Aikido Dojo San Francisco Philosophy

By Roger Williams


When it comes to different martial arts, it's true that most of them try to balance body and mind, some more efficiently than others. They all thrive to self-improvement and provide excellent defense techniques as well. All eastern techniques have this spiritual part within, and it would be hard to imagine them without it.

They require balanced mind and dedication, as well as strength and trainings, and offer a wide range of self-improvements you can only benefit from. Among other popular martial arts, one is especially interesting. If you visit one Aikido Dojo San Francisco center, you may find out more about it and understand why it deserves a special attention.

So, like many other Japanese names, Aikido is also composed from a few meaningful words. In this case, it is especially interesting name, because 'Ai' means harmony, 'ki' means energy or spirit, and 'do' means path or way. Well, you can translate it as the way of spirit and harmony, or maybe the harmonious spiritual path. Anyway, you will find highly efficient ways of defending yourself and really appealing philosophy and environment.

This is, actually, the youngest of the traditional Japanese martial arts. It was founded by The Great Teacher, or O-Sensei, Morihel Ueshiba. He was an expert in various other traditional Japanese discipline, staring with Jujitsu, Kenjutsu and Sojitsu. But, he was also really interested in religion and spiritual part of the training.

O-Sensei's flawless technique proved to be more powerful than mere strength, and his legacy of non-violence made him not only popular, but also highly appreciated. His methods are based on defense without harming your attacker, and his philosophy is based on harmonizing your movements with the movements of the universe.

You don't have to be young, strong and especially fit to start practicing this technique. The training itself will be beneficial in so many ways, starting with physical strength improvement, as well as the improvement of your flexibility, balance, concentration and coordination, and even significant improvement of your general health condition, especially your cardiovascular health.

And another thing. This type of balanced training have a great impact on your self-confidence, conditioning your mind, body and spirit, and, as a result, you will start feeling better in your own skin, finding your own life path. If you are primarily interested in building strength and fighting with others, this might not be something for you.

If you compare Aikido with other martial arts, the first thing you may notice is that the main goal is to defend yourself without causing injuries to your attacker. The movements are circular, and, since most attacks are basically linear, this techniques kind of harmonizes with these attacks, using arm pins and wrist locks, for example, to unbalance the attacker, avoiding direct confrontation.

As the Great Teacher used to say, Aikido is really a true Budo, based on traditional Samurai tactics, but really focused on perfecting the spirit. His well-known statement called Mahatsu Agatsu say that true victory is victory over oneself, and the secret is in harmonizing your movements with the movements of the universe. This is really a path of love, in the opinion of the famous O-Sensei.




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