Mastering Aikido - 5 Vol Set

Customer Reviews:

Solid, not outstanding........2005-12-30

OK, here's my disclaimer-- I do not practice aikido, so I am not that great a judge of it. What I am is a martial artist with over 20 years of experience, in several other arts, most notably and most recently internal kung fu styles. In fact, my interest in aikido comes from a book "Aikido-- The Dynamic Sphere" that I was very much enjoying, particularly for many of the similarities in principles that it had with internal kung fu. Alas, that book was stolen from my car, and will have to wait for my review on Amazon.com until I get a new copy and finish it.

In the meantime, I got these DVDs as a gift. I thought it important to review them because the info here on the Amazon website about them is pretty limited, and you should know what you are getting for your $130.

The first two DVDs are "King of Aikido Vols. 1 and 2". You can buy these separately at Amazon.com, so don't buy both! These are 60 minute DVDs showing old black and white film of O-Sensei, the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. Some of it is grainy, but much is of surprisingly good quality. There is some video of O-Sensei meditating, walking, but much of it is aikido. O-Sensei is very impressive, effortlessly tossing around his students/assistants in impressive fashion. Graceful, like he was born doing it. In fact, it was this effortless power that attracted me to look into aikido in the first place. These are not instructional DVDs. Just O-Sensei doing his thing. If you are an experienced aikido practitioner, you *may* be able to glean insights from this, but I cannot, other than to say that O-Sensei is very impressive at what he does. There is no narrative, just music, not even O-Sensei speaking in Japanese and therefore some of his comments possibly somewhat accessible if you can get ahold of an interpreter. You just get to see him move. In addition to bare-handed aikido, you get to see him defending sword vs. sword, knife vs. sword, and hand vs. sword. These are more about timing and positioning and the kenjutsu technique than anything special. O-Sensei is also seeing doing drills with sword and bo staff-- again, nothing special in my opinion. But the empty-hand demos are impressive.

The other three volumes are actually instructional DVDs in "Shuyokan Ryu Aikido". The instructor is Soke David Dye, 10th Dan. So if warning bells are not sounding in your head, then let me ring them. Yes, Shuyokan Ryu appears to be a new style that Mr. Dye founded. It is, per Mr. Dye, a style that combines various other Japanese systems that he has trained in, including Shotokan Karate, a form of Jujitsu, Aikido, and Judo. If you are not suspicious of new systems, with the head instructor the self-appointed "10th Dan" and founder of the system, then you should be. These DVDs teach fundamental aikido techniques from this multi-disciplinary modern system.

That being said, Mr. Dye does appear competent in aikido. He certainly is not as smooth as O-Sensei, and his technique is not effortless, despite being a larger man throwing around what are for the most part smaller students/assistants. Still, the techniques are fairly seamlessly done, and quite effective-looking, and Mr. Dye seems sincere in his intent, as well as being a clear speaker and a good overall instructor.

Vol. 1 is techniques of Kotegaeshi (reverse hand), essentially about 20 variations on a technique that involves a hyper-supination wrist lock to throw technique.

Vol. 2 is on shihonage (all-direction throw) and iminage (entering throw), essentially variations on two technques that I would describe as a linear clothesline and a one-armed overhand throw down.

Vol. 3 is defenses against clubs, knives, and guns. Mr. Dye does comment on the philosphical decision one has to make regarding enacting these defenses depending on the situations, and the techniques appear to have a decent chance of succeeding if one is competent in them. Mr. Dye is also an experienced law enforcement officer, and is good about discussing legal ramifications of using various levels of force even in self-defense situations, as well as the less than obvious health hazards of a knife fight (hepatities and HIV, for example).

Each of these three DVDs is only about 30 minutes, unfortunately, and Vol.s 2 and 3 repeat sections on falling/rolling. However, the rest is well-edited, and efficiently presented, and he covers a pretty good amount of aikido in the timeframe I described. Each of these three DVDs concludes with about 15 minutes of advertising, the most impressive is George Alexander (who directs these aikido DVDs but does not teach them) doing a Crane-style karate kata (possibly Okinawan) that is one of the few karate kata that appears to have some elements of kung fu in them that I have seen (one other I have seen by Fumio Demura).

Anyway, all in all, these DVDs are probably par for the cost-- it breaks down to $25 each, and in a world where many instructional martial arts DVDs will cost you $35-$50 each, these are probably worth what you get, but nothing more.

Regards, keep practicing, and good luck with your efforts!

DVD:

DVD

DVD