Is this why aikido sucks?

Question

I often hear that in aikido, you spend the first several months learning "how to fall." You practice falling over and over again, in different ways in feigned response to different types of throws. Doesn't all this falling just train you to fall down as soon as someone touches you? Is that why all aikido demonstrations are so obviously fake? People have unwittingly trained their bodies to fall at the slightest touch!

By contrast, wrestlers don't waste time practicing how to fall. They learn to fight the takedown with everything they have! They do get taken down, and sometimes even slammed, but amazingly they are seldom injured by falling.

Answer 1

how to fall count's for a lot in every martial art.

martial art is like walking

you will first need to master how to stand

after that you need to control falling

and only then can you start learning to walk.

let alone learning to run in the end.

Answer 2

On an interesting note, when I broke my toe the guy next to me was in hospital for a broken shoulder and he was doing Aikido when he broke it

When I did Aikido, man my body was sore from all the falling, its a very tough art in that regard, they certainly fall alot in Aikido

Answer 3

aikido doesnt work in real fights and the people who use it dont know that because they practice it in slow motion.

Answer 4

"Is that why all aikido demonstrations are so obviously fake?"

This is mostly because the vast majority of Aikido dojos strictly forbid any sort of sparring, so most Aikidoka have no experience in using Aikido in anything close to real combat situations.

"They learn to fight the takedown with everything they have!"

Doing this in Aikido will result in broken joints or bones virtually every throw. Many dojos will allow two experienced Aikidoka who agree to it in advance to have the person being thrown resist to a degree, but this is something you don't really consider until "black belt" level, and even then you work into it gradually.

Answer 5

Because wrestling demonstrations could never be fake. That's why I train at the Steve Austin school of martial skills.

Training yourself how to fall is, like the other fine answerers said, not exclusive to Aikido. In fact, part of Krav Maga was learning how to fall. It's called breakfalling and is designed to allow you to move safely from a fall prior to a mount.

The lesson in aiki-jujutsu and aikido (as well as jujutsu and jutaijutsu) is not to fall down at some slight touch, but rather to go with the energy of the attack so you can redirect it. I'm 165 lbs. and in decent shape (not great, certainly not ripped). If a 250 lbs. muscle-bound guy and I got into a contest of strength, he's definitely going to win. But if I go with him, I can change his direction subtly and take him down. If he slams into me, rather than tense up which will cause muscles to tighten, if I go limp and relax, I don't expend precious energy and I don't risk greater injury.

I like how you preface with "I often hear..." which means you've never done Aikido. Since you seem to know so little about breakfalling in general, I'll assume you've never done that either. Don't knock it until you've tried it. It beats the heck out of breaking your wrist if you fall forward onto them.

Answer 6

Learning how to fall is very important and wrestler's don't get hurt when there slammed because of how they train there back muscles.

Answer 7

"how to fall" in aikido.... it's called ukemi, the act of taking a controlled fall when thrown.  it's an integral part of aikido, it helps protect you from injuries from all the throwing and pinning techniques.  Is it fake? NO.... it's certainly not, you actually fall to the ground but in a proper manner to avoid getting hurt.  In Aikido, it's equally important to know how to execute a technique and how to receive it.

Now we ask why train this way? it's because of the nature of the art.  Most of the throwing techniques when executed properly will either get your head or torso slammed hard to the pavement or get your joints broken during the execution of the technique.  This is why ukemi is so important in aikido.

Don't believe me? try out some aikido classes. In my opinion Aikido does not suck.  It's just different compared to the other popular martial arts because of its nature.

Answer 8

The problem with aikido is that it does not deal with a fully commited attacker well.  It is wonderful to learn but is not a stand alone system for self defense.

Answer 9

I train in Aikdo as well as Bjj and Kali.  Falling properly is a very needed skill, it is sad that so few who train know how to do it well.  In point I just came back from a seminar that Bandy Sensai and I did for a Sho Rin Ryu camp, none, I mean none of these guys knew how to fall or even take a real punch.  We are always told, when dealing with other arts, to treat them care and no hurting them.  Most arts use kata as their base for learning and in point never even get contact with other people, are these the arts that are considered good?  Aikido, for me, is very effective and be assured if any ever get into a physical conflict and I am involved, expect to get lock, rocked and grounded.  But I will agree that any style, as a stand alone, comes up short some where.  This is why I cross train and enjoy the MMA way of training.

