No that's not bagging. So what do you call it? I call it offensive for a start.
But let's look at the articles again ...
I take no offence at the article. I think it is factually correct.
Here is Henry Ellis teaching. I'm expecting that you agree that this is good Aikido ...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q-hEuTx6bOg
Perhaps Abbe Sensei may still have studied Aikido in a traditional Aikido school after all.
So do you agree with all of the article or just the parts that fit your perception?
I think you're looking for a conflict where there is none. My experience with Aikido lines up with Ellis' misgivings about how a lot of Aikido is practiced. The only Aikido I've seen in person and interacted with is the dance-like stuff that Ellis abhors. Thus, I understand Ellis' frustration with how Aikido has evolved, because it really doesn't resemble a martial art as practiced in many Aikido schools.
However, you have to understand the perspective I'm coming from. I'm coming from a martial art that constantly demonstrates its techniques on opponents trained and untrained in it. Its used against everyone from boxers to wrestlers with devastating effect. When it is demonstrated, it is done in a very practical method which is very hard to argue against.
Aikido simply doesn't do that. So when I look at that Ellis video, it doesn't really impress me. It's an old guy throwing around an overweight guy who is clearly his student. It is a demonstration that tells me nothing about the effectiveness of Aikido. Is it good Aikido? I suppose so. Is it something I would like to invest time into learning? Not really because it doesn't look "real"
to me. I would like to see Ellis utilize those abilities against a wrestler or a boxer, but that never happens. Instead, all we have are stories, and folk tales about the masters of old performing these incredible feats of ability that somehow can't be re-created in the modern day. After listening to that stuff for years in karate, I'm done with it. I need more than stories of frail masters throwing body builders around like rag dolls, I need to see it to believe it.
His son Rik is trying to take Aikido into the MMA world, but looking at his fight vids, he looks like the typical MMA fighter. He then goes on to make a variety of excuses as to why you don't see Aikido in his fighting style. It really doesn't help the situation, it just makes things worse.
I'm sorry, but I'm a skeptic. This article gives a reasoning behind my skepticism. Again, it's not my intention to "bag" on Aikido, this is merely my view as an outsider looking in. I would like to believe in Aikido. I just can't. Maybe someday someone will come out of the shadows and dominate boxers, wrestlers, Judokas, kick boxers, and others with their great Aikido skills. When that happens, I will be a believer.
Hopefully this helps you understand where I'm coming from.
