Finding An Aikido Dojo with Sparring for Self Defense

So Aikido looks interesting due to the fact it focuses on energy flow and expending the least amount of energy for maximum effect.

Watching “Aikido Flow” on YouTube renewed my interest in the art, and so I’ve been trying to find an Aikido club closeby that practices sparring for real life. Kind of confusing with all the Japanese terms and how the art works, so just creating a “cheat sheet” here in case anyone else might find this info useful.

Tip 1: Find a place that practices “Randori”, which is pretty much sparring in Aikido, according this this website.

Randori is the simplest and probably most misunderstood part of Aikido today.  “Randori” simply translated means, “full speed, anything goes!”  There are no restrictions on speed or type of attacks (anything goes).  It is the culmination of all that we train for and truly demonstrates how well you have developed the unification of mind, body, and spirit.  There is no other practice in Aikido that can do this.

However, there are intermediate practices you can do.  Such as;

“Jiju Waza”: This is a form of free style practice that invokes the use of only a specific set of attacks and/or defenses that can be done at various speeds but still employs the use of multiple attackers.

“Jiyu Waza”: This is free style attack and defense that is done one on one.

Both Jiju and Jiyu Waza will definitely help you develop and improve your skills for randori.  However, nothing can help your ability to do well in randori except, DOING LOTS OF RANDORI!

In Japanese martial arts, the term atemi (当て身^?) designates blows or strikes to the body,^[1] as opposed to twisting of joints, strangleholds, holding techniques and throws.