IS IT FOR EVERYONE?
Different people like different foods. The same is with martial arts. Some people like it and some don’t. Some people like aikido and some kickboxing, the other are more for karate or judo. It’s all about taste.
There is no martial art in the world that is better than the other. It’s all about practicing and personal preferences. Every martial art has its advantages and disadvantages.
Aikido advantage is the absence of any kind of competition so that people can be real friends. Those friendships are one of the most beautiful and important aspects of today’s aikido.
Long time ago martial arts was used to defend oneself. In that time there was a thin line between life and death. Everything was resolved by fighting, even the slightest insult. It was the normal way of life. So everything depended on ones skills.
But in today’s world there’s no need for such things. Conflicts are now resolved by communication not swords (for normal people, of course). So the purpose of martial arts has changed. They become sports. So now winning the competition is the goal for most of them.
But aikido never became sport. There is no any sort of competition in it. In sports you have to compete with the people who you train with, but in aikido they are your friends. So the practicing atmosphere is good and relaxing. It also means that there is no selection, so no matter if you are skilled or not or if you are talented or not you can still enjoy all the benefits that physical and mental training can give.
By adding competitions martial arts became more physically oriented and lost mental aspect which once was very important for one martial art. Aikido still maintains this mental aspect.
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