Takuan<\/span><\/a> explained the matter well.\u00a0 \u00a0So to become truly effective in self defense, we must release our attachments to all phenomena, and anything short of complete success will leave us open to defeat.\u00a0 Once open, a perceptive attacker will always be able to harm us, and so we may only rely upon the fortune that they do not figure out our weakness.\u00a0 The ability to defend ourselves will not be based upon skill.\u00a0 So if we begin our practice hoping for self defense skill, that wish will act as an attachment and we will fail.\u00a0 Instead, the initial approach to training should involve dropping that motivation and simply practicing.\u00a0 Through practice one learns to drop all attachments, including the fear of being harmed if attacked, and this approach is the fastest way to accomplish the goal.<\/p>\nOver the years, I have heard people from virtually every martial art talk about how they believe their training would never work in real life, and the grass is always greener in some other discipline.\u00a0 Aikido does not work because you do not start out with 100% resistance.\u00a0 Judo does not work because you don\u2019t deal with people striking.\u00a0 Tai Chi does not work because you spend all day doing these weird forms.\u00a0 Karate does not work because if you miss and the opponent gets up close and personal, you are at a complete loss.\u00a0 MMA does not work because if there are two opponents or one is armed you are clueless.\u00a0 Proposed solutions?\u00a0 Do Aikido, Judo, Tai Chi, Karate and MMA.\u00a0 Each method teaches the same principle: nonattachment.\u00a0 If you achieve the goal of nonattachment, any of these methods will work.\u00a0 The point is that one should not become frustrated at the intermediate levels of practice and give up training for nonattachment or success will never be achieved.<\/p>\n
There is, however, another point.\u00a0 In Aikido I was taught that there are two methods of study.\u00a0 One is to study Aikido itself.\u00a0 Another is to study other forms of knowledge and use what you learn there to see and understand what you are learning in Aikido.\u00a0 To the extent someone finds certain avenues of study helpful, approaching self defense via cross training in another martial art can be very helpful.\u00a0 One steps outside the Aikido world and attempts to examine the same principles through a different lens.<\/p>\n
This opportunity addresses the student\u2019s responsibility in achieving success.\u00a0 No martial art is designed as a method to spoon feed information to the student.\u00a0 In fact, in olden days they used the term \u201csteal the technique.\u201d\u00a0 Stealing the technique does not refer to taking something which does not belong to you.\u00a0 I would reference the article in Hoa Sensei\u2019s book for further interest, but basically the idea is the student is responsible to investigate matters and find the solution themselves.\u00a0 The teacher is not responsible to offer up everything on a silver platter.\u00a0 The student must investigate on their own with 100% thoroughness, or success will never occur.\u00a0 So the student must investigate the points completely and simultaneously be completely unattached.\u00a0 Perhaps you can get a sense for why genuine skill in self defense is considered to be elusive.<\/p>\n
The decision on whether to cross train or not is completely personal.\u00a0 If someone, in the process of diligently studying the notion of nonattachment, feels examining the matter through a different lens would be helpful, they should certainly pursue it.\u00a0 If they find a school that can help them and have the time and opportunity, the process can be very productive.\u00a0 If they are not interested or cannot find the appropriate opportunity, continued study of nonattachment in the midst of self defense related activity in Aikido can work as well.\u00a0 Again, the decision is completely an individual matter.<\/p>\n
So in summary, the student of Aikido, in order to learn genuine self defense skill, must take on complete responsibility to examine the principles of the art down to their very core.\u00a0 The principles teach nonattachment, and so the study must also employ complete nonattachment in the process.\u00a0 The task is difficult and the goal is elusive, but the effort along the way is designed to provide benefits of all kinds as we continue to transform ourselves.\u00a0 Some of these benefits are described in earlier entries of this blog and more will be posted later.\u00a0 Some wish for the alternative of instant self defense, just add water.\u00a0 The idea that someone else will take responsibility to give you the skill you wish immediately without any responsibility on your part simply does not exist in any martial art.\u00a0 Anyone who makes such a claim, if believed, will only bring trouble.\u00a0 You will expect to have a skill that you really don\u2019t possess and make poor decisions based upon false information.\u00a0 Depending upon circumstances, the results could be devastating.\u00a0 The only sane alternative is to relax, drop the attachment to the wish for self defense skill, enjoy the basic practice of Aikido and study hard.\u00a0 That approach is the most direct path to acquiring many benefits, including self defense skill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All martial arts talk about self defense benefits, yet they can be very elusive.\u00a0 Some people offer self defense classes where you learn a couple of techniques in a day and go off certified as equipped to handle yourself if someone out there really attacks you.\u00a0 Chances are the student will become overconfident in their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self-defense","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t