Does Aikido has a high risk of injury?

Question

Hello

I am 40 years old

I am very impressed about Aikido and I thought I give it a try.

My question is that if Aikido has higher risk of injury while training than other martial arts like tae kwon do, karate, kung fu e.t.c.

What I like on this art is the harmony of the movements

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

i studied aikido for about a year. a minor sore shoulder from the ocassional rough fall, i tore a toenail once, and once cut my finger (small cut) on the assistant instructor's tooth.  no sweat compared to my muay thai days. but then again, im something of a clutz lol.  

Answer 2

any martial art can injure you, there is no risk ratio, it is just inevitable, but if your just doing it for health improvement and self defense, it's pretty good, you can attack your opponent without inflicting unnecessary injuries, and it's spiritual, unification of life energy or something, it's less boring than yoga and more subtle than judo. it's very nice really, keep doing it, who cares if you're 40, do what you want buddy.  

Answer 3

Aikido is very safe in comparison to other arts (especially combat sports)  Its not uncommon to see people practicing well into their 80's or 90's.  Even the founder of Aikido practiced until about a week before his death.

Of course theres always a chance of injury, even in basketball, golf, or soccer.

Answer 4

I know very little about aikido. I have talked to the instructor here in town though. I asked a very similar question. He told me about two deaths, the first one was two beginners training under a bad instructor. one guy did the throw and the person being thrown landed wrong and snapped his neck. the other was in a floor demonstration, one person was thrown and rolled while in the middle of the roll another person landed on the back of the rollers head and killed him. there is also a move for the higher belted students were one person is simulating an attacker trying to rush in and grab you the move is quite complex and if done wrong can dislocate the the shoulder of the person trying to defend. I suggest going to a school and talking to the instructor about his/her safety measures and what they do there to prevent bad falls and accidental collisions.

Answer 5

I know a lot of people who begun studying aikido in their 50s and 60s. There is no problem.

Please listen the explanations of your instructor carefully, never try to make some other techniques instead of what the instructor tells to do, always make a warm-up before the training,  be sure to study how to make a safe ukemy (roll) and you'll be OK!  

Answer 6

I would say it is one of the arts with the least risk of injury.  There is quite a bit of falling/rolling, but it is not harsh like Judo.  I think the only major martial art that could be less risk of injury is Tai Chi.

Answer 7

yes it does

Answer 8

Ideally, there is never an injury in Aikido.  Pain, sure, but injury, no.

However, and its a big however, there are varying levels of skill and experience on the mat at any given time.

When Sensei does something, its shocking and fast and I often don't know what just happened.  When a beginning student is working on the same technique, there is a good deal opportunity for injury - the ukemi (the art of receiving the technique) is very important indeed.

For Nage (the giver of the technique) the practice is to control your opponent's energy and through that, control them.

For Uke, its about staying safe - receiving the technique in a way so you don't get injured.

In the beginning, you know neither - that's why you are training.

The injuries are usually joint and back related.  Its not bloody noses or broken limbs - at its worst, its dislocated joints and broken fingers.  Personally, I don't care for any injuries be they strikes or pins or throws.

As far as safety goes, there are a few wrists bend to far, an off landing that leaves a sore shoulder, a bruised shoulder joint, etc.,.. but its not a real injury - you just get up and do it again and continue to learn.

Most often, its not really an injury but general soreness... particularly for beginners.

However, there are various situations that happen - from most dangerous to least dangerous, here they are in my experience.

1.) Beginner with beginner - both will use force to make a technique work or to resist a technique from working.  That's when the most real injuries happen.

Those who tighten up get hurt and beginners always tighten up and use muscle when its not working.

2.) Beginning thrower, advanced attacker - the beginner uses force and if the attacker doesn't adjust fast enough, they can easily be hurt.  Attacker does 'step 1' then pauses, then 'step 2' then pauses going from 0 to mach 6 in between.

The change in speed is both unrealistic and dangerous but its how learning happens.

3.) Advanced thrower, beginning attacker - the beginner thinks their job is to prevent the technique from working.  Nage will then change to something else and its not expected.  There is potential for joint injury when that happens.

