I dont "do" aikido, but i have taken O Sensei's spiritual teachings as my main inspiration in life and for that I am eternally greatfull, so I take this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks and respect to the master.

Beautiful to see. Thanks for the post. Only those who have studied Aikido with Ki can understand how it is possible for an 83 yr old. When I was first shown a demonstration of Ki I didn't believe it was real. It was only when I DID it myself that I could see what it was about. After 10 years of study I acheived my first black belt... The don't just 'give away' belts like trophies... one has to do the work & learn the lessons & the artform. Its matters not what others believe.

This is truly inspiring. Ueshiba is not teaching techniques or words or concepts, he is teaching about a pure inner state. A clear mind and a pure heart. Thats where the true power comes from, the power of the universe. In this state you see that there is no enemy who needs to be defeated and no "me" who needs to be protected, and then your weapon is love. :)

aikido is the way to peace and harmony, that counts not only to human being but to all animals and to all living beings too..

People like O Sensei are so rare. It's one of these budokas you meet every one-hundred years only.

A GREAT HERITAGE FOR HUMAN KIND,GRACIAS O SENSEI UESHIBA.

well said centuricinema, ki is always there in our daily life. if you re mind is free, then you re free from fear, hate, anger etc. then you know what? you re enlightened. you don t need to be a master or a buddha, just be what you are in true sense ;-)

I asked the universe, what is my next path in learning. All of sudden Aikido in the form of a book called " The Spirit of Aikido" by Kisshomaru Ueshiba came to me.

This guy, who's making the ukes (attackers) fly, was one of the STRONGEST in the World. You cannot imagine the experience of this guy. If he think aikido is working, it IS working. So don't lose your trust in it.

Watch an older demo of his, where he actually makes contact with his students and tosses them around like rag dolls. The guy has gotten old, but he is still their master and O-Sensei. But is it truely respect for them to just fall like that? I would put up at least some resistance.

O Sensei, may your spirit be with all the Aikidokas of the world.

Aikido is one of my favorite martial arts. For me, it's one of the best options for self-defense.

Can't get tired watching this...on and off practicing.. putting my son (7yrs old) on training hopefully after his bday.

Beautiful demos,thank you for uploading sir.

Like a ripple in a pool of water, O'Sensei, what wisdom you still, even in video, is a treasure! Carefully note the hand placement, there is so much to learn, this Art is not to be taken lightly. Ous!

Lightest touch holds the most power. Ive seen and felt it for myself. :)

I am a logical, and scientific person as well, but I also train in Aikido. O'sensei was renowned and a legend in many ways, but a two of these reasons were his ability to harness and use his Chi, and also his un-matched strength. I'm not sure if there is a video for it, but there is a story, and the person who was a guest at the dojo hit O'sensei's bokken as hard as he could, and he said he was as though he hit a piece of steel. (To summarize the story)

O' Sensei was once asked where his 'power' came from. He simply replied: Train, train hard on your path of the way. Aikido roughly translated: The way of harmonising Ki.

gostaria muito de te-lo conhecido pessoalmente mas nasci no ano em que faleceu, foi um homem extraordinário.

Great gift O' Sensei gave us!

I have heard many times from a number of the founders direct students Aikido is not just a case of blending your waza with your opponents waza, but also a blend of your Kokoro with your opponents Kokoro. If you introduce competition or mindless compliance, it stops being aikido training. We may draw the lines as to what constitutes proper training in different places, but we all love aikido and are all aiming for more or less the same goals.

What a great gift he gave us!

I know a guy who was a cop In the LAPD back in the 60's. Ueshiba came to teach their Aikido class and the cop said that as he tried to attack Ueshiba he was thrown each time but couldn't feel him touching him. (Just like in the video.)

yes mdtt,83, it was in the book, this is aikido of tohei sensei, "he went to the garden, when He looked up to the blue sky and suddenly thrilled to a spiritual enlightenment. All he felt was joy , suddenly he saw he heart of the universe. at once he perceived his own oneness with the universe". p. 18 , practising meditation can lead you to this feeling of oneness but just to have a good health and live in harmony with all is more than enough to what aikido can bring.

