Hi there everyone. Before I start I'll tell you why I started thinking about this. I've trained for the last 7 years in japanese Ju Jutsu (there's plenty of history on Jan de Jong's ju jutsu school for those who wish to look), at a school which also teaches Yoseikan Aikido (that is, Minoru Mochizukis Yoseikan....not the bizzare sport that his son turned it into). One of the hardest question I get asked is 'what is the difference between Ju Jutsu and Aikido?' I usually answer with 'the uniform'. Because really, if you boil down to it, it's the same science. They are both principle based arts, and in our school in particular, they are based on the exact same principles - de Jong sensei taught them as the same system. The same taisabaki, the same kuzushi, and the same basic kansetsuwaza. Where I feel ju jutsu starts to differ though is the training itself. Ju jutsu might be a principle based art (at least, traditional ju jutsu) but the training is very scenario based. ...someone sits on you and strangles you ....someone escorts you somewhere by your sleeve .....someone pins both your wrists to your side .....someone throws a punch at your face Aikido on the other hand seems to always start from what I'd call a 'duelling' position - both combatants facing each other en guard, usually followed by a strike. To put it another way, Ju jutsu feels more like 'this is a really bad position to be in, so learn to get out of it' where as Aikido seems more 'that is a really bad position to get in, so learn how to not get in it!' Of course the latter IS something you learn in ju jutsu, but you kind of backward engineer it for yourself - at least, that's what I did. After a while you realise that if possible, belting the guy before he can get on top of you is going to be more efficient in the long run. Indeed, many of the higher level techniques resemble this tactic. So my thought then is this.......given that in the early days most Aikidoka already had a judo or karate background, is fair to say that Aikido is then 'the next step?' Learning how to deal with bad situations, and THEN learning how to not get into them? Personally I feel after 7 years of ju jutsu behind me I'm more able to understand what's happening when I train Aikido, despite the waza themsevles being more or less the same. I may have gotten this totally wrong, but I just thought I'd let my thoughts loose. Anyone care to comment?
When I first started Aikido training I thought that Aikido was like going to martial arts college. My previous training in karate was then like having a High School diploma. Now I am of a completely different opinion. Now, to me it doesn't matter the order as much. For instance, say someone comes into Aikido with a Judo background... there are fundamentals taught in Aikido that will help that person learn MORE about their Judo. On the other hand, say someone comes into Judo from an Aikido background... there are fundamentals taught in Judo that will help that person learn MORE about their Aikido. The order does not matter as the key is in the cross-training. What changed my mind about these things was mainly a conversation with a friend, Professor Burke of Tam Pai branch of Kajukenbo. He said that you can learn to fight faster using "hard-style". I said, then one should train in hard-style before training in soft-style so that you have a fighting foundation. Basically he said no. There are fundamentals from soft-style that should be developed starting on day one. The reason is that they can take ten or twenty years to perfect. He basically said that a large part of why some things take so long to perfect is that a lot of time is spent "unlearning" bad habits developed from other training. There are some fundamentals taught in Aikido that fall into this classification and should be developed starting from day one because they take so many years to perfect. This is not to say that beginners should be cross-training before they have developed an understanding of fundamentals and the basics of principles. Cross-training should come only after someone is "ready" for it. There is no set rule, it is on a case-by-case basis. It is interesting to me that even as one is building a foundation, there needs to be a constant check on any bad habits being developed so that they can be corrected/unlearned starting from day one. There is almost no way a beginner would be able to do this on their own, only those that have followed the path before them probably can help there.
Good points Rebel. That part about some things taking so long partly because you need to break old habits really made me think - to me it helps explain why some people just 'pick it up', and others take a long long time to become natural at it. I fell fairly smoothly into ju jutsu, perhaps because hadn't been much of a fighter before that so I didn't have any particular habits to break?
Not all habits are evidently bad, it is all relative to "what you can get away with." There is a saying that "you don't have to be the best, you just have to be better than the other guy on an given day." When I started Aikido, my instructor pointed out that I was too "tight" (mainly visible with tension in the shoulders). Well this was a bad habit that I had gotten away with for many years in karate. Actually, I never really got away with it, my first karate instructor, Chinen Sensei, would just shake his head in disappointment during makiwara training. But shortly after that I moved away for college and there the striking was against pads and punching bags, so it wasn't so evident. I got away with being "too tight" simply because I was like a ball of energy, I was lightning fast and could hit someone six times and all they could do was cover up and retreat. Of course being tense makes you tire faster, but I had been a long distance runner and had good endurance. I could not get away with being too tight in Aikido. In Aikido, it is a fundamental to learn to relax with movement. But this was tough for me because of all the years that I had been "too tight" (basically all my life). Even so, it did not make much sense to me at the time. It came down to the fact that I had no idea how to measure my progress. It was later that I was introduced to the idea of "bouncing being bad." For example, if I side kicked a 280 pound body builder in the chest, maybe 60% of my power would go into the target but then, because I was so tight, I would "bounce" off of them (basically I would be knocking myself back from the impact). Bouncing is bad as what I really want is 100% of my kick's force to penetrate through the target, not something like 60% and bouncing back with the rest. Right there was a way to measure that I needed to relax more. Basically "too tight = uprooting myself" and conversely "relaxed = rooted". This is what my first karate instructor saw when I trained makiwara... he saw that I was bouncing off of the makiwara pad. Point is, from day one, I should have been working on relaxed movement with proper body alignment. Waiting ten years to begin to figure this out was an inefficient use of time for me. Another point is that all fundamentals have ways to measure progress. This is how you know you are getting better. Just knowing how to measure something is half the job.
