Okay, so I think that I have had some pretty good rants on different things over the past couple months that I havent shared with you, so to recap, here is a one I felt was pretty good...

These are a few vids to explain where this comes from. The vid that I watched was a more truncated version and explains that this Kiai Master "So-and-So" bet $5000 or something, claiming that he could beat ANY MMA fighter... he also claims a 200-0 record! Here is a quick vid of him in action...

Now if that hasnt peaked some interest, check this out...

So as some of you know, im big into martial arts... and then as some other may know, ive done some time on the mats with Aikido. Now generally I like the art, in it's simplest form and tactic, it works... however without a little something called momentum, you dont have much... especially when the person you are trying to take out uses no momentum based attack.

This vid is great because it addresses some fine issues with the art in general. You see all these dudes just falling in front of the master, and in the particular style, I believe he is trying to convey the fact that his Ki energy is enough to stave off an opponent... ie, he doesnt even have to touch the guy in order to take him out.

Now anyone with a curious mind would call shenanigans on that right away and rightly so. Let me explain with my own experiences.

When I studied Aikido there was this girl there. A brown belt, very full of herself and very stand-offish... Now at the time, I had been studying martial arts for almsot 7 years. I had in-ring fighting experience, went through the belt ranks of MDK and even did a little JKD and Wing Chun... I had this and I still (and still to this day) gave the school, the teacher and this girl, the utmost respect. I listened, I asked questions and I took class like anyone else. Anyway, I asked this girl to be my "mentor" or something like that, I figured that she was high ranking in the class, I was new... lets learn!

Anyway, not too long into my training did I realize that this "soft" form of Aikido was not my style, especially coming from a hard-knock school of fighting. I also experienced some odd bowing to techniques... Obviously there were locks and holds that were very effective in the art, but then there was some stuff that really, physically and physiologically, made no sense.

So Im working a technique with this girl and the technique basically worked like this:
Stand infront of each other, person 1 grabs person 2's wrist, person 1 begins to bend at the knees and kneels down, person 2 (feeling this "pull") comes down as well. Well, I outweigh this girl by at least 100lbs, guess what, Im not going down! You can pull and pull all you want, but your 100lb frame and brown belt are not taking me anywhere! So I look down at her (as she is on her knees), thinking that I did something wrong and she looks at me like im a retard and says in so many words, "You're supposed to come down with me."

Problem: I dont train like that. nobody should. If im supposed to come down to your level, its your job to make me do so. If you dont do it, 1. your technique is bad and 2. Im not helping you learn at all... This was only one of the times that this girl and I didnt see eye-to-eye.

On another occasion I was working out with another guy, named Chad oddly enough, who was a little more to my size specs and we were working a technique with an over hand chop. Chop comes down, redirect the chop energy and follow with the body, take down, finish up... pretty standard, simple stuff... well, me being me decided that I wanted to try a little JKD pass and add in an Aikido clothesline type of move on the guy. Now he knew ahead of time that I was going for a different technique, I also told him to come at me as he would a conditioned student as well as protect himself the whole time. If he could counter what I was doing, then PLEASE do so... I wanted to learn , ya know? He was also a higher ranking student. So he decides its best to do a straight forward punching attack. He comes straight at me, I deflect his punch (tan), clear it away from my body and free my blocking arm (pak), then bring the previously blocking arm back up and across his chest, clotheslining the poor guy right off his feet and onto his back... the bang of him hitting the floor was so loud we turned all the heads in the dojo.

In another situation, I overheard a guy talking to other students claiming how he pitied anyone who tried to attack him or any other students because "they just dont know what we can do to them". I wanted to laugh at this guy, he obviously NEVER did anything else except for this class... and I know this b/c no REAL martial artist goes around and says they can take anyone out or that they are so badass that no one should mess with them... in short, what I figured out was that I was dealing with a bunch of brainwashed people.

Point: Im not sure about the video above showing this master dropping dudes left and right without even touching them, but I have to say, from experience, it seems that some Aiki arts depend more on psychological aspects to induce physical reactions. So its no surprise to me that this "MMA" guy just walked right up and kicked the dude in the face. When you control a class and you feed them a line and they all buy it, and you consistently reinforce that line, the students become drones and imagine the pain and the afflictions. But when you have a guy that just comes out of nowhere and is completely separated from the teacher or line of bull then its easy to see how a free mind will overcome.

Bottom Line: I quit taking Aikido. I didnt buy the bullshit. I wanted to (and could have) clock that girl in the face so many times, it just aggravated me to no end. She left herself open to so many attacks and would have been easily taken out by a yellow-belt in tae kwon do. But she continued to have this high opinion of herself and she probably is still there today, teaching and creating more drones. People in the class looked at me funny when I would come into the dojo and start warming up... push-ups, sit-ups, stretching, a few punch drills (just to warm up)... none of them ever did any warm ups, just right into class... so I was the odd man out, right? Hahaha... ahh, well, you will have this. I also found out later (when I was filling out my termination papers) that they didnt do a lot of cardio or actual working out b/c they wanted students to gain weight so they had a stronger center! HARA! LOL!

So next time I see someone running at me and attacking me at the same time, I may use some of the Aikido I know, ...but ill be honest, id rather just step out of the way.

=)