I study aikido under Ikeda Shihan. He teaches at boulder aikikai. Ikeda Shihan divides his classes into two different types of classes (well 3 if you count weapons class as a type of class). There are movement classes where we learn techniques, and there are principal of aikido classes where we do no techniques. During the movement classes it is our job to work with our partner to discover what connection is all about both as uke (attacker) and Nage (the thrower). (msg continued)

Thanks for the share it's inspiring.

All my respect to O Sensei...

thank you very much for share this!

The first time my sensei (6th dan) asked me to help him demonstrate I was scared to death. When black belts would throw me it always hurt, i.e. headache in ten minutes. He had me come at him full force and he threw me like five feet completely off my feet and it felt like being gently laid down. It is hard to explain but I learned alot that night about Aikido. The 1st and 2cnd dan BB were still using strength in their moves my Sensei used over 40 years of technique and exprience. Thus Do vs.tsu!

we bow to you o'sensei.

超がつくほど貴重な映像ですね。 歴史的な価値があると思います。

yes miroscacilja, he is a realized master of Ki. he teaches aikido to understand the way to love, peace and harmony. no one was harmed because he did not touch. nothing is there between him and the other. there is only Ki.

@MisogiWaAikidoDesu go to aikido journal of O sensei, you might find the credits at the end..

yep, that day master dodged the bokken like at no time. later that evening he felt the universe quaking and some kind of gold going from the ground into his soul

It's funny how proficient he became. I can see that O-Sensei doesn't even let the opponents reach balance. He was so accustomed to fighting that he reached a master level in understanding the body's behavior. OF COURSE BAGUAZHANG WAS THE CULMINATION OF HIS ESSENCE! I see that some people don't enjoy the comment.

Thanks for the reply. The kinds of things you are talking about are things I have heard before. I guess I will just have to find a way to experience it for myself to truly get it. You have any practical advice as far as training goes?

You know what.. I have full respect for aikido and believe indefinitely its an amazing discipline but sometimes doesnt it just feels damn good to just PUNCH something.

Yes, read that too in on of his biographies.He wanted so much to join the army that he used to do that :)

May I ask what the name of the music in the video is? :-) Good video! Best regards

O-sensei was a genious, so it's no wonder that there are many people, who criticize him and his art.

hello vlady, thanks for your tip, you re right honestly i really learned more about self defense from your post ww II, video clips.

@jaynebiddiscombe , yes i did, it stopped me a while to see if there some spider on it.

yes leinaddf, planning to do the same to my 6 yr old daughter. it s a great foundation for their growth and life.

The reason there is no contact is because the attacker, "uke", avoids the the "hard contact." To actually make contact against some of the aikido techniques might actually result in injuries and painful training sessions; which is not the point if you're going to attend training every week. Another reason is that its also a good opportunity to practice aikido techniques to fall, roll, or blend with an incoming blow avoid injury.

Exactly, it's not outside your Self, is IN the Self that is not your Ego!

Ki is life force. It flows everywhere. And we all posses with our beings our ki. We use it everyday without knowing it. Some could say I'm a master of aikido because I have become happy and intelligent. And because I do not hate a single thing or person anywhere. And I do not fear a single thing or person anywhere. You must first learn to live as yourself, before you can use anything close to ki effectively. Someone can effect your attack without even knowing you.

@MyJacks09 yes in aikido we help each others

@YTwatchdawg This is a very simple technique, unfortunately due to the video quality you can't see exactly what is going on. This technique is called Irimi-Nage and it's power comes from compromising the bodies balance points. Here in this video the uke (or attacker's) chin is being pushed up and back until the person can no longer stand. As long as Nage's hame is strong uke's attack will never be able to penetrate this technique.

some of his uchi-dechi said, that O-Sensei was amazing, but he didn't posess any supehuman power. Just many many years of experience, and his uke-s were simple afraid of him, because if he did touch them, than it hurt for days. O-sensei Was no kami, neither god. I believe he was an extraordenary man, with lots of experience from life, and from never ending training.

