Aikido technique is just about one of the most peaceful yet effective method of self defense you ever learnt in aikido schools.

Aikido technique is a scientific form of self-defense taught in an aikido schools and is an art created over fifty years ago by Master M Uyeshiba. It is combination of many martial arts including Ju-jitsu, Kendo and Karate. Aikido technique relies on redirecting and controlling an attacker’s force using unbalancing and joint immobilization techniques which you will learn in aikido schools.

Your schools curriculum would include 720 aikido technique and they are usually the throwing techniques called “naga waza”, and the controlling techniques called “katame waza”. Your training would revolve around freeing yourself from a hold, throwing your partner to the ground by exerting pressure and immobilizing opponents by exerting pressure on their joints.

As a practitioner of aikido technique, you would practice the followings five basic defensive techniques:

1. You strike your opponents vulnerable parts of the body using your fingertips, knuckles and side of your hand. This technique is called “atemi”.
    
2. You shift out of the way of an attack or use your body weight to amplify a defensive technique. This technique is called “tai sabaki”.
    
3. You practice forceful, committed ways of entering the space of your attacker. This technique is called “irimi”.
    
4. You throw an opponent to the ground using pressure on his or her joint restraints. This technique is called “rofuse”.
    
5. You immobilize a partner using joint restraints. This technique is called “kansetsu”.

Although some striking techniques exist in aikido, these aikido technique are used primarily to distract your opponent and allowing you to employ alternatives methods for gently controlling your attacker.

Aikido schools

As a student practicing aikido technique, in the martial art school you would be called Aikido-ka and your school uniform is a thickly woven, white pajama-style outfit called a doji.

The first thing an aikido-ka learns in the practicing of aikido technique in a school is how to fall properly. Aikido Ukemi – a break falls is similar to those in Judo but without hitting the ground with your arm. They should be soft and your body should be kept like a ball. In the school, you’ll learn to roll when thrown so as to recover on one's feet.

You would then practice in the schools “suwari-waza” – an aikido technique of sitting with one knee resting on the mat, keeping your feet underneath your buttock and the other knee is bent. Keep your hands on top of your knees and now lower the knee that is bent onto the mat and spin on your knee until you are in the opposite direction, bringing the other knee into the bent position. Continue this move - alternatively changing knees and turning from side to side. Keep your shoulders relaxed, the small of your back straight and your toes bent uppermost.

Practice until you are able to move in all directions with a smooth rhythm and then practice with a partner. Each aikido technique is to counter a particular form of attack.

Another important thing in an aikido technique is to keep our posture in an oblique position to lessen the area of attack and you are able to move more easily and with speed.

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