What is a martial art like aikido? Who developed the basic principles of martial art? What are the patterns in aikido? We will talk about all this in our article.
Historical reference
The founder of Aikido School is Japanese martial artist Morihei Ueshiba. Before forming the principles of new martial arts, this man for many years comprehended certain styles of judo. This practice allowed the master to achieve significant success in developing techniques not only in hand-to-hand combat, but also in the possession of melee weapons.
Being in adulthood, Morihei Ueshiba became a supporter of the philosophical and religious movement called oto-ke, which said that achieving harmony in life is possible only through the manifestation of tolerance towards others. The master began to devote the bulk of time to meditation, not forgetting the improvement of combat skills. Over time, Ueshiba decided to combine the principles of spiritual practice with martial arts techniques. So the martial art known as aikido came into being.
Protection principles
According to the principles of aikido, protection consists of several stages:
- Perception.
- Rating.
- Decision.
- The response.
At the stage of perception, the concentration on the opponent’s appearance is crucial, which is preparing to carry out attacking actions. This includes subconsciousness and intuition, which should tell at what point and how the attack will be carried out by the opponent.
Assessment and decision in aikido are interrelated concepts. At this stage, the person who is preparing for protection must analyze a number of factors. In particular, focus on the estimated attack power, its direction and speed. Based on this, a decision is made which technique is best used to repel an attack.
The final stage is the response. A pre-made decision is implemented thanks to certain body movements, which are part of the range of technical and tactical actions.
Attack principles
The fundamental principle of attack in aikido is the neutralization of the aggressor without causing him physical damage. Significant here is the effective combination of a wide range of techniques and elements. First of all, psychological, conscious factors come into play. Only after defining an attack strategy are physical, functional moments embodied in reality.
Center strip concept
Learning aikido techniques for beginners becomes possible only after understanding the principle of maintaining the center line of the body. Even when a person initially stands level, at the beginning of movements he is far from always able to maintain a conditional band that passes through the whole body. In aikido, it is believed that one who manages to maintain the center line in any situation gets a strong stance, focuses better on the actions of the opponent and gets an obvious advantage over the opponent.
Power focus
When a person uses physical force against an aggressor, he often relies on his own muscle strength. In aikido, instead, the main emphasis is on combining the energy of all parts of the body. Thus, an impulse is formed at one point, whether it is a hand, an elbow or a shoulder. The use of individual techniques in aikido is ineffective without focusing strength.
The principle is as follows. Initially, energy is concentrated in the area of ​​the big toe. When it is pressed against the surface of the floor, the force passes to the legs. To this is added the impulse of "spring" acceleration of the knees. Then concentrated energy flows into the body. An extremely powerful force develops at the epicenter of counteraction to the opponent.
Mastery of balance
When the correct stance is taken in aikido, the principle of the central line is observed, the force is focused - the body acquires perfect balance. In this case, the susceptibility to the opponent’s actions increases. We can say that the possession of equilibrium is the ability to create and feel the energy of the enemy. Skill development is one of the foundations of Aikido.
Rotation
Aikido belongs to the category of martial arts, where the so-called circular techniques are used. No rectilinear movements are performed here. Even simple aikido techniques for children are based on redirecting the opponent's strength in the right direction due to the turns around the body. Radial movements here do not always form a circle. There are techniques in the implementation of which the body moves in a spiral.
Four-side throw
In aikido, the name of the technique sounds like a shiho-nage. The presented technique is protective. Its essence is to perform circular movements in relation to the body of the opponent. This aikido technique involves the capture and rotation of the opponent’s hand to his shoulder. Then a movement is made that resembles a swing of a sword, after which the opponent is thrown to the floor.
Using this aikido technique, you can direct the opponent’s body in any of four directions. The Shiho-nage is an extremely effective technique, since grabbing the opponent’s hand in the castle is accompanied by pain, which is quite difficult to resist.
Front kick
The use of technology involves the use of opponent’s energy for their own purposes to perform painful reception with a shoulder grip. To begin with, a deceptive hand strike is carried out , which does not carry strength. The action forces the opponent to block the attack. When this happens, the opponent’s elbow is grasped from below. Then the right leg is moved diagonally to the right and forward. The right hand at the same time holds the opponent’s wrist and performs a chopping movement directed downward. The left limb concentrates on turning the elbow of the opponent.
Spiraling
This aikido technique is based on a block with simultaneous capture of the opponent's elbow. After gaining control over the opponent’s hand, a U-turn is performed on the left foot. Next, the original stance drops sharply. This movement causes the attacker to lose balance, gain acceleration of the body and be on the floor.
Wrist U-Turn
This aikido technique is called nikadze. The technique consists in capturing the opponent’s wrist, turning it to the outside of the elbow and performing a chopping movement. In this case, the body should settle down, which does not force to exert force to twist the opponent’s arm.
When performing the reception, the right palm is pressed to the back of the opponent’s limbs. The defender's left hand grabs the attacker's wrist. The hitch should be as strong as possible. Otherwise, it will not be possible to bend the wrist of the enemy when performing a chopping movement.
Side impact to the head
Effective looks like this aikido technique in street fights. When an opponent strikes with a hand, the body is displaced to the left while blocking movement is performed. At the same time, a free limb blow is applied to the opponent's face.
Finally
As you can see, in aikido there are many effective techniques that can prevent enemy attacks and at the same time inflict retaliatory damage. It is worth noting that achieving success in such martial arts is impossible without understanding the basic principles that act here as a kind of grammar. Only after studying them the athlete gets the opportunity to successfully apply in practice those or other combat techniques.