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I have recently started taking Aikido and I will say this. Aikido does have grappling in it, but also where you can grab someone, you can perform a strike. Aikido is more than joint locks and throws, there are strikes in it as well.





An art is only as good as a person using it.

I don't rate it particularly highly. I think the majority of the techniques are solid, but it's not commonly trained in such a way that allows the students to translate these skills into a real-life situation. As well, frankly, it would be very hard to make those techniques work against someone who knows how to grapple. Most of what we get from Aikido are demos. I've sort of jokingly called it the perfect art to learn against purse-snatchers because the demos, and to some degree the training methods, involve some guy running at you from 20 feet away, grabbing your wrist (not a particularly realistic attack), and then holding on for dear life as you toss him around and he flips over to make your technique look better. I've known some guys who used Aikido who I really respected, but 1) they also cross-trained in other martial arts and 2) were mentally tough guys to begin with, who would probably be only slightly less dangerous if their primary martial art was ballet.

I used to know a guy who did karate and he said that aikido is really good but not the best. I do hapkido and I have sparred with aikido students before. Not a bad martial art if you want to join it. Baki was the best grappler until the Devil's Champion usurped him and made him submit to his power.

Probably one of the worst by itselfs mixed with abit of judo or wrestling like it was ment to it becomes a different and very scary combination. The wrist locks and small joint turning of aikido mice with abit if control just become scary. People used to say bjj was useless then people started mixing it with wrestling and boom it took off let's hope the same happens with aikido.

KW is mostly correct. The only part I disagree with is that I believe Ninjitsu is the worst martial art. Aikido is 2nd or 3rd though for sure. Judo has the best throws, wrestling has the best takedowns, BJJ has the best groundwork, Sambo has a good mix of it all but isn't particularly strong in 1 aspect of them. BJJ is my personal favorite, but training any of them will make you lethal. Aikido has a lot of tradition but hardly any selfdefense applicable techniques. Their training methods are probably the worst too. Anywhere you do martial arts, make sure there's full resistance sparring. If its grappling, you should be getting choked/subbed, thrown, or taken down a lot. If its striking, you should be getting hit a lot and hitting a lot of people. This is how street fights go down.

There are many great grappling arts, no one style should ever be compared to another.

EDIT>>>>>> @K clearly you are another person who has no knowledge of BJJ but think they do because of the little they see... I have personally trained state, federal police as well as military as they are brought to our academy to train in BJJ... BJJ does have skills against multiple attackers, and does learn to defend against striking weapons. I have also personally used it to defend myself against multiple attackers and defend myself in general. Just because it concentrates a lot on the ground does not mean there is no stand up defense taught. Its just not taught until you reach your higher belts so it goes unseen.

Aikido Is far more popular in law enforcement agency and military groups then bjj is because its far more useful, Unlike bjj Aikido can be and has been proven to work on multiple opponents and has a proven weapons defense. bjj is only good in the ring, there is no weapons defense and no multiple opponent techniques. Making bjj worthless for law enforcement

Is aikido the best grappling art or what.