reno77 said:
I have witnessed a few ranked Akidoka from a New York school whose techniques were rendered basically useless when engaed in a friendly demonstration against a boxer and a wrestler.
That is because Aikido is not an athletic competitive art. It CAN be applied in such manner, but it requires some extracirricular research (for example, see Jason Delucia's "Combat Aikido" DVDs).
Too me, if you can't use it in a practical self defense situation,
Practical self-defense situation ? Do you get attacked by many wrestlers and boxers on the street ? What about SWAT operatives armed with shotguns ? If you want to talk practical, let's talk about the average Joe, not a trained athlete. THAT is actual reality. THAT is who is most likely to attack you. Martial artists comprise less than 1% of overall population.
Aikido is a martial art which does not crank out athletes. It is aimed at people who do not feel that the sacrifice of going home beat up every day is worth it.
Judo and boxing are martial arts which train people to be athletic and to survive in competitive environment. Such an environment has several drastic differences to real life.
The thing is, in real life, you don't need to survive a 30-minute wrestling round with Royce Gracie. Things are a lot faster and more sincere. Athletic ability/endurance does matter but not anywhere near as much as in the ring. It is more about awareness, strong spirit, and strong technique.
In competitive arts you fight in a sterile, limited environment, where you are not damaged by going to the ground (because the ground is always matted, it is not asphalt/broken bottles and whatnot), and, most importantly, where
both people choose to engage in the fight. This is very important.
Now I will demonstrate the meaning of this with a clear example from my personal experience. There was this one bully in my 11th grade (I was 17). I saw him spar with a guy with boxing gloves and the protective helmet, it was intense. It was an athletically exhausting experience for both of them, it lasted for a while, and there were flurries of quick punches and distractions and evasive footwork, etc.
The same bully once got a grudge with me, followed me on my way home from school, and then threw a couple of hooks which I easily blocked. We were promptly arrested by the plainclothes police that was trailing us (but that's a different story), but the point is, I
wasn't actively engaging him in a fight. I didn't stop there like an idiot and square off with him. I had no intention of playing his game, and he had no way of using his fancy footwork or throwing fake jabs, because while he was doing that, I would simply walk away. It was do or bust - that is how it always is in the real world. If one side is not actively engaging another, they create an emotional and physical contrast, which makes the other side overextend when they actually go for the kill.
Another example - a hobo decided to box with me for whatever reason and raised his fists into boxing stance. The problem was I closed the distance and applied a technique on him WHILE he was raising his hands, because I was aware of his intent. In the boxing ring, anything like this is against the rules.
Yes, traditional martial arts like Aikido and say TaeKwonDo aren't as effective against trained athletes in a competitive environment. Cue surprise.
However this does not mean that their effectiveness
in the real world is equivalent to ZERO. Quite the opposite. Some of these arts actually have a better suitability to real world circumstances than the competitive arts. For instance, Judo footwork can drive you directly into a knife, while Aikido footwork always assumes that the attacker is carrying a sharp weapon.