Posts Tagged ‘martial arts’

The Birth Of Aikido

The name ‘Aikido’ is created by the permutation of three characters in the Japanese language. ‘Ai’, which means ‘joining’; ‘ki’, which means ’spirit’ and ‘do’, which signifies ‘way’. These three characters really sum up the essence of Aikido as a type of martial art: ‘the joining of the spirit to find the way’. It was only in the period from 1930’s to the 1940’s that the name Aikido was formally accepted as the name of this martial art variety.

Aikido uses ways that do not mortally injure or kill not like other kinds of martial art. The movements and skills being taught are just intended to divert attention or immobilize attackers. This is possibly the explanation why most people prefer Aikido, because of its focus on peace and harmony as opposed to violence and hostility. In deed, Aikido teacher, Morihei Ueshiba, is of the conviction that to control hostility without causing any harm is the art of peace.

Ueshiba, who is also called Osensei, which signifies ‘Great Teacher’, formed Aikido from the doctrine of Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu. He incorporated the methods of the ‘yari’, the spear; the ‘juken’, the bayonet; and the ‘jo’, which is a short quarterstaff. But what ultimately distinguishes Aikido from other types of martial art is the fact that its proponents can strike while empty-handed. Proponents require no arms for their protection.

As a young child, he was greatly into physical fitness and conditioning. This was because of his oath to avenge his father’s attackers. Eventually, his studies and actions brought him to the discipline of the various martial arts. He studied several of them. He even has qualifications for fencing, fighting with spears, etc. He has learned it all. This is perhaps the reason why Aikido is such a disparate and multi-disciplinary form of martial art.

Yet despite his knowledge, he remained discontented. He felt that there was still something lacking. It was then that he turned to the religions. He studied under a religious guide, Onisaburo Deguchi of the sect named Omoto-kyo in Ayabe. Deguchi trained him to take care of his psychic development. He then pooled his spiritual beliefs and his mastery of the different martial arts and Aikido was formed.

His association with this fascinating spiritual leader Deguchi also paved the way for his introduction to the elite political and military personnel as a martial artist. Because of this relationship, he was able to found Aikido and even pass on his teachings to students, who have, in turn, created their own styles and movement in Aikido.

Aikido is a blend of the diverse styles of jujitsu as well as some of the methods of sword and spear fighting, of which Ueshiba was an expert. To get an general idea, Aikido combines the joint locks and throws of jujitsu and the movements of the body necessary when fighting with swords and spears.

Oriental in origin, it was brought to the West by Minoru Mochizuki when he visited France in 1951. He introduced the Aikido ways to students who were learning judo. In 1952, Tadashi Abe came to France as the official Aikikai Honbu spokesperson. Then in 1953, Kenji Tomiki toured throughout the United States while Koichi Tohei stayed in Hawaii for a full year where he set up a dojo. Aikido then widened its influence in the United Kingdom two years after and in 1965, it reached Germany and Australia. At present, Aikido has centres all over the world.

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Aikido, The Latest Martial Art

The sphere of Martial Arts is one of the most important gifts of Asia to the world. Who will not remember Bruce Lee and the fact that he was first and foremost a martial arts competitor before being a film star? Martial arts films are a huge hit with the escalating popularity of Asian movies like ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and more recently ‘The House of the Flying Daggers’.

The Chinese are the first nation that come to mind when it you think of such things, but the Japanese are just as sporty with a rich heritage of body contact sports in their past. Modern Japan still gives honor to the martial arts by holding tournaments and promoting their martial arts abroad,

One of these is Aikido. It is interesting to realize that the word comes from three Japanese characters from which one derives the meaning of the one word. Ai signifies ‘joining’, Ki signifies ’spirit’ and Do means ‘way’. From this we can understand why Aikido lies beyond only the physical skills of it students, especially since its first proponent, Ueshiba, focused on the spiritual and philosophical improvement of his students.

