MERCIA AIKIDO

What is Aikido?

A brief history of Aikido

Aikido derives from the martial art of Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu, but during the early 20th century began to evolve into a more fluid form of the art, with an emphasis upon kinetic energy, also known as Ki flow.

The founder, Morihei Ueshiba (O’sensei), had many senior students who in turn, developed further variations of the art (depending on when they studied with him). Today, Aikido is found all over the world and in a number of various styles.

Our particular style is weapon-orientated, based upon the interpretation of T.K.Chiba Sensei, who was one of Ueshiba’s closest students and had a very traditional martial art leaning.

A graceful state of being or consciousness, is as important as effectiveness of technique.

Unlike the more aggressive or direct martial arts such as Ju-jutsu or MMA, what we seek to perfect, is a more fluid state of open-mind or mindfulness. A sort of moving-zen, but equally, unlike yoga or Pilates there is more of an element of physical dynamism and soft-power.

Aikido effectively takes something essentially brutal and transforms it into a practice of beauty, typified by the image of the sword and cherry blossom.

Aikido Principles

Aikido was developed and advanced as form of more subtle martial-art making use of fluidity and pliability rather than strength.

Most of the techniques were originally intended as methods to disarm and immobilise an attack by a weapon; sword, spear, dagger and that is partly why our dojo puts great importance upon mastering weaponry as well as hand-to-hand combat.

Direct confrontation is avoided in Aikido by the use of oblique or flanking foot-work and circular spiralling, flowing, body-movements – designed to neutralise an opponents energy through the use of Ki.

For this reason a great deal of emphasis is put upon developing breath-control balance of posture and coordination.