Aikido
Aikido
Aikido is a japanese martial art. It's a non-aggressive non-competitive harmonious way of dealing with a physically-superior aggressive opponent. This is how I define Aikido. I've been practing Aikido since January 1995. I started training with Sidney Silva and then trained with Paulo Gamarra. They are both very good. Paulo was also a Sidney's student. When Paulo moved to another city I changed sensei again and my official sensei now is José Ortega. I'm on 2th kyu right now. Although we don't wear different color belts other than white and black, 2th kyu corresponds to a purple belt. It's not the spirit of Aikido to show you're superior to anyone. It's not the spirit of Aikido to make people compete with each other to find out who is better. That's why Aikido has no champions, no judges, no competitions and no colorful belts. We respect each other because they are older and because they have been practicing longer than we did. That does not mean you may disrespect someone newer than you in Aikido.
I've just described the Aikikai style I belong to in Brazil. But when I lived in Rochester I practiced the Kokikai style. Kokikai is a little different, they do wear colored belts (ok, no one is perfect) and the techniques are a different (usually just a lot more ineffective for no particular reason). It's very very hard to explain the differences in words, so if you don't know what I mean, you don't know what I mean, period. In Kokikai style I was a beginner (6th kyu), which corresponds to an yellow belt. Oh, well, that's how life goes.
Aikido may be used for self-defense although it is not mentioned to be a self-defense training model. So why practicing it? Well, you will have to find the answer for yourself. Maybe you'll find out how terrible your body is used to respond to aggressive situations and how your response to that situation can be harmful to you. Maybe you'll learn how not to be dominated by others just because they're physically stronger. And maybe just for fun and to find out how rewarding it is to be in harmony with yourself and with your collegue.
There are many different styles of Aikido (Aikikai is the original and Kokikai is just one of them out there). The founder of Aikido is Morihei Ueshiba (also refered to as O Sensei, whose picture is on top of this page), he died in 1979 and then his son Kisshomaru Ueshiba was responsible for the original style of Aikido. Then Kisshomaru died in 1999 and now O Sensei's grandchild Moriteru is in charge of the Aikikai Foundation. This is the one I belong to. In Rio de Janeiro the main address to find the Aikikai Foundation Headquarters is:
Aikido Rio de JaneiroPhone number: +55-21-205-0004
To see some of my Aikido pictures, click here. For other Aikido pictures, click here.
To read a good article about violence and martial arts written by Alexandre Sieira but totally acknowledged by me, click here.
I would really love to write a full-detail home page about Aikido. Actually I'll do it with some other friends that practice Aikido with me, but this will take some time yet. For now you can switch to some known Aikido sites. I'll list some of them below.