Aikido? Isn't that some kind of dog?

So what is Aikido?  As I mentioned before it is a style of Japanese martial arts, not to be confused with an Akita (see above).  You may be a bit more familiar with Aikido from the movies if you've ever watched a Steven Seagal movie.  Believe it or not, he used to teach Aikido and was pretty highly ranked (7th degree black belt, also called 7th Dan) prior to starting his film career.  Although his action films weren't "pure" Aikido it's still probably the most familiar the average person is going to be with this art.

Morihei Ueshiba (O Sensei) Founder of Aikido

1883 - 1969

Let me try to summarize this as simply as possible.  Aikido (合気道, aikidō) is a fairly new martial art as far as Japanese martial arts go.  It was founded by Morihei Ueshiba (often referred to by his title 'O Sensei' or 'Great Teacher') sometime around the 1920's to 1930's.  Aikido was primarily derived from a style of Jujutsu called Diato-ryu Jujutsu which is a style of armed and unarmed techniques dating back to the samurai days.  Ueshiba also trained extensively in several other varieties of jujitsu, as well as sword (boken) and spear (jo) fighting.  Aikido also incorporates armed and unarmed techniques and utilizes joint locks and throws to control an attacker.  Aikido is often described as a "soft" art as it uses the attackers strength and energy against the attacker them rather than using hard blocks and strikes as you would see in arts like Karate.  The great advantage of this type of art is that when being attacked, the Aikidoka (person who practices Aikido) can decide how much damage to deal to the attacker depending on the situation.  An attacker may simply be pinned or tossed aside, or the attacker may be thrown to the ground (landing head or neck first on the ground with a lot of energy is never a good idea) or be incapacitated by having a limb broken.  The basic philosophy behind Aikido is for a person to be able to defend themselves from attack while also protecting their attacker from injury.  In fact, Aikido can literally be translated as the Way of Spiritual Harmony.

This is a very brief and basic description of the art.  Aikido is a dynamic and active art and can better be understood by seeing it in action rather than trying to describe it in writing or talking about it.  Check out a demonstration or class at any Aikido dojo to see it in action.  To get an even better understanding about what's going on, get on the mat and take a free lesson.  Once you feel what you are seeing you'll get a better idea of the great potential of this art.