Battle of the styles: MMA vs. aikido

The ubiquity of video cameras is such that an enormous variety of martial arts have been shown to be effective under live pressure. It could be on the mat, or in the ring/cage, or on the streets, but the briefest search on YouTube will find tens of thousands of clips of taekwondo, boxing, wrestling, wing chun, savate, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and countless other martial arts being used effectively against actual resistance.

Aikido is a little different. Thus we were excited to view this Japanese television program on an MMA fighter (he is actually a kickboxer, but close enough) testing out an aikido master.

VIDEO LINK

This video is a martial arts IQ test. If you thought any part of it was real, you have failed as a martial artist. This is so transparently fake that an untrained child can tell.

If you thought it was real, whatever you are learning, quit. Learn something real.

What makes it particularly distressing is that the aikido master doing the faking is not an actor. The man duping the public is Yasuhisa Shioda, a legitimate 8th dan in aikido. Further, he is only the third Soke of Yoshinkan aikido, which was founded by his father, the great Gozo Shioda.

The son is a disgrace. What makes it so sad is that his father, who passed away in 1994, could see the pathetic future.

“Today’s aikido is so dimensionless,” he explained. “It’s hollow, empty on the inside. People try to reach the highest levels without even paying their dues. That’s why it seems so much like a dance these days. You have to master the very basics solidly, with your body, and then proceed to develop to the higher levels… Now we see nothing but copying or imitation without any grasp of the real thing…”

Whatever Yasuhisa Shioda is trying to sell, it isn’t the real thing – and nobody should be buying it.