Answer 10

Unless you have been at the receiving end of a well executed Shiho nage or a kote gaeshi throw or even a Kokyo  nage, then you definitely won't understand why an aikidoka would not fight and resist the throw and just go along with the momentum and let the nage(designated thrower) throw them. I have had several newbie classmates in the past who have had their collar bones broken or shoulders and wrists dislocated precisely because they thought they could power their way out of the technique. The ukemi is taught to students for their safety, the moment they feel that their balance has been broken and that they have gone past the point of recovering their balance, they are trained to "roll with the punches" so to speak and just make sure they land properly to minimize and avoid injuries. Resisting would not only mean you are fighting the momentum initiated by the thrower, but you would also be fighting gravity, you may be able to fight one, but not both at the same time, to do so would mean risking landing on your head and getting seriously injured. Wrestlers on the other hand don't need to learn how to breakfall because they are crouched low to the ground most of the time and the throws used do not involve joint manipulations which could potentially cripple your opponent.

Answer 11

is this a question or your obviously uninformed biased opinion of aikido.

Answer 12

First, let's just agree to agree that every art has their fair share of bad instructors in bad dojos.  

I am a Martial Art practitioner of many years and have weeded out many schools that I wouldn't pay two-cents to get into.  To the amateur watching these "bad examples", this makes it seem like it would legitimize such an all inclusive response to say that one art totally sucks because of this or that.

When I studied Judo and Jujitsu from my father, I learned from the most historical training methods that included focusing on how to fall for over a month.  Did it suck and was it kind of boring???  Yup...  but, I was also a dumb kid and a green-to-the-gills amateur, too. (Ahem!)

Aikido is my fifth Martial Art I've studied - and the one I'm most recently involved with.  I already knew how to fall properly, but the reason this is so emphasized is to keep the students safe.  With repetition comes muscle memory, so that when tossed (whether it be during a fight or a mountain biking accident) you instinctively fall safely without even having to think about it.

I am also a vet of the military Special Forces, so I'm not one to waste my time training in "Play Fighting", so I don't know where these other people come from or why they choose to pontificate about how Aikido doesn't teach anything that would work in "real life".  I can assure you that they've never stepped one foot in a true Aikido dojo, though.

I do work for the government, but on my weekends, me and a handful of other ex-military guys work as bouncers at an Irish Pub.  In the past year alone, I have used nothing but Aikido based techniques to control guys of all sizes and have tossed them out on their ears into the parking lot with ease (and with many people watching with mouths open, because what I did to control these guys seems so foreign to them).

The other bouncers I work with ask me what the h**l I did after the night is through and we've closed up the bar.  So, in short, take your answer from someone who actually uses this Martial Art in "real life" situations (no dojos, no rules, etc.) and trust me when I say that there is a method to the madness, per se, of why the traditional ways of training works.

... and yes, Aikido is incredibly affective in real life situations.  Don't listen to these other bone-heads who obviously were exposed to poor Aikido or just like to hear themselves talk.

Take care!

Answer 13

no many styles include learning to fall I have never heard of any that focus that long but no it does not it prepares you to keep yourself from getting hurt when you can not stop the fall as for wrestling they do it also that is why they are seldom injured but still it adds up and your body will not be able to continuously take it in the long run one of the reasons why athletes often retire so early in life but if you are not learning how to fall effectively you are increasing that process also in wrestling after that fall or take-down how long does the match last not much longer huh because it is a controlled match and the other fighter is not going to beat the other person to death in a real situation say on concrete that simple fall could get you killed but being able to fall effectively could help you to recover from the fall and keep fighting

Answer 14

two words... STEVEN SEAGAL !

Answer 15

Learning how to fall isn't exclusive to aikido.  Many different arts and styles train this early on in the curriculum.  As a result, not only are practitioners of these kinds of martial arts injured by falls just as rarely as wrestling--if not more so--but they learn how to recover quickly, not just crash on the ground.  The jujutsu and aikido students and teachers at the dojo where I train battodo are excellent at effective recovery for this very reason.  They can even fall, roll, and get back on their feet quickly on solid concrete.  Let's see how quickly a wrestler gets back up after being taken down and/or slammed on concrete.

Answer 16

Learning how to breakfall safely is an important and fundamental aspect of any art that involves being thrown to the ground. You do not learn to "fall at the slightest touch," but to go in the same direction as your opponent's energy. This gives you the momentum to get up and respond quickly when thrown. If you were not competent in ukemi and you were thrown by an inexperienced opponent, the fall may result in serious injury. It's just common sense really.