Aikido and Chinese Nei Jia
Although these arts are not the same, they have a number of similarities. I trained in Aikido for 5 years or so, followed by the same amount in various internal CMAs.
Aikido in practice uses lots of joint locks and throws. People need to realize that you don’t just walk up to someone and put on a joint lock. That is utterly impossible if they resist with any effort.
In Aikido if your opponent has an opening you attack. If they don’t block or avoid it you knock them down. If they do block it you apply a lock or throw. This is the same simple strategy used by almost all martial arts.
In practice Aikido always assumes that your opponent will counter your first assault, so the bulk of practice is done on throws and locks.
Repeat: You only throw someone after the attack has been countered.
Aikido uses two primary attacks.
Shomenuchi: This is the equivalent in IMA to Pi Chuan in Xingyi. You knock him out by advancing into his space and