Do people destroy martial arts on purpose?

Well, he is right Aikido is not an art of peace. It isn't but it also is not really an art of love either, and unfortunately a lot of people obscure this badly. However I do understand what he is trying to say. My Chinese martial arts teacher would say the same thing too but this is what he really meant: Hard on soft and soft on hard is the correct principle in martial arts. If your opponent is hard you come in soft but often emotions prevent you from coming in soft so your fight ends up being hard on hard and thus becomes a struggle. By being soft you also conceal your ability. The going joke was when demonstrating a technique my teacher would walk in on some student, saying: 'I love you' and then the next thing was that the student was in for a hard landing. Inevitably, the student would let his guard down but even for us more seasoned students bracing for the landing was all we ever managed. Being soft is simply not registered by the brain as a threat and before you figure it out you are on the floor. To prevent from coming in hard he merely told us to change our emotion from negative such as anger, hate, frustration to a positive one, love. It helps you stay relaxed and in control. Negative emotions in a fight let you lose control and make you tight. If you are not in control in a fight you lose. Positive emotions let you deal with the things as they arise without anticipation, which will lead to correct and precise timing to execute your technique at the right moment when it is most lethal. For Aiki this is of the utmost importance . It is not your will to hurt someone but it is the techniques that will hurt the person if they are executed correctly. It has nothing to do with actually loving your assailant but rather tricking your body into the correct response.

I am not so quick to judge him. The timing that he showcased in the video is a lot harder to do than it seems. Sometimes in Aiki you simply have to work just the timing to get it correct. Some opponents come in stronger than others and your response has to be accurate. If you over do your counter the technique will not work and if you don't give it enough it will not work either. Precision and correct calculation is very important and achieved only with constant practice. I often practice just the timing and often ask my teacher to work on the timing only. If you get the timing right (which is the harder one of the two to get right) the techniques literally take care of themselves and are not as hard to do at all. It is when your timing is off that you will struggle with the technique to catch up. The part he showed in the video is called 'entry' in Aiki. It is different from the technique.

However, if timing is all he practices and I don't know that he does then of course the techniques do not completely take care of themselves and still have to be practiced as well. Since it was only a short video and I do not know if he also practices the techniques as they are intended, I do not know if he is a bad teacher. I did recognize each technique he did and if I was practicing the techniques rather than just the entries they definitely would have had a different look to them. Hard and soft is a principle in martial arts. Your opponent comes in hard you react soft, as you take your opponent's balance he becomes softer which you match by going from the entry into the technique and not by becoming hard yourself but by releasing the energy (if you want) which is hard itself through the technique. The fact that the opponents in the video never gave much energy with their attack to be released into the techniques resulted in such 'weak' looking techniques.

For Aiki you have to practice the entry and the technique and also with your Uke giving you a full blown attack. Sometimes you separate them for practice purposes only while other times you have to practice them all together for a complete picture.

I agree more explanation in the video was necessary to prevent misunderstanding of the art.

I feel like he read bunch of aikido books and decided he knows enough to open a school. I think if he had even seen a single video or an actual person practicing Aikido he would know how off he is.

Or maybe he really doesn’t care. Either way I think putting this kind of stuff out there is just financial decision and someone who really doesn’t have any care for the martial art they profess to teach.

Okay he is doing aikido techniques without doing aikido techniques.

In other words I see what he is supposed to be doing like shihonage and others, but he never applied any real technique. I wouldn't recommend that school. He probably believes this will work in a fight. He would be sadly or gravely mistaken.

Edit:

Liondancer should be an apologist. You have defended this guy well. The statement was well written and thought provoking. However, even with the bad uke the execution of the techniques were bad. Occasionally you can see him grab the hand of the uke as if he was doing a waltz instead of leading the uke with control. He was never one with the uke. Initially I wanted to contribute this to their advanced age. But as I continued to watch I was more certain of the lack of applicable techniques.

I really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt because of the press given aikido. I just couldn't find any reasonable justification for this.

One has to wonder when and where he studied with O Sensei, Morihei Ueshiba and what organziation and senior students of O Sensei he is affialted with?

