How Coming Back to Doing Aikido After Many Years Saved my Life

 How Coming Back to Doing Aikido After Many Years Saved my Life

When people when think about martial arts, they think about fighting. There’s a relatively new brand of martial arts that’s on TV, and all over the media, that’s called mixed martial arts. I’m not about that at all. And, if you are then that’s great, but I’m more about the discipline and the tradition. In this article, I’m gonna tell you about how Aikido saved my life after coming back all these years

Aikido helps me control my temper

I do not want to say that I have always had a huge temper problem, but at the same time, it was always there. And if you’re like me, sometimes you just feel the need to lash out. Sometimes it just feels like the whole world is just really difficult. In any case, Aikido has helped me to control my temper a lot. Aikido, if you don’t know is not about hitting people. There are no striking techniques. Let me rephrase that, there are some striking techniques, but they are not the focus of this traditional Japanese martial art.

Aikido helps me to control my breathing, it helps me to learn how to defend myself, without hurting other people. Aikido is about trying to use the opponent's energy against them. In Aikido, there are many techniques that will not permanently damage other people, not like other martial arts. Not to say that other martial arts are bad, but at the same time Aikido is a safe martial art if you want to not harm other people

Anger is temporary, most feelings in life are temporary. Aikido has taught me about that, and it has taught me how to weather the storm and that all the bad situations pass

Never chose to be in a fight

The thing that I have mostly seen on the Internet, is the fact that most people say Aikido is useless in a fight. In my younger days, I would argue with people that Aikido is very useful. I would always try to justify that by saying that, if I was great at Aikido then I could win a fight. 

As I’ve gotten older, I realize that I don’t really wanna get into a fight at all. While Aikido does have a couple of techniques that are useful when you’re in a fight, if you’re in a bar brawl, then I would not recommend using Aikido.

At one point in my Aikido training, I had chosen not to learn to be a fighter. I think it’s more important to have situational awareness about where you are, and what’s going on around you. If you do have that, then you’ll never be in a fight. As Mr. Miyagi says, "...the best block is the block where you’re not present." Don’t get into a fight, because you’re not looking for a fight. At the same time if you need to fight, then figure out what you need to do.

Fighting is ego

When people say they can beat somebody in a fight, it’s just ego. A guy who’s training for several years might say yeah I can beat this guy up, and I could be that guy up. What does that mean? It’s just some type of control in your life. Do you want to prove that you’re better than somebody else because you’ve been training for so long? Remember there’s always somebody better than you when it comes to fighting. There’s always somebody better than you when it comes to anything. It’s not a competition between you and them, it is a competition between you and yourself.

When I started thinking about the situation, then I realize that I didn’t need to fight anybody. I was just living my life for myself, and my family. Maybe for my friends too. The point is that, regardless if I did Aikido or karate, or any other type of martial arts, the reason why I would be doing it is for myself, not for anybody else. 

Great for exercise

Getting into the training aspect of Aikido, it’s great for cardio. Also, something that I liked was that I could do it to improve my stamina. Usually, the classes that I would attend would be for about two hours, and in the beginning, I would be severely winded. Now I think I can probably go on for two hours, and hopefully, I can improve that in the next while. We’ll see about it.

To be honest with you, if you just wanna improve your stamina, then you can go for a run. You can go for a bike ride. You can do a lot of different things. As for me, I probably would get bored of that routine quickly, unless I focused on what I was doing. With Aikido, it gives you a little bit of variety, and as well there are some techniques that you can use and learn. You’ll be always thoroughly entertained, and it will be a good workout for you.

I can do Aikido until I’m old

One reason why I’ve heard a lot of people quit tae kwon do, is because they are not able to do all of the techniques when they’re old. When you’re a 70-year-old taekwondo master, you probably cannot do super high kicks anymore. You’re probably going to just be focusing on teaching what you know, and maybe doing some mild physical exercise. At 70 years old, nobody wants to loudly yell while they’re doing a spinning high kick anymore. They just wanna live their life and stay pretty healthy. Aikido does offer you that.

While I probably will be training in Aikido when I am in my 70s, I probably will not be training as hard as I am doing right now. Who knows though right? The point is that Aikido is one of those things that you can keep doing even though you’re getting older. You can even start it when you are in your 50s if you wanted to. 

It’s not to say that Aikido is not exercise, but at the same time, it’s a different type of exercise. It’s you versus you. You don’t have to lift any heavy weights. You don’t have to hurt your knees while you’re running on the concrete like running. You can just do Aikido with your friends, and your classmates, and it’s a really fun and interesting form of exercise.

While Aikido is not really for everybody, I would say that the majority of people can benefit from it. If you’re not training to be an MMA fighter, then this might be a really good way for you to exercise. As I said, it’s not great for a physical confrontation where you want to go and beat someone up at a bar , but there are other benefits. Peace of mind, relaxation, and physical exercise, and the list goes on. I would recommend Aikido to anybody who wants to generally improve their life overall. I hope this article was useful for you. Please share if this is useful for one of your friends.