schools of aikido

[traceur]

What are the major differences in techniques and philosophy between the aikido styles? And how did these different schools originate?
Thanks
Dave Tucker

[DexterTCN]

The same as the difference between individual people.

[traceur]

Of course you're right, that's definately true. Style, priority, pace, and attitude change from person to person, let alone school to school. But what I was hoping for were any technical differences between different styles, i.e. do some put more stress on strikes, certain take downs, specific teaching methods, that kind of thing.
Thanks,
Dave Tucker

[roninja]

for ki society and Aikikai, i think, think, the emphasis gets somewhat spiritual. But for tomiki, the emphasis is "logical" (note the """", i'm not trying to condescend the other styles, I love them and eventually want to train in them as well). Tomiki had crowded dojos as well he was a judoka and felt that the Aikido curriculum was too big. so he took everything and tried to sum it up. and given the crowded dojos he developed his techniques to be very linear. basically if someone punches we pull them down the line that they were punching. but in recent years Karl Geis has been taking What Tomiki did and and making it less "linear" and more "openly linear" the emphasis is still on the lines and balance of uke, but there is the option of taking uke really where ever you want as long as you keep in mind certain principles. or at least this is what I have taken. Anyway, Tomiki styles is Tomiki-ryu. Geis' styles are Fugakukai and Kihara. I don't know if Geis is the sole founder of these styles. and then Ki Society, I think, was developed by Koichi Tohei, though i could be way off, and then Aikikai was developed by Ueshiba's son, whose name I cannot remember, so we can call him Ueshiba. but i think his title is Doshu. Anyway, Tomiki-ryu and Aikikai and Ki Society are, to the best of my knowledge, the three main schools of Aikido, and there are numerous off branches. One of my favorite being Kiai-golf, developed by Jamie Zimron(?). I don't play golf or like it really, but I saw a demonstration, and it was very interesting how she applied it, and when she did her Aikido demo, I was very impressed by what I saw. Anyway, double check everything I've said. I'm good at being wrong. Amitabha

[traceur]

thanks a lot!
Dave Tucker

[aikiscotsman]

Some schools try to teach what they think they were being taught by Osensei . Some try to teach what they think is there way of Aikido. Some try to teach what they think Osensei should have been doing, and some are just teaching what they know.

[Jas]

In Nihon Goshin Aikido we do not follow the teachings of Osensei, we believe that Aikido is done for self defense at any cost, I've seen alot of other styles of Aikido, and I've noticed that most of them don't train to defend off punching attacks just grips.

[kenkyusha]

Hello,

Aikikai- large circles, very fluid (though there is a tremendous range from teacher to teacher- e.g. Saotome sensei's waza is very different from Yamada sensei [or the late Kanai sensei], and that is again different from Chiba sensei...)
Shinshin Toitsu- uses aikido techniques to get in touch with esoteric energy
Yoshinkan- tight and sharp, strong emphasis of basics
Tomiki- strongly influenced by the logical organization of techniques, and randori of Judo

Ultimately, the thing to remember is that Ueshiba O-sensei taught folks for 40+ years, and at each stage of his practice, transmitted what was most important for him at the time. This coupled with the number of students he had over that time, their respective backgrounds and interests, means that even within an organization, personal styles can vary greatly.

Aikiweb.com and Aikidojournal.com both have lots of resources to help find some baseline stuff (video of people doing technique, descriptions of teaching methods, etc.). Hope that helps.

Be well,
Jigme