Expert: Keith Patton - 1/12/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello i would like to know which is the Style of Aikido you practise what you think of Aikikai and which are the most effective  styles of Aikido for the streets in particular the best one thanks .

ANSWER: I study Karl Geis Ryu.  It is a variation of Tomiki Aikido.  What makes the style different is we do not study the techniques individually, but train by chaining the movements together.  What this allows us to do is not to have to think about what technique to use if one fails.  Our muscle memory has learned that if you try A and it fails, then you can fluidly move on to another technique.  We call it practicing for failure.  Think about it.  If you are traditional Tomiki and you execute a technique and it does not work, what do you do then?  If you learn static techniques, then you are committed to it working and you are flat footed and planted upon execution and in deep do do if it fails and cannot easily execute another.  Since Aikido relys on maintaining Mai, or effective distance, you need to break away to try another technique.  This is assuming your attacker will let you do that.

In our system, we never stop moving, we can do this because we do not try to execute from strength.  We use the principles of unbalancing our opponent and then executing our technique at the critical moment when he is most vulnerable. If it does not work, we can move easily on to the next movement without pause since we have trained that way.

In my experience a lot of other systems are too contrived.  Their demontrations are choreographed to succeed.  On the street you don't have that luxury. According to our Sensei, our system has discarded those movements that will not work effectively in a real fight.

Beware, whatever system you choose to study, that you are not taught bad, incorrect or ineffective techniques or movements.  These are easy to identify.  When learning, question things.  Say for instance, look at each technique and figure out what it would be used for.  Can it defend against an assailant with a baseball bat or pipe (or samurai sword).  If so, when executing the movement as taught, is the teacher making assumptions that may or may not be true or has no way of knowing?  If so, then the technique is probably faulty since making assumptions can get you injured or killed.  There is no way of knowing what your attacker will do right?  So why practice like you can and do know.   Another thing to look for is how easily you can defeat the intention of the technique.  If you can see an obvious weakness in the execution, then something is wrong and your opponent will see it and exploit it too.

An example is a knife defense technique.  We grab the empty hand and extend the opponent off balance before we turn and execute a throw.  If done correctly there is no way the attacker can touch you with the knife in his opposite hand.  If the off balance extension is omitted and you turn too soon, the attacker can stab you in the kidney before or as you throw him.  It is a slight difference, but could be fatal.  Those subtle things make all the differences in the world.

Now some dojos don't like you to question things.  Beware of those places too.  They are probably too rigid in their thinking and have evolved into something other than what was originally intended.  

Bottome line is it the execution of techniques looks fake and ineffective and "posed" then they probably are.  You will find Ukes (attackers) who are a little too obliging.  You can see this by the little "hop" they do just before being thrown.  They are "helping" the thrower a bit too much.

Just as Tomiki evolved from Ueshiba, each subsequent student that has become a Sensei in his own right has added his spin to the techniques or system he teaches.  This is because of a number of things.  No two people are exactly alike physically or athletically, so I might be able to more effectively execute something than you can because of my size, reflexes and athletic ability.  Why would I insist that you do it exactly the same way that I do?  I should teach you the principles of the technique and let YOU find your sweetspot.  A dojo that is too rigid and stifles creativity is probably not a good place.

Some dojos have gone to the mystical side.  I find these places amusing.  Aikido is physics.  Ueshiba tried to found his own religion and you can see it in later writings by his "disciples" aka his senior students.  He was supposed to have been able to throw people with out touching them and with his breath.  Too much garlic in his udon I suppose.  Their writings have ascribed near miracles to the old man, much as other religions to to their central dieties.

Some dojos do meditation of Ki and other stuff I find a waste of time, but I am a scientist by training and can see what the functional parts of the techniques are and do not need any mystical mumbo jumbo to explain it for me.

