martial arts

A couple of days ago, when I was writing the address of my dojo's website onto the pavement with chalk (with the aim of drawing attention to martial arts, especially to aikido), a little kid was coming by with his mother. As he saw what I was doing he asked his mother what I was writing there. After having received the answer from her, he immediately asked her mother "What is aikido?" I was curious about what people not doing martial arts might know about aikido so I waited patiently until the woman said something.

As mentioned in one of the previous posts, I had learned about the concept that through some movements, even some very simple ones, it is believed that enlightment can be achieved. I have been focusing harder on body movement, state of mind, connection and openness for about a month or so, and I think I realised some interesting points.

Many people criticise aikido for being too soft (and many love it just because of that). Others watch Steven Seagal films and say that aikido is brutal (and many would love to start aikido because of that). Now, is it soft or hard?

A couple of years ago I attended a course where we practiced and aimed to improve several useful transferable skills. Among the exercises we did was one which was about going into a room, sitting down and answering questions of several interviewers. One of us who was selected for this exercise had been studying a martial art for a long time (I think he did kyokushin karate) and his performance was better than the others' (people not being interviewed were observers). The course leaders said that people studying martial arts are naturally better at interviews and, generally, in stressfull situations.