Mixed Martial Arts and Aikido!

Mixed Martial Arts is all over the TV, Aikido…is not. But, what is the difference here? All hype and excitement aside, what is the difference between these two martial arts?

First, Mixed martial arts, such as you see on the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce and other such programs, is a contest. A man beating a man. Thus, it is not an art.

A bit different than an Aikido Throw.

Now don’t get your panties in a bunch, it doesn’t mean MMA is bad, I never said that. But the difference between an art and a sport is that in a sport man tries to beat man. In an art a man tries to control himself.

Mind you, this splits a few hairs.

Tell me it doesn’t take a degree of self control to enact a strategy in the middle of a fight and I’ll call you a fool.

It takes immense self control to bide your time, play the game, and spring a trap.

However, the real difference here has to do with the type and degree of control.

In Mixed Martial Arts one uses muscles and forceful leverage. It takes real bulldogging skills to take a fighter down when he is bent on taking you down. This is a real fight.

In Aikido, however, one is anticipating the strike, planning on the direction and speed of the strike, and then blending with the strike. Manipulating not by bull dogging, but by harmonizing. Joining with a person, instead of pounding him into a pulp or snapping off his limbs.

Do you see the difference here?

Not forceful leverage, but flowing manipulation. This is a fight of a different kind, and it takes immense…self control to control somebody using this method.

But MMA, as indicated above, is a sport, and Aikido is the art, and the two shoujldn’t be compared because they are simply not in the same arena.

The real problem here, in addition to the type of control needed, is that people insist that Aikido is not a real martial art.

It is a real martial art. It is derived from Daito Ryu Aiki jujitsu and swordsmanship, in which fighters didn’t just fight for the gold and the glory, but for their very lives.

And, the thing that most people don’t know, is that with just a few twists and alterations to the techniques, one could take it into the MMA arena.

That, however, wouldn’t be in keeping with the art, and would change it into something else.

This has been a page concerning Mixed Martial Arts and Aikido.

Check out this great article on Aikido style throws. Or, you could take a look at this course presenting a more combat Aikido style.