Does Aikido Work in a Street Fight?



Posted: Monday, March 21, 2011

by Jon Mainwaring

Does aikido work is a question I’m often asked as a long time student of the martial art. Of course, I always clarify with a question back, ‘What do you mean does it work?!’

Steven Seagal is one of the faces of aikido and it’s the moves we see in his action movies which people will recognise as aikido. In his later movies Seagal has added kicks and martial arts techniques from other arts, purely to make his fights look more ‘exciting’ for the big screen! In reality, aikido moves are often far more subtle than the horrific elbow snaps and high throws we see in the movies.

The first time I went along to watch an aikido class I certainly had the thought in my mind ‘is this real?’ The class was traditional Yoshinkan aikido and I watched in a state of confusion as I saw people ‘attack’ the Sensei and appear to fall or even ‘dive’ in response to a small move or application of a technique. Some years later I appreciate the subtlety of the art and have experienced first hand some of the amazing techniques which can literally drop you to the floor from the tiniest twist of the wrist.

But does aikido work in a street fight? On the basis of the basic principles I would say yes. Certainly even after a couple of years of training I would have had better chance of survival in a real street attack than I had before. Simply moving out of the way would be one of the core principles and even before that having an awareness of your surroundings.

Aikido teaches you how to fight – or perhaps more accurately how to defend yourself against – multiple attackers and this will certainly help in an ‘outside’ confrontation. Sadly we are likely to face 2, 3 or even more attackers in such a situation. The ability to move around and between a group of attackers is something we learn and also the need to avoid literally being backed into a corner. Using one attacker as a shield or even as a weapon – throwing one into another – are other principles we can take from aikido.

Although it’s one of the older martial arts with roots going back to the Samurai I do believe there’s a practical use for aikido in the modern world. However, don’t expect to have any effective techniques until you have studied and practised for a long time. If you want to know how to defend yourself on the streets I would explore other more modern self defence combat systems.
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