Actually, in my opinion, if you're looking for an art that will teach you hand to hand fighting skills, than Aikido is not a good choice at all. That is to say, it's about the least efficient path towards fighting skill that I can think of. Let me be clear: I think Aikido is a wonderful martial art, with so much to offer its practitioners, but I can name many, many other arts that will give you usable skills in a fraction of the necessary training time. Aikido as a martial art is so far removed by time (and culture) from when the techniques were trained realistically for combat purposes that its almost abstract. There are probably some schools out there that train to perform Aikido techniques against attackers employing common fighting techniques (punches, kicks, takedowns, etc.) at full or nearly full speed with full or nearly full resistance, but they're the exception. In Aikido, if you're training in a school that is concerned at all with ranking their students with an affiliated national or international Aikido organization, then you're having to do double the training (traditional-style techniques, then the same techniques "street" style) if you want real, usable skills ASAP. Not very efficient if your goal is to train primarily for self defense purposes. I would estimate that it took me 2-3 years before I felt like I had trained enough to be able to utilize what I knew in an altercation.
I stuck with Aikido (and Judo and Jujutsu, all with the same instructor) for 4 years, made it to shodan (1st degree black belt), and after that, trained when I had the time/money/opportunity. I never school or style hopped. Once I went back to Aikido after about 2-3 years away, I found that my priorities had changed, which led me to seek out the most effective combat/fighting techniques taught in the most efficient, and stimulating, manner. Thus, I now practice Sayoc Kali, because it fills all of my personal criteria for a combatives system. I am open to learning new things in the future, though, in order to fill in the holes in my game.
The inherent problem with the martial art you mentioned above is that it's going to be a problem finding anyone who can teach it. And if you do find someone who claims to know it, then how legitimate are they? If a martial art is exceedingly rare, then there's a good chance that many of the people you come across who teach it are dishonest. There are so many more common martial arts that would give a person more than enough hand to hand training. Now, if you can find someone who can legitimately teach kuʻialua, then I'd jump on it like crazy (from what I can glean from the internet, it sounds fascinating).
I also think that cross training is a totally valid approach to learning martial arts. A good solid base in something is important, but you can always pick up good info from other arts. Hell, if you study the Inosanto system of martial arts, then you're learning like 7 different disciplines (JKD, Kali, Silat, and more). With the basis I had in Aikido (and, to a lesser extent, Judo and Jujutsu), I was able to move quickly into boxing, and pick up a lot of information in a short amount of time (about 3-4 months before I moved back to the States). That's another plus of studying martial arts (at least for me): constantly having to learn and apply new techniques and concepts has taught me ho to pick up new things quickly (physically and mentally).
The most important thing, in my opinion, is to be honest with yourself about what you want and how far you're willing to go to get it, do your research, and then go train.
Last edited:
