Yep, I’ve been reading some more martial arts books.
This time it’s about the first style I invested serious time into as a young martial artist: Aikido. Aikido is the art that often gets ridiculed and labelled as fake and ineffective by most people studying modern martial arts.
My personal opinion differs. As someone who has trained in highly respected arts like Muay Thai and Brazilain Jiu Jitsu for close to 15 years,yy 3 years in Aikido (earning a Brown Belt) have given me a number of useful tools that canbe used in a real life conflict.
So I knew I wanted that reference guide on the shelf, to revisit and occasionally practice some of these techniques that I haven’t regularly performed for almost 10 years.
Luckily, Tuttle sent me this book to review 🙂
Was it what I wanted?
I wanted a reference guide to the art of Aikido, in this book I got exactly that as it’s a solid guide to the basic movements.
As I initially opened and flicked through before getting right into doing the “cover-to-cover” full read, it proved to be useful in one way which many martial artists will agree is extremely important:
It was scannable.
There’s nothing more iunfuriating than looking up a technique or area of training and being lost for finding it. Aikido basics is organised and visually formatted to make it an easy to scan instructional book.
My only criticism is the imagery doesn’t go into great detail as often there is one image instead of a few, step by step shots. Also the person performing the technique is wearing a Hakama (like a long Japanese formal skirt worn over the Gi). The Hakama quite often covers the feet and therefore the footwork you should be looking to replicate in your training is completely hidden.
Luckily the written instructions are quite thorough and help to make up for this.
While this book is the kind of guide I wanted, it was made moreso for beginners as an introduction to the art.
What does the book contain?
Aikido empty hand techniques?
Sure, they’re there. But there’s a lot more to the book.
Before getting into the nitty gritty of throwing, pinning and locking up your training partners this book presents you with the history and philosophy behind the art. Aikido comes form a different angle than most mainstream arts so it’s good practice to walk people through the goals that O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba had for the art when he created it.
This is the seed that gives you the right lens to view Aikido from so you can better understand why certain things are done they way they’re done.
What I didn’t expect was that book would go into full detail for the beginner.
How to pick the right class for you, how to behave, the etiquette, culture and every little nook and cranny are covered so you can walk into an Aikido club and have a solid understanding of wha tis expected of a school and the beginner.
I find this funny as most buying the book are more than likely already training. But it also serves a way to step back and validate your choice in a school and understand some of the behaviour you are yet to understand.
I learned a lot of little extras that I didn’t absorb during my 3 years in the art.
Overall it a solid guide to the art covering everything you’d need to know in a very generalist format – not going too deep but instead covering a lot of ground. I have the impression the book was written to formalize the knowledge of the author.
Would I recommend the book?
I would definitely recommend this book but only to the right people.
If you are looking to start Aikido or are a couple of belts deep (maybe earlier than blue or brown) than this book is in your zone.
I would recommend more detailed instructional books for more advanced ranks (to explore higher level moves and finer details) or people outside the art as the lack of visuals can make it more difficult to follow.
Considering that the majority of martial arts styles are occupied by people in their first 18 months of training, I’d say it’s a solid resource for most Aikido students.
You can grab it online if you want to get your hands on a copy.
Again thanks for reading this book review (on my movie site lol). If you’ve read this book let me know what you thought in the comments below.
Enjoy the rest of your day!
