In a recent bid to cure my curiosity, I engaged in a four week introductory course at Michiharu Mori's Yoshinkan Aikido dojo in West End.
Thankfully there was no "40-year-old-mid-life-crisis-street-fighter-wannabe-martial-art-guru-of-awesome" to be seen within a mile. Aikido proved to me to be a very appreciable martial art, being a non-competitive dscipline, and being very much focussed on values of "harmony", ki, flow and efficiency (minimum effort, maximum effect). It seemed very alien to the marketing of BJJ, Maui Thai and Krav Maga (not to strike these off my list... my actual plan is to try a bit of Capoeria and then move on to try some BJJ, MT, TKD et alia... I know it shows no consistency - but for now I am just curious - I can settle on one thing later :)
I have found both the movements and the vocabulary of Aikido to be much akin to the vocabulary and movements of Parkour; "Flow and Efficiency". Being confident in a movement, being at peace all through the movements, being balanced and using pins, pivots, distribution etalia as opposed to muscle strength to achieve a feat.
I very much enjoyed the experience and plan to return at a later point once I have tasted a few other disciplines...
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