His "aikido" appears very weak, not like that of Saito, Yamada, Chiba, Saotome, Shioda et al and his professed understanding is very different from that which O Sensei taught and from what is taught by those who actually studied with O Sensei or any of his senior students.

In some instances, one sees those who truly do not understand the art they profess to practice and teach doing things such as this. Perhaps one of the saddest aspects is that those who are following his instructions do not realize that they are being mislead.

One must wonder if the students ever go to a seminar taught by some of the remaining first gneration of O Sensei students as such must surely be a rude awakening for them.

Some commentors seem to have little experience or knowledge about Aikido, as well as lillte understanding of Budo yet they pose and speak with "authority", much like the individual in the video.

Be well and be wise.

I have considered but never studied Aikido but it looks to me that all he was doing was just demonstrating the art slowly and gently like you would if you were to show someone something in slow motion before doing it at full speed. But if you are to showcase your art on YouTube you should at least put some effort into it. This video looked more like square dancing than Aikido, however you can't assume that is how he does everything based on one poorly presented video.

That gave me a good laugh. If not for nothing, thanks for sharing that video. I can't comprehend what that old goof was hoping to accomplish with that video. I'd expect way more competence than that from someone his age. Human strangeness truly boggles the mind! Keeps life interesting, I suppose.

I don't think people do things like that to discredit the style. Some how in their minds they must think they're doing something of value. That's what that guy sees when he thinks of Aikido, which is greatly an unfortunate disfavor to the real deal.

I've long since stopped asking "why" in regards to human behavior. Saved myself countess headaches, too. The only thing I can think of as to why on earth anyone would post that on youtube would be get reactions. Not as a troll, but as someone who thinks he's doing something good. Like I said, he must think that had value. In his "Aikido", that video was meant to inspire. Some people are warped in regards to reality.

I just hit myself harder facepalming than anyone there has been hit in their school.

No, I don't think people seek out to destroy a martial art on purpose. Maybe a handful of guys in all of history, but it takes a certain degree of insanity to learn something to a level that you can pass it off poorly, but do it for the sole purpose of "tainting the water", so to speak.

I think what we're really seeing is this: martial arts means different things to different people. Aikido, T'ai Chi, and a few others tend to attract people who are looking for "inner peace", first and foremost. In this case, such a thing is taken to the extreme. You don't want to hurt your partner, so you REALLY go soft in drills. The converse is guys in the MMA, FMA, "hardcore" karate, etc communities who basically abuse each other because if it doesn't hurt, you're doing it wrong. Then there are some communities (historical European martial arts, Koryu martial arts, a few Chinese martial arts, occasionally Capoeira) that focus so much on being historically accurate, so much on training the martial art as it was trained x-number of years ago, that they'll dress in anachronistic attire and speak only in the native language of the art. Then you get guys who train only for health, but never learn the martial application of their techniques. But in the end, each of those guys is getting what they want out of it.

It's a fact that most martial arts were created to be used effectively against another person, but since unarmed combat isn't a necessary day-to-day skill for anyone short of a pro fighter or some security/law enforcement sectors, a martial art doesn't have to focus on effectiveness these days in order to have a significant number of people interrested in it.

Either way, it is a disgrace. I'm certain that there are people out there who teach junk on purpose, because it is easier. I am also aware of people who just don't know better. Again, I hate to see it, whatever the cause.

wow. he certainly doesn't make money teaching students this, because he doesn't have any students! like, who would pay to learn ballet where the other person does exactly what you want them to do? I think he got off of the self-defense track a long time ago, and just started liking dancing instead.

Well I'm no judge of this particular art. I like Lyondancers answer also. In regard to redirect and throws in the arts I'm familiar with what he describes in regard to your uke.

To the heart of your question which is valid. There are a few causes for the destruction of an art. One is that the master has quit training with another who is his peer or superior. Another reason is that little things seem to drift. I catch myself sometimes doing this and fortunately I have others who are able to correct me and we watch out for each others performance or in how we teach. When I train with my superior I expect to get a few bruises to my ego as well. LOL

Arrogance of some who teach prevents them from recognizing their flaws and they pass this allong to their students.