finding your most beneficial distance then repeatedly striking your opponent until they quit or die. Again not much for de-escalation there. Aikido offers a systematic way to increase distance between you and an attacker, giving you an honest chance at de-escalation. I also agree that sometimes non-physical resolution fails. Aikido answers with weapon use while distancing and buying time- also a sound strategy in such situations. Thanks for the comment.

[@jestfullgremblim8002]

​@@ChuShinTani exactly!