Ok, so I did a search, and looked some stuff up, and I've decided on Aikido. How effective is that?

My main concerns are my size and strength. I'm petite, 5' 3", and if I come into contact with a guy that's 6' tall, I need to know the techniques I need to disarm him and/or get away.

Wing Chun and Muay Thai, or Jiu Jitsu are all fantastic, and I'd really want to try them, but I can't find a center for them in reasonable distance, and the Aikido center is right there...

I saw a documentary on it on Fit TV, about a woman who went to Japan to fight in a few dojos and I like the style of Aikido, since it's taking care of business without relying too heavily on strength or bulk (like Tae Kwon Do). I think I'll do Aikido in addition to another martial art, maybe Jiu Jitsu (it's easy enough to find, and I can start once I get a CAR, lol) or Wing Chun (designed by a petite woman and would basically be designed for my use as a fellow petite woman).

But Aikido is close, cheap, and effective, I think.

What do you suggest as my second martial art, and/or what do you think of Aikido?

There is a lot of variation in how Aikido is taught and it is not generally thought of as a combat style. That is not necessarily bad tho. learn all you can and enjoy it. Remember not to loose the open mind you have now. Wing Chun will be similar in teaching methods as far as learning set patterns; but some of the utility won't seem as obvious. Wooden dummy training is cool but painful and you should develop a feel for push hands or sticky hand training from Aikido. In some ways Muay Thai will be similar to Wing Chun in application but based even more on practical real world techniques. Jujitsu may employ some throws that are similar to those you will learn in Aikido but the real focus and genius will be on how you handle yourself after you hit the ground, something none of the others you have mentioned really focus on. Muay Thai and Jujitsu will likely require a lot more competition but if you want to really learn how to fight you have to do it. long answer but just remember to enjoy and try to learn all that you can.

for a shorter person i think aikido is the way to go

In my experience, Aikido is not very effective. Most Aikido schools never do any real sparring - they just practice choreographed techniques where the opponent does not resist your throws. I have sparred with 2 people who had an aikido background, and neither was able to throw me or make any of their techniques work. I was able to land punches pretty much at will against them. They came to my school because we do a ton of sparring, and they knew they weren't getting that experience at their aikido dojo. They did demonstrate some pretty neat techniques with each other, though!

In my opinion, the reason that aikido does not do well in sparring against fighting arts is that it isn't really intended for sparring/fighting. Aikido is a self-defense martial art; a martial art concerned with: what if a guy grabs your wrist? what if a guy attempts to hit you over the head with something? what if a guy tries one full-extension, full committment kick? For these situations, aikido is very good.

For sparring against a jabbing boxer? A kicking TKD or punching/kicking kickboxer/karateka? Not so good. It wasn't made primarily for those situations, so it won't work for the average aikidoka in those situations. It was intended for self defense situations, not "fighting/sparring" so it won't appear to be effective in those situations.


Of course, the highly-trained aikido adept can defend him/herself against ANY kind of opponent, trained or otherwise. But you have to get to that level to be able to handle fighters as well as self-defense situations.

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• 3 weeks ago