@Gamfreek462 so you're saying that if they went against him with an intent to hurt him, he couldnt have thrown them around?

Oh and to those looking up Aikido fights just forget about it because the Art of Peace aka Way of Harmony is not about senseless violence.

O sensei was a Jedi Master! That explains everything! What else do you need?! He has mastered the force and is one with the universe..

@maheshwarananda Does that mean i can throw Kamehameha if i practice enough? If that's too much what about a small ki blast? Nothing too much, enough to light a campfire

Think about it like this. If a person comes running at you with a stiff arm you can either duck and avoid the blow or you can block it with your hands (hurting your body). If you duck and the guy follows you and you continue ducking he is controlling you without touching you.

My point was that the concept of enemy does not blind your mind. With a clear mind you see there is only a destroying force coming against you and then you let it come and take it on and then you guide that destruction to peace.

Its actually primarily about using ki. There are other martial arts such as Roppokai, Kodo-kai, and Hikarido (which are forms of Daito-Ryu) that utilize ki, and just ki. Aikido uses it a little differently, but its still essential. Afterall its name is AIKIdo. Aikido practitionors today either know very little, or don't know at all what ki is. And thats what O sensei said about other people. "Everyone wants to do their OWN aikido, not mine." I

Universal love is not a means to lead your opponent to something harmful, it is a way to find what you surely agree about, a way to bring friendship, peace and harmony to where there was nothing to begin with. But you have to find it from your own experience of life, you cannot school like learn it by memorizing some trick. Like: "I love sports." -> "So do many of the others enjoy them."; "I enjoy happy life together with friends." -> "Most of the others value it. So we have common ground..."

EXACTLY! That's why I'm happy!

it s true khtervol, leading the Ki is to flow in harmony and love. Harm could not exist. there is no trick, technique, system, or method to able you to know it but to experience and understand that Ki is our essence. Nothing but the the full realization of ki to make you understand this.

The reason they fall is to avoid the pain of the collision. Uke is trained to preserve themselves in the technique. Just the same as someone rolls to avoid collision with the ground the uke falls to avoid collision with the nage's body.

The thing in this is that the idea of aikido is to give the uke (attaker) a change to escape. So he is not hurting them he is juts forcing them to evade before he is hittig them.

pruedieii - what is your source for this info (the 4 states)? I would like to study this further. Thank you

Thank you. Stenudd Sensei is terrific.

The more I read the comments about Ueshiba and aikido the more I realize what a cult aikido really is.

yeah you re right every one has to find their own way instead of copying any Sensei. it s easy from the beginning to feel good and confident if the moves are copied from the authorities, but later on every one knows to copy is but to degrade yourself. No aikido, no thought of harming, no violence in mind, no enemies, no need of self defence. what is left? well you live in harmony then that s real aikido ;-)

Durring the principals of aikido class; however, our job is to be as resistant as we can. Basically, we grab our opponents and attempt to stop both their movement and our own. Sinsei then demonstrates how to wave through somebody's center causing them to go off balance. Usually this causes them to tilt in some way and it certainly allows you to move them. Its something I can't do consistently at all so I can't really explain it other than to invite you to boulder aikikai on wednesdays.

@skyjuke2006 , realization is not only the domain of O Sensei,but to all who sincerely want and strive for it. good luck to you.

@supralee Had you not completely ignored my last comment you would have notice this little snippet "But in the 50s and 60s [O sensei] handed many of the best Kendo, Karate and Judo fighters their arses. That's the reason why so many people started practicing Aikido." My father happened to be training in Toyko for the first Olympic Judo event and met O sensei. He was thrown across a room with ease despite beating the best Japanese Judoka at the time. O sensei was no slouch.

