[Acidshock]

Sort of an old post but saw it and thought I would put my $0.02

In my opinion Aikido is definately useful but not very practical for most people as it takes years of practice. More than the average mma fighter can use without starting at an early age. It takes a couple years just to get moving correctly as the movement is quite different, very fluid. Anyone I have seen that can use it practically has had 10-15 years of experience in it. They also have dabbled in a couple other arts to get some sparring experience(and fill in some left out gaps) because Aikido does not emphasize much in the way sparring but rather mock sparring in which you are placed in an event and are to act accordingly. I found personally that this leaves you a little timid in a match if this is your only experience. Furthermore it you tend not to be able to read attacks as well.

A little summary/clarification about some Aikido. There are a couple different styles of Aikido; the new style is the better than traditional IMO. There is a lot more thought and math into the new style compared to traditional Aikido. The new style works on stance, technique, etc. that puts you at an advantage in an unforeseeable situation. For instance when entering a technique making sure your stance is at a certain degree angle. By use of this angle it reduces and most of the time removes the reach of your opponents hands to your face and puts you in an advantage to open your opponent to your own techniques. The new style also reduces movements and optimizes the movements so that you have power and stance at any given point in the technique. Also a lot of the Aikido techniques, are more effective if you have can obtain a good grip on the opponent which is not very practical sometimes while wearing equipment. There are also some great techniques and pressure points which can be useful in a lot of situations.

As a side note the experienced people(10-15 years) have a ton of useful knowledge and technique which I have seen applied in response to some practical MMA situations. I would recommend Aikido to anyone who is willing to take multiple arts and willing to invest time into Aikido. If you are not willing to commit then it probably will not be useful. Also when you look for an Aikido instructor make sure to talk to them, ask them about technique, stance, etc. Dont be afraid to ask why... however dont do that too much as they tend not to like it but the reason I say to do that is to see if they know why and know the technique. You do find some people which teach Aikido very spiritually which there is nothing wrong with however from a practical aspect if you are using it for technique, etc you want to know that you are working with someone who will empasize the technique and understands its application as well.

P.S. To say Aikido is useless is just not true. Aikido is based on several martial arts which are used in MMA today. However the way Aikido is tought simply takes too much time for the average person who is wanting to compete. Also Aikido discourages competition in order to keep harmony in the dojo. Also anyone who is in the Socal area. I would recommend Phil Greenwood out of Temecula/Murrieta or Robert Bryner out of Los Angeles. Both are excellent at technique and practical application.