What to do when they ignore your weapon hand

[@williamcorreiagusmao9836]

Nice!

[@kyle11235]

Good technical advices for combat in general. But I don't understand one thing. If Ueshiba preached nonviolence, and the minimum necessary use of it for self-defense, why should an Aikido practitioner attack with a weapon (and therefore worry about when his dagger or stick fails?). Ueshiba will say that you must never, ever attack another human being, much less by holding a weapon against an unarmed man.

[@kyle11235]

My comment is not a criticism, let's be clear. But perhaps it is better to clarify that this explanation (excellent and correct) is not for aikido (the non-violent and non-aggression philosophy/art by Ueshiba) but perhaps for a context of armed confrontation (such as the "dog brothers" competitions) using some aikido's movement principles. Greetings from Italy ❤

[@ChuShinTani]

I think what the founder of Aikido thought is pretty hard to sum up for the modern, non-Japanese, of a different spiritual background. To be honest- I don't think I can really fairly speculate as to what the founder thought/felt. However I think that I can offer a possible answer to this type of question. To say that Aikido is a system of nonviolence is correct... ish. To say that Aikido is a system of self-defense is correct...ish. Both of these labels are kind of like first steps to understanding what Aikido is, here's why. What if defending yourself required the use of violence? This would be a problem if Aikido were truely a system of non-violent self-defence. Would you choose to stay non-violent and not defend yourself OR would you choose to defend yourself and be violent? I believe the answer to this is that Aikido is neither a system of pure self-defense or a system of pure non-violence. Instead Aikido is a system of accord or "fitting in". I think that the idea of Aikido is about perfect union with the world around you. Is the world around you violent or non-violent? If you live in a non-violent world, well then fitting in means being non-violent. If you live in a violent world- well then violent you must be. If the situation you are in is a situation that requires weapons- well then you must have a weapon to fit in. I believe that this can be a hard concept to wrap your head around at first- but Aikido is about appropriately fitting to your situation. Think first about how to fit- don't worry about how that would look outside of the current context. I hope this helps. Thanks for the question.