The Pleasures of Drowning

One-by-one, we watched the fights devolve in to a standing clinch, with many athletes sporting a confused look, glancing at the referee as if to ask "aren't you going to separate us?" The fact was that many of these fighters, althogh well respected in their individual arts, had absolutely no idea how to "fight".

We even saw a few self-defense specialists enter the ring. One guy had formed some self-defense art with "bear" in the name. I can't remember the specifics. He was refreshing. During the pre-fight interview, he was confident, but humble. His comments could be summarized as, "I feel pretty confident that what I've developed works, but we're about to find out for real."

It was a unique time with a lot of the layers of delusion being stripped away with the swipe a leg and a thud on the mat. Sometimes I wish we could turn the clock back, just to watch it all over again.

That being said, I don't think Aikido is as ineffective as the videos may lead one to believe. I recall a similar experience to the one described in the article, when I strolled into the Aikido dojo with a new black belt in TaeKwonDo. The sensei saw my colossal attitude and broke my confidence repeatedly in front of his students. It was entirely open ended; I attacked and he countered. Each attack landed me in a painful pin. And while my strength and stamina were utterly exhausted, he managed me effortlessly. I was made an example; humbled.

The core techniques of value are not exclusive to Aikido, however, being borrowed from prior arts, and I believe more practical sources of them are Bujinkan and Krav Maga.