If you want to know more about what O-sensei is doing, search up "Aiki-waza," kokyu-ryoku, chushin-ryoku, and shuchu-ryoku. In Aikido, generally the higher level the master is, the more crazy and unbelievable the techniques become. That's part of why it's so fun to be on the recieving end. You'll go flying for no reason, and you just keep coming back for more, but can never figure out how he's doing it. I've experienced it from my own master (not at O-sensei's level), so I know this is real.

@Gamfreek462 Finally, the fallers, due to their high level, do not need a physical cue to tell them that they will fall. Taking the fall without contact makes it much less of a shock. Also, contact is meant to ensure that the practitioners know if someone's doing something wrong, not something you'd expect from O-Sensie. Also, he IS touching them when it matters to the completion of the technique.

I have so much appreciation for the art of Aikido, it was created for self defense, not attack and when used properly can be a very aggressive and effective way to deter your attacker. I just can't see how in this demonstration all of the aggressors fall down so easily? Could someone explain to me why they don't really seem to be trying? Or was Morihei so skilled in the art he just made it look easy? Someone reassure me of this art!

Now, I don't have a clue about how this works, but Ikeda can turn the little off centering movements into techniques and he can do it from static (being still) or flowing (moving) as long as there is some energy coming in. In static the connection comes from you trying not to move. If your ever in boulder colorado stop by.

dear wolfwood, ki is your own essence, it is your own nature. sooner or later all, not only aikidokas will fully realized that Life presence in them. Aikido means the way towards unification with Ki. when there is no separation or duality the you find your true Self. Live into the true meaning of Aikido and you ll find it for sure.

Aikido é best martial art ever.

Again, apologies if you misread my meaning. "This is training" referred to aikido practice in general (as in it is not dance or competition). My general point is regarding resistance in aikido training which is why I pointed you in the direction of Iwama. Why you mentioned Hombu Kanai and Yamada sensei's (good as they are) I don't know and of course you wouldn't have trained with them in Iwama. Chiba Sensei spent some time there. What I'm referring to can be felt in his way of doing things.

I said "what we're seeing is embu (demonstration), not the finer subtlties of Aikido pedagogy." Sorry if I wasn't clear in my question regarding appropriate resistance. It pertained to how we train aikido (I know there are various ways) and how it is demonstrated (embu - as here). Regarding resistance, have you trained with any of the founder's direct students in Iwama?

OK I am ready to take upon this opportunity and meet face to face with KI person who can play me like a puppet without touching me. I am in Sydney Australia and I am happy to meet any Aikido practitioner that has ability as O Sensei. I am telling you guys I have been standing againtst masters who are claiming that they have chi or ki that can seriously hurt me but in the end they are just full of it. I honesly hope that you can prove me wrong. Chers Misha

what is the music behind?

if there s no enemy in your mind there s no one to fight and nobody to fight...

So, I recently started a yoshokai aikido class and I'm still not sure if I like the particular style of yoshokai because to me it looks very different to the other styles I've seen seen, especially Ueshiba-sensei's style. To me it feels... "clunky". Am I just thinking to hard on it or am I right?

Unfortunately I couldn't train much of aikido because of my knee, but in my more than 10 years of martial arts, nobody could put me on my knees in pain like those aikido guys. I can't say if this demonstrations are real or fake, but body sure remembers being throwed like nothing over and over in the tatame.

i started from aikikai and now mainly doing from tohei s sensei ki no ken kyu kai, ki aikido. yes the root principle is the same so i do not have problem if i play to both dojos. it depends to your choice of preference between painting and carpentry.

@skeletor1980ism he is a great inspiration to many Budokas..

you SAW O Sensei? in person? you lucky bastage!! :P that must have been truly awesome!!

yes chandradutt, the ki can not be seen, but can be felt, , with out touching but one can be thrown, it can be experienced, i think so too.