4.) Advanced for both parties - speed is consistent regardless how fast.  This realistic constancy is what keeps everyone safe.  Not so much resistance on the part of uke, but going with the flow to find an opening for reversal.  Not so much force on the part of nage but allowing uke to tell them what will work and responding to it.

If you use force as uke, you just tell nage to change and how to change.  If you use force as nage, you hand a reversal to uke wrapped in a bow.

When you say harmony - that's what its all about.  Whoever does a better job of harmonizing with the situation as its happening usually wins.

Those who don't harmonize can get hurt but its not often - rather, fail in doing the technique or change to something more appropriate to what's actually happening rather than force it...  That takes time to learn how to do spontaneously.  As Sensei says, remember you are next so if you hurt, insult or anger your partner, you will run out of training partners and/or get the same treatment when rolls switch after at most 3 more reps.

It takes alot longer to let go of your ego and your pride than it does to learn how to hurt someone.  The dojo is a serious place - manors, compassion and respect make it safe.  Without them the dojo CAN be dangerous.  With them and its nothing but a playground.

Answer 9

in my 10 years of aikido I have only seen 2 major injuries happen, and one was completely the guys own fault and the other was a case of  one guy getting tangled in the other guy's hakama and landing hard on his shoulder.

Myself I've had my share of bruises and sore muscles but never anything more serious than that.

in general martial arts are quite safe when compared to certain other sports.  Stuff like football (both european and american versions) cycling, squash (yes it's one of the most injury related sports) are much more risky when concerning injury.

martial arts are contact sports but the big advantage is that you are learning to control that contact to the risk of serious injury is quite small.

Answer 10

Like with any martial art there will always be bumps and bruises to content with.  I'm very impressed with Aikido as well and can't blame you for wanting to take it up.  I do believe that, from what little research I've done on it, that Aikido does have a little bit of a higher risk for injury.  You can check out alot of Aikido techniques and explanations via a quick search on any search engine to find out more detailed info about "injury risk factors" in Aikido.

Answer 11

no its not high risk. most martial arts now arnt high risk youwould probably hurt yourself more playing football. but there are still places around who do only full contact and when i say full contact i mean really full contact where just in classes they will break each others arms and legs etc in sparring and they aim to.

Answer 12

Personally I don't know of any studies that say it is high risk for injuries. As with any sport or physical activity there are risk involved. I know of a guy that broke his leg in 3 places playing golf. I still don't know how he did that. DId he repeatedly hit himself with the club or did someone roll over him with the cart? I don't know. I understand that aikido classes are less physical than most other arts. They don't spend as much time and energy on getting in shape like other arts. This is what I have read. I have seen some guys work out. They began class with rolls and break falls. This reminded me a judo. I have a desire to learn aikido. I think it t will compliment judo, and jujitsu well. Hopefully one day I can arrange my schedule to allow me to train in this art too. I'm not interested in getting into the spiritual aspect, but I desire to learn the application of the techniques and the jo staff.

It should be great at 40. I know an instructor that is well above 40. I used to watch some of his classes and buy my uniforms and weapons from him. I hate he had to close his martial arts supplies store. But I'm glad he still has his dojo. This economy has hurt a lot of businesses.

Good luck.

Answer 13

yes aikido has a risk injury. during rolls front and back you have to take it slow I hurt my left shoulder doing a front roll and that put a stop to my aikido training i was only there for like 3 months so i feel dumb saying i know aikido. but if you give it a shot just becareful and take it slow

Answer 14

       I believe aikido to have the same capability of injury as any combat training. Aikidos main technique consists of circular throws and submission styles. Start slow, be ready to fall, and stretch before and after every sparring session and you'll do fine

      "Go now and die with honor!"  

Answer 15

I started aikido at 33 and I'm enjoying it very much.

Most of my injuries are overly stretched tendons which take a week or so to loosen up again.

The links below all talk about the dojo's resident macho man who likes the hard style.  The one at my dojo damaged my hand and shoulder in separate incidences and they were painful for about 2 weeks and a bit of discomfort for 4-6 months.  But don't let this story put you off.  In the dojo I'm know as the guy who gives a bit of resistance so the black belts like to throw me around a bit... in a nice way.

There are 3 men over 70 at my dojo and they're surviving - they don't sit out of any of the practices.  My wife does aikido and she's had no injuries at all.

Be a willow and not an oak and you'll have no problems.