Aikido - A Peacful Martial Art

Imagine walking home late at night when suddenly a group of people come out of nowhere and begin to surround you. The individual can cry out for help in the hopes that the locals will offer assistance or just give the money and hope that the hoodlums will leave after that.

Knowing some self defense should be considered mandatory for all citizens and for thos who really don't like violence Aikido can be a good alternative.

Aikido is a martial art that can be learned by almost anyone regardless of gender or age. All the person has to do is signup in a dojo, learn the basics and then practice regularly to develop better skills.

Tomiki Style Aikido

Like in many other budo diciplines the art of Aikido is usally practiced wearing certain kind of clothes.

Aikido it’s the aikidogi, for Judo it’s judogi, for Jiujitsu it’s the jujutsugi, karategi for Karate, kendogi for kendo and the shinobi-iri and shinobi shozoku for Ninjutsu arts. The training uniforms used in martial arts are often times referred to as mere gi or dogi.

For your first beginners course it is usually okay to wear more common forms of training clothes.

Aside from the trousers and wraparound jackets, Aikido schools also add hakama, which looks like a dress or skirt, to the uniform. The original concept behind wearing a hakama is said to be able to hide the movements of the feet. The hakamas are usually reserved for aikidokas that have received the dan rank.

Aikido dress code

Aikido is one of the oldest form of martial arts. Founded by Morihei Ueshiba, aikido came about through the studies of many different kinds of traditional martial arts.

Aikido is even confused with Daito Ryu Aikijutsu, it is different in its essence.

Its philosophy is basically derived from the belief that deceptions and trickery or brute force will not make us defeat our opponents.

Aikido is also used as a way to discover our true paths so that we can develop our individuality.

Training is important in aikido as well as concentration because while it may be easy to create a centered being when inside a martial arts gym, the same cannot be said of situations and circumstances outside. It will not be easy to keep one's composure when faced with extraordinary circumstances.

In Aikido, most of the styles or schools use the kyy/dan ranking system which is the norm in the martial arts world. However, each style has different qualifications for meeting each rank and each style might use colored belts for kyu levels while others do not.

This portal has more information on Aikido basics