Falling an opponent without touching goes via seeing the movement intentions (=ki =the sensed picture of the body instead of seen and touched picture of the body) of the other one and counting on the natural continuity and the natural reactions of the other one. Continuity leads the mass of another to certain direction, places without emphazis are th weak points to which one moves the opponent via natural reactions of avoiding being hit in the eyes or the like. One guides the momentum ashtray.

I have been studying aikido for a while now. My first teacher was Chetan Prakash Sensei (a fifth dan under Ikeda Shihan) and now I train at Ikeda Shihan's dojo. Now, all my teachers have been skilled practitioners of aikido. I have seen the techniques. I have felt them. That said, I still don't have a clue about ki, leading ki, or what ki is. Any advice? Also, where do you train? You mentioned Ki aikido so Tohei's school?

There are many different styles of Aikido but all of them are based on the original Aikido (if you will) that was developed by O Sensei. The difference in other forms of Aikido (mostly) is in the way in which it's tought although this may in itself result in some difference in technique. If you feel uncomfortable with your current style I suggest looking for Yoshinkan Aikido ( I have been practicing for 9 years). It's very close to O sensei's style since it was developed by his uchi deshi.

I see, I hope you have someone who can do what they say they can do (re KI) Please let them get in touch with me and I will be more then happy to participate in this exibision the mistery of KI. I know that exists but I need to be PRACTICALLY convinced that somebody can effect my attack without touching me. BRING IT ON!

O-Sensei in color! :D RIP O-Sensei and long live your wisdom.

there are many "fakes" but this guy was the real deal when it came to this

@MrMarcelo59 That's a good explanation. Also in other words, O-Sensei knows how to manipulates an Uke's mind (not in the magical "CHI" sense), body, and rhythm which does not necessarily have to touch him but through the guidance of the uke's movements. Of course, the uke does not want to get hurt, so chooses to fall at his own benefit. Real attackers will try to resist gravity and land awkwardly, and unsafely to the ground.

and in aikido, unlike most (or all?) other martial arts, you don't want to hurt your enemy or punish him or humiliate him. you want him to show that his attack is against the natural order, in the meaning that it stirs the flow of "ki". so you don't want to stop the attack itself, you're moving around it, so that the attacker just forgets that he wanted to attack you. it is a lot harder to attack and to block it than just avoiding it. hard to explain, sorry, my mother tongue is german. :)

@maheshwarananda ofcourse, that very fact is amazing because he had amazing brute force, but he did not use it, instead he used his ideology of not harming anyone. that makes him a true master by my view and of the reasons why everyone respected him. people who challenged him, i think one of the guys was the 1st admiral in japan navy at that time, he challenged him with katana i think, o sensei just evaded his attacks till the guy fell on his knees from exhaustion....XD became his student

I dont get it, it looks like he barely touches these people.. How does he do that? Pressure points?

yes you are right aikido is all love and harmony. i have no doubt that if o sensei will throw me i will fall to my own volition, because if i don t then i will just hurt myself further. o sensei teaches us to be in harmony with all. to be an ordinary man means to find your true essence (ki), if it is to zen for you, then read john stevens, invicible warrior, a biography of o sensei and you will find all the super human descriptions of o sensei that you need. ;-)

thanks goliath, yeah began to learn it that way, that s why i try always to take ukemis larger and heavier than my weight, well i feel dwarf compare with scandinavian aikidokas.:-)

he does have a point, we all know aikido is real and obviously any ordinary folk that tries to grab an aikido master they would be on their back in seconds, but its really hard to tell in this video if the demonstraters are demonstrating or they r just showing their respects to Ueshiba and being "gentle" with him. I personally am very interested in this art, but i wont be satisfied until i see a real fight between an aikidoist and a random MMA fighter of equal size...

Very nice. :)

@kedluben , yes they have to help each other