Yeah, whoops, I don't know why I said a bouncer, it read "cop." I walked away for a few hours and came back and got it confused with another friend of Nick's that I remembered him talking about.
I saw one of these cop fights the other day on one of the police-only video websites and a cop fought two guys in a traffic stop. The driver started the fight, the passenger joined in. At one on point the passsenger got a shovel from the back of the truck.
The cop did quite well, actually. You might say he did some "Aikido." He was a bit bigger than both of them, but actually seemed to toss the guys off, but (as a problem with much aikido) they got tosed off and returned again and again and again. Meanwhile, the cop was punched several times, one real slammer right in the face.
He actually won with his expandable baton and then his pistol, and his radio. He actually won when another back-up responded and got there.
The thought occured to me...jeez...don't cops punch anymore? Well, the answer is no, not much. Like AIkido. If we look at the dashboards cop cams these days, and the other location films of the baliff being grounded n' pounded in the February Dispatches, we see cops rolling around, clinching without mission, not punching, trying to toss off the attacker. In fact, minus some token punching and kicking at the police academy, the martial training is like an Aikido. All methods inherently save and preserve the suspect (until the gun comes out).
The point I was trying to make in that last post and failed is that my Kiwi friend (New Zealander) was the kind of perfectionist that would not meld or blend systems and would fight that way. In his "Aikido reponses" he was able to resort to pure AIkido. Same with the Tae Kwon Do he did and Arnis. He had an internal view of it all. Compared to the other systems, he could not make the Aikido work as well. It perplexed him. He refuses "AIkido-plus."
While the Bouncer, I mean police officers are doing Aikido, and actually using its better Rugby, Footie, Football aspects and they are also winning at times with batons, scary threats, guns, tazers, radios and back up as finishers. Melting it into a practical world. Applying it. Something my kiwi friend, the purist I know, could not do.
Aikido... Plus! What else worked! AIkido..plus! When is the Plus SO MUCH? That is is not Aikido anymore?
I remember a Aikido lesson lesson inside an AIki-Jitsu class where we were taught that we needed to "toss the opponent" off of you so he could "re-consider" his violence. Some folks in class nodded in wonderment. I saw myself tossing , grappling, tossing, grappling, tossing for at least 18 risky minutes. But there were kneeling to downed ground captures and armbars that are common to many systems.
Many will say, and I have found myself saying so too, that when AIkido looks extra vicious and really successful? "Oh...thats Aiki Jitsu." I would have to admit, that yes, while there is some secret chamber where people must be doing Ultimate vicious, pure AIkido, most of the Aikido I have seen worldwide comes up quite short in the big picture and "earth biscuits" may have ruined it? Well, then they have successfully ruined most of it. if someone came to me looking for self defense, Aikido would be very low on my list of suggestions. Even just brand name jujitsu would be better.
But you all have to understand. I am prejudiced against MA systems in general. As soon as you put on a class uniform, any class uniform, you are putting on a doctrine that is usually innocently or overtly closed-minded and blinded with dogma and politics. Run by humans with human faults and egos. You begin to fight against the tactics in the system. A trap. Then a West Virginia coal miner or an Aussie Footballer comes along and kicks all our asses. When we wake up, we scratch our heads. (one of the big plusses of old school Japanese training was the Navy SEAL-esque conditioning and pain tolerance, like coal miners and "Footies.")
These are all esoteric questions I have wondered about for years.
When and how does Aikido cross the line and become AIki-Jitsu?
When and how does AIki-Jitsu become jujitsu?
When and how does karate become kick boxing?
When and how does combat hapkido look different than Japanese Jujitsu? How?
When and how does police tactics look different jititsu?
When and why does judo start punching training?
When and how does Okinawon Karate start doing fliud king fu moves? Why?
AIkido..plus! When is the "Plus" SO MUCH? That is is not really Aikido anymore?
When...and how and so on and on....
There are absolutely, inevitable conclusions here. They are ugly for some. We like teams... and flavors and things. Many of the answers are in the shell (uniform) games, flavors and origin mythology. The answers have always led me to shuck off all of it, and discern the essence of combat of all them. So remember, all my answers about martial arts (and well, religion and politics) are highly uncomfortable and prejudiced. We are tribal in nature. Ethnocentric. Victims of our our geography and demographics. We pick and stick to things, argue and fight for things for many reasons other than inevitable logic. We systematically fail to see the big picture. Life should be a continual hunt for the big picture. THAT is the true purpose of education. The guidepost for humanity.
In martial arts, the structure of training and its availablility in most countries is so limited. You get shuttled into a brand name and a logo school, handed a uniform, handed DVDs and pushed into class to "do as I say!"
Like art, science, college, religion and politics. When I get a simple question like "AIkido or Jujitsu?" Best punching art? Monk Quan said... Colonel Applegate suggests... My God is thee God! Tootie-Fruities over M&Ms?....ALL this shit flies through my head and I have to just shut up, write a book-length response, or have a calming shot of good whiskey and watch the creek outside my balcony. As I get older, I am more and more drawn to the creek.
The Zen people would drink tea.
Hock