Aikido Moves

The Japanese martial art of aikido involves two parties, the uke and nage. Practitioners carrying out these roles don’t necessarily play out a power struggle, but more of a transfer of balance; the taking and preservation of. The nage’s responsibility is to control the attack by neutralizing the forward momentum of the uke, and then put the uke off balance instead of volleying with a reactionary attack. The uke, the attacker, accepts the move carried out by the nage, and in turn, executes a parry or special fall intended to avoid or mitigate potential injuries. This general act is known as ukemi.

As part of this training, one of the first aikido moves to be learned is the break-fall or safety-fall. This is necessary for the safety of the pupils because a significant element in this form of martial arts is throwing. Since aikido attacks usually involve striking and grabbing motions, the countering defense incorporates throwing and pinning movements.

Although the striking motion of the attacks in this particular art closely resemble that of swinging a sword, the actual use of weapons is not very widespread, and is usually limited to more senior level practitioners and specific styles. Also usually reserved for mastery levels is the practice of taking on more than one opponent at a time. This specific practice is usually limited to senior levels because the ability to avoid inflicting serious injury while defending one’s self against multiple attackers becomes increasingly more difficult and endangers the core fundamentalism of aikido.

Related Information

Aikido Training
Aikido training incorporates techniques to attack and defend without injury.

Aikido Stances
Aikido stances vary depending on the situation, such as attacking or defending.