In my mind, the more trappings involved with the school, the more worthless it becomes.  How much time of your training session is taken up with Sensei worship and playing Japanese?  How does kneeling and bowing actually add to the learning experience?  None.  I find the more informal and relaxed the atmosphere is, the more effectively you learn and bond.  Unless you plan to move to Japan and study there where knowing all the BS ceremony would be necessary, a rigidly formal dojo is unnecessary and is just the Sensei's way of stifling inquisitive minds or anyone who might question things.  It is also his way of formulating a cult of personality: Sensei as demi-god.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks you been very clear , e yes so true 99,9% of Aikido as traditional Martial Arts are bullshido now days , total crap that will just make you killed as totaly unrealistic in the streets of the 21 century we living now days , i really like carl geis he is  a Judo scientiest and mostly it's Judo then Aikido as Judo and Bjj are much more effective seems , he took just a bit of what works now days of Aikido = the great thing it move out the danger line and ridirect enemy energy vs him the great thing has mabye unique . So as i seen apart very few styles like tomiki Yoseikan Kokikai and real aikido wich is not aikido but a mix of judo and bjj lol and other crap Aikido can barely work and save your ass in a real fight unless you did train allot other styles so have emergency move to back up if Aikido fails or you found where ever you do this styles which can work or classical Aikikai crap a very good master who does reality based training and spend 10 years practising. So unless i found a reality based Aikido similar to your training id rather move to real Wado Ryu and integrate it with jkd and krav maga much more effective then this fancy crap what will get you killed as i agree most if not all Aikido videos are staged and will make you get just killed or chocked out as le bel did with seagal another Judo Phenomenon as your Sensei . For the spiritual side and the non violence i can all ways add a zen center if i fail to find real Aikido Dojo . Regards Luca

Answer
Luca:

I was the sensei's golden boy for a few years, rising to a rank where I led classes, opened the Dojo here in Houston and such.  Then had a falling out.  He is a great teacher, but I got tired of the atmosphere of fear in his dojo.  He was like a walking bomb.  Very similar to my ex wife who was bi-polar.  One day I took two weeks off from class to take care of my father out of state, came back and he had turned on me.  He accused me of hurting a student which was BS.  The student, a poor one at that, was a peer, a Shodan.  The sensei never did talk to me first, but sent out an email to his nation wide organization denouncing me.  I never had a chance to defend myself.

I went into talk to him and got a two hour verbal berating.  That was before I saw the email he had sent.  I severed ties with the dojo and only went back once more to turn in my keys and pay some back dues I owned.  It led to a confrontation with him.  He tried to provoke me, physically laying hands on me when I tried to leave, threatening me with a pipe wrench and threatening violence to my vehicle.  LOL  I shit you not.  Here is a 70 something old man frothing at the mouth trying to instigate a fight with me a 53 year old.  The guy is a bully, a demented bully.

I got letters afterwards threatening lawsuits if I badmouthed him in any form.  It later came to my attention that this is a common practice of his.  He picks a golden boy and unless they turn in to a syncophant, he sooner or later turns on them.  All the talk in the dojo about love, eternal friendship and brotherhood is total bullshit.  As soon as I was gone he tore down any pictures in the dojo that I was in and I am sure he badmouthed me to the other members and made up lies about why I left.   I still have all the emails the man sent me and it shows how deranged or at least what an unbalanced state of mind he was in at the time.  Its funny now.  But when it happened it was upsetting.  I looked up to the man, but finally saw him for who he was and is.

I have not had any contact with any of the guys in the dojo since, except meeting some of them on the street by chance.  So much for brotherhood.  The majority of the guys think he is off his nut, but want to learn from him, so they ignore or try to ignore the bigotted ramblings he goes through before and during class.  I generally think the class gets embarrassed and do not know what to say so they just shut up and ignore it.  

I have been contacted by others who went through the same thing. Two co-workers by chance had studied under him.  One female, quit before the dojo stopped accepting women.  She was large breasted and said she got uncomfortable with the "extra" attention she got from the teacher.

The other was a judo player.  Still another contacted me from Russia, and two more locally who invited me to come play with them and other former students at the in house dojo.  They had all been turned out too.  I felt a little better once I knew this didn't just happen to me.

I went into a local shooting range and asked about a former student.  They said he no longer worked there.  I said I used to study aikido with him.  The guy responded "So you studied under that crazy man too."  This was a total stranger.  I guess word of mouth travels fast.  It is no wonder the dojo is slowly dying.  It is a shame, since the style IS effective.  In this case people just cannot get past the messenger.