In Aikido, one is not taught violence as a substitute, one is taught to be in concord with the opponent so that you are able to defeat him more easily. This might appear strange but it really works. In approaching an opponent, the aim of the Aikido practitioner is to be one with the opponent so as to be able to attack him where he is weakest and in so doing, deflect or immobilize him, but never to kill him.

This is where Aikido becomes an art form. Art is something delightful to look at and something constructive and Aikido is all that. At least one of the contestants involved in the combat is searching for concord and concord can only be achieved if there is grace in the actions. The moves may be premeditated, but there is an air of finesse in carrying out these movements. Not a feminine grace, but a grace that emanates peace. The ‘art of peace’ is what they call it in Aikido and it is one of the most affirmative influences of Aikido on its students and to everyone else who decides to find out about this Japanese martial art.

Some of the techniques in Aikido embrace the following.

Ikkyo is the first technique. Using this technique, you manipulate an adversary by using one hand to hold his elbow and one to hold near the wrist. This action is supposed to allow you to pin your opponent down to the ground.

Nikyo, the second technique, is when you perform a wrist lock which enables you to twist the arm of your opponent which will in turn cause nerve pressure.

Sankyo, the third technique, is a technique that creates upward-spiraling tension throughout the arm, elbow and shoulder. There are many other techniques but the first three are enough to give you a basic insight.

When you are studying Aikido, it is important to keep in mind that, along with building physical strength, you will need to improve your mind to be able to overpower your adversary. Just like in any art form, it takes a lot of training and discipline to perfect the art of Aikido. The chief thing to remember is, that anyone who wants to get into the art, must have the determination to give honour to the art by performing it in the best way they can.

If you are interested in the Japanese Martial Art of Aikido, please click a link to visit our website at http://aikido.the-real-way.com

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10 UFC Facts You May Not Know

10 Things you may not know about the UFC.

1. Original promoters of a Ultimate Fighting Championship longed for to embody such marvellous side shows as alligator moats as well as electric fences surrounding a ring. UFC Doctors of march warned opposite them due to a dangers a fighters could face.

2. The UFC was founded by Rorian Gracie as well as Arthur Davie. It was combined to foster a Gracie family’s armed forces humanities school. Before a UFC a Gracie’s were well known for mouth-watering fighters of any character to contest opposite a part of of a family or a singular of their students to infer which Gracie jiu-jitsu reigned supreme.

3. Originally Semaphore Entertainment Group, a association which purchased a UFC, was usually starting to reason a singular UFC event. The eventuality was so successful they rught away began to devise some-more tournaments. Good thing it was so successful.

4. With a difference of UFC 9, each UFC up until UFC eighteen used a contest character format. UFC twenty-three additionally used this format. Eight fighters would contest to begin out a tournament. The 4 winners would afterwards contest in semi-final matches. The dual semi-final winners would contest for a championship belt. If a warrior could not go on at any indicate an swap was brought in to take his place.

5. Early on a UFC would reason events in states but jaunty commissions to equivocate regulations. In a commencement there were no judges either. When judges were combined in a future there were no transparent parameters on how to decider a fight.

6. For a initial integrate UFC events, a referees had really small power. They could not even stop a fight. There usually role was to have certain which a couple of manners which existed were enforced. The usually manners at which time were no biting, fish hooking, eye gouging or twist grip strikes. Fortunately after a initial couple of events refs were authorised to stop fights.

7. In 2000 SEG as well as a UFC roughly went under. The face which SEG marketed a competition as heartless as well as full of blood roughly led to a UFC’s demise. Luckily an pledge fighter as well as upholder declared Dana White assured a Fertitta brothers to buy a unwell organization. The UFC has given flourished to unimaginable heights.

8. Dana White managed Chuck Liddell as well as Tito Ortiz in a early days of a UFC. He additionally owned 3 gyms in a Las Vegas area.

9. After most years of “bad blood” Dana White as well as Tito Ortiz were starting to solve things in a ring with a 3 turn fighting compare on Mar 24, 2007. Surprise, warn a quarrel never happened as Tito Ortiz was a no uncover at a import ins.

10. In 2006 a UFC generated $222,766,000 in revenue, braking a PPV industry’s all time jot down for a singular year of sales, leading wrestling as well as boxing. The largest events reached scarcely 800,000 viewers.

I gamble we didn’t know a little of those facts!

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The Legend Royce Gracie VS. Matt Hughes

No one thought it would have ended the way it did. The legend went down.Looking back, one can’t be surprised with the result. In retrospect, it was inevitable.

Matt Hughes has been training for nearly a decade for a fight with Royce Gracie without even realizing it. When Royce Gracie unleashed Gracie Jiu Jitsu on the MMA world in UFC 1, no one knew what it was or how it worked. By UFC 2 people began to see that there was a pattern to what he was doing. The years that followed sealed Royce’s fate as a marked man.

Fighters were attempting to dissect Gracie Jiu Jitsu, but in reality they were analyzing Royce Gracie’s application of the fighting style. Without setting out to do so, every fighter that wanted to evolve and step up his game by learning to employ and defend Gracie Jiu Jitsu was training to fight Royce. It became Royce Gracie vs. the MMA world.

To Royce’s credit, he remained largely victorious in all of his bouts for years to come. But a man with a bulls eye on his back is bound to get hit once in a while. Matt Hughes was an on target bullet at UFC 60 where he bested the king and pulled out the most significant victory of his career.

But was it fair?

That’s hard to say. Matt Hughes is a tremendous athlete with dedication to his craft and an abundance of skill. Add to that palette an army of trainers teaching students how to defend and counter Royce Gracie’s every move, and Matt Hughe’s victory becomes somewhat destiny.

In theory, another Gracie would have had a much better shot at beating Matt Hughes. Take a look at Renzo Gracie’s incredible performance against BJ Penn, who has been touted as pound for pound the best fighter on the planet by many. Renzo fought tough and nearly pulled out a victory. His different style than Royce’s may have been enough for him to gain victory over Hughes.

Royce is possibly the greatest ever, but even a bullet can be dodged when its target has advanced warning.

A strategy for Royce, which under normal circumstances would seem absurd, would be to do the opposite of what some of the Gracie Jiu Jitsu tactics are. When he should place his body weight a certain way, if he were to suddenly shift the opposite way his opponent would be totally thrown off momentarily. And a moment is all a boa constrictor like Royce needs.

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How The UFC Began

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was originally launched in the United States by the “first family of Jiu-Jitsu.” They brought together the very best martial artists from the various disciplines to compete against each other on a level playing field. The goal was to determine which of the disciplines was best. Could a boxer beat a wrestler? Could a kung fu champion beat a karate master?

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship(R) event was held at McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado in 1993. The undersized Royce Gracie beat bigger, stronger, and faster opponents with his Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to win the tournament. The fledgling sport became an overnight sensation.

The shows became must see TV for fans, but in the early years, the lack of state regulation and significant set of rules led to the show being taken off cable television. After a series of relatively dark years, the Las Vegas based Zuffa LLC took over the company in 2001. They implemented a set of unified mixed martial arts rules, and suddenly MMA was no longer a spectacle, but a legitimate sport.

As the sport has evolved, so have the athletes, and they well know that one particular style will not work in competition on a consistent basis. This means Mixed Martial Artists must learn a variety of martial arts including boxing, wrestling, kickboxing, and Jiu-Jitsu to effectively spar with their opponents.

Under the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, athletes compete for three five-minute rounds, with championship matches waged over five five-minute rounds. Scoring, like boxing, is done on a ten-point system, with the winner of the round receiving ten points and the loser nine points or less. Unlike boxing, MMA matches are scored not only for effective striking attacks, but for ground fighting effectiveness, submission and take down attempts and defense, as well as ring generalship.

Bouts end via knockout, referee, corner or doctor stoppage, or submission. When a bout ends by submission, the fighter either verbally or physically “taps out,” signaling that he has had enough.

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