Zhuangzizhou;205561 said:
Aikido is not practical in a real fight, unless the attacker simply bum rushes you like a drunk. I used to study Aikido. I now study Kali/Escrima and Jeet Kune Do. I would guess that Seagal himself realised that straight Aikido is not all that combat effective, and that this is why he modified it so much. His own martial technique employs quite a bit of Kali and Karate, not just Aikido.
I call BS on this for many reasons. How long did you study Aikido??? What particular flavor of Aikido did your dojo practice? What was the main motive for you studying Aikido and who were your Sensei under? I ask for specific reason. I have been studying Aikido for well over 15 years. I have trained under sensei who do Aikido for self defense, not show and not flash. I started to study because I wanted to be able to defend myself from multiple attackers and because I liked what I saw when I would see demo's. My Sensei have been under Isoyama Shihan and Take Sensei himself.
I myself, have unfortunately, been in an actual knock out drag out street fight where the person was very intent on hurting me. My Aikido prevailed and I dealt with the situation using Aikido techniques, and this person was very very aggressive, but didn't "charge" me just flat out attacked me with all he had. Of course I did not come out unscratched but he definately came out at the bottom end of the stick, I can assure you (as a side note, anyone who thinks they will never get hurt in a street fight, no matter what they know, is fooling themselves....nothing makes you untouchable).
Seagal has not "changed" anything in Aikido, and this is the absolute misconception that people have, that they see this flashy dancy stuff and assume that when they see Seagal Shihan doing it, that he must have changed something. Nothing could be further from the truth. Aikido, real Aikido has strikes, kicks and everything else you see Seagal Shihan doing. If you look at O'Sensei's early pre-war video (and those of his pre-war students) you will see very hard hitting brutal Aikido. Yoshinkan Aikido, is a pre-war Aikido branch that is very very brutal and doesn't have the flash that you see with the latter styles (post-war Aikido) but it does have alot of the hard hitting moves and techniques that Seagal does in his own Aikido.
I hope this is not taken as a slam on you or anyone else with preconceived notions relating to Aikido or what Seagal Shihan (Take Sensei) does either when he teaches actual Aikido or does moves in movies. But Seagal Shihan has done Aikido, Judo and Karate. His movie moves are choreographed with others doing the majority of the choreographing. He is a 7th Dan Shihan ranked in the Aikikai and is well respected for the most part in the Aikido community. Anyway...I digress!!!!!! Domo!!!