Does Your Martial Art Need To Change To Work On The Streets?

When you learn a martial art, of course, you like that martial art, that's why you are learning. If you learn Karate, you feel great when people talk about Karate, if you learn Taekwondo, you have the same feeling, if you learn Aikido, you think that's the best martial art.

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What I'm going to say you can relate to that if you practice any martial art. When you learn and practice a martial art, you are in a mindset that what you are learning is the best martial art in the world and other martial arts are not good enough.

After learning a martial art when you explore more, you realize that what you thought before is not right. Yes, your martial art is really good, but there are other martial arts that are also good or better.

If you close your mind, you cannot accept new things or have a hard time accepting something that you are not used to doing. You have to have an open mind to learn new things.

Aikido is one of the popular martial arts. So what does Aikido need to change to work on the streets? Let's hear it from an expert in Aikido who has experience of dealing with real-life situations.

In a street fight, you might get attacked with punches, kicks, stick, knife and so on. To defend yourself, if you only block and parry, that is not going to work for a long time, you have to hit the attackers.

When you counter-attack and your attackers feel the pain, they will think twice before attacking you next time. You have to learn how to punch, kick, do elbow strike, hammer fist, palm strike and so on.

You know how to punch, kick, block and strike. You have to do sparring with your training partner. Practicing on your own will not take you in a long way. You will never know how it feels if you get hit. When you do sparring, sometimes you cannot block your opponent's punch or kick, and it just hits you. You know how it feels, and you keep sparring.

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If you never do sparring, and someone hits you on the street, you might see stars in the daylight. That's why sparring is so important. It will teach you how to put your technique into action. Sometimes you think some techniques are effective for self defense, but you do not know how effective that technique is unless you train with your partner and apply your techniques.

You do not want to get to the ground in a street fight. If you fall down on the ground, it hurts pretty bad since there is no mat on the street. It is hard and solid, and you will end up getting injured. The thing is, sometimes street fight could end up on the ground. In that case, if you don't know what to do on the ground, how to defend yourself and attack, you will be in problem.

You want to get up and fight, right? But do you think attackers will stop attacking you when you are on the ground? If you are on the ground, and your opponent is a jujitsu or BJJ guy, that's a nightmare. They know exactly what to do in that situation. So learn something from them is always better.

You learn different techniques. Sometimes what you realize is that the technique you are doing is long and complicated, it takes time to execute. In a street fight, you have to do something fast and effective. So you can use the same technique in a different way that works in a street fight for self defense.

What I'm saying above, you may find it relevant to the martial art that you are learning. I'm not saying what I'm saying you have to agree with everything. You could have different opinions and I respect that. Please feel free to express your thoughts in the comments below.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. If you find it useful, please let me know. Take care. See you around!

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