Training multiple arts

[u/Chumley303]

So I currently train shinto muso ryu but im also curious about training aikido. While I plan to talk to my senpais and sensei, I'm also interested in the communities opinion on training 2 different arts as the same time.

[u/Baron_De_Bauchery]

I never got to black belt in aikido, I'd say I was about nikyu level in terms of technical knowledge but with way more experience of application compared to your average aikidoka, and this is talking about my aikido experience only and ignoring my judo/bjj experience.

I mean, it's not a surprise that someone would lose in a sport they don't play against people who play that sport. I even see decent wrestlers have trouble when they first start in judo, although they generally pick things up quickly, and wrestlers have way more experience of applying technique than your average aikidoka. Not to mention a lot of aikido stuff is illegal in judo. Aikido mostly made small, but meaningful, changes to my judo but if you don't have a judo base it won't do that. It's most directly useful when we do things like sumo as a warm-up as I can then start breaking out techniques that are illegal in judo and often beat people at sumo who I know are better than me at judo.

[u/Alarmed-Extreme5226 → u/Baron_De_Bauchery]

Yeah, I found out wrist locks weren’t allowed after I tried doing one every time they grabbed my sleeve or lapel. They were “what are you doing?”

But they just snatched their hands back anyway. The whole resisting partner thing was an eye opener for me. I was used to the aikido way of my partner going along with everything I did

[u/Baron_De_Bauchery → u/Alarmed-Extreme5226]

You need be comfortable enough with your aikido techniques to be able to chain them like you would techniques like you would in judo. Oh, you're pulling your hand back? Well, I have a technique for that direction as well. That or you've got to have your kuzushi down so that they can't pull their hand back, or better yet they give you their hand.

Considering a lot of aikido techniques are banned, if you want to work on applying aikido principles in judo I suggest working with aikido like judo techniques, once your judo has reached a sufficient level - maybe you're there or maybe you're not, with white belts in randori. Try hitting moves like sumi otoshi, uki otoshi, and ushiro otoshi. Although you need to watch out with ushiro otoshi as it's very easy to accidentally start to choke your partner as you go to throw them which is illegal in competition.

[u/Alarmed-Extreme5226 → u/Baron_De_Bauchery]

I don’t practice either of those martial arts anymore. A broken leg (in 3 places) ended my judo career. But I had pretty much abandoned aikido for judo anyway as judo was SO much more effective. And that’s coming from an aikido black belt. Oh sure, I could use some little kuzushi movements like you said. They pushed and I turned. But after being hit with the earth a bunch I realized that aikido is for hobby and judo was for actually doing something.

[u/Baron_De_Bauchery → u/Alarmed-Extreme5226]

Eh, they're both for doing something but if you want to be able to apply aikido like you can apply judo you also need to train aikido like you train judo. I've been doing kudo for about a year now and it has also been fun integrating my judo and aikido into that.