• Does Aikijujutsu work in a real fight, shouldn’t I train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, kick-boxing, or MMA?

Yes, and it depends. Most real fights are brief, chaotic encounters that are nothing like sport fighting or the movies. Aikijujutsu provides real skills that are useful in these situations. But the kind of training you should do depends on the sort of situations you expect to find yourself in. If you train in aikijujutsu, or any other style a couple of times a week you will lose a fight to a professional who trains full-time for many years. It’s like expecting to beat Federer when you play tennis with a friend every couple of weeks. The only way that you will beat a highly trained experienced fighter is with same level of training, experience, and natural skills.

But that means getting hit, and getting hurt, and not everyone thinks that the cost of the damage this involves is commensurate with the risk of getting into such a situation. And the instinctive responses to potentially violent situations that are developed by this training can have catastrophic consequences. Knock someone out with a kick or a punch and even if they do not suffer long-term injury from the strike, they could hit their head on the ground and die, or suffer brain damage. Even with a successful self-defence plea, manslaughter or criminal injury brings gaol time, fines and a criminal record, or at least the burden of knowing that you have taken or ruined a life. It’s like having a nuclear weapon and not being able to use it because it causes too much damage.

Aikijujutsu provides non-nuclear options for dealing with the kind of threat that most people are likely to encounter. We can ramp up the response if we have to, but when the belligerent friend takes a swing after having one too many at a barbecue we can avoid getting hurt and talk to our friend afterwards, instead of dealing with police and lawyers.

  • I saw youtube clips by a butoku-something group. Are they yours too?

They are not; it’s just a coincidence of name.

  • Do you run private classes?

Sorry, we do not. Our instructors provide so much individual guidance that they would be a waste of money.

  • Do you run kids’ classes?

Sorry, we do not. The recommended minimum age is 17.
We believe that kids would learn more from Judo than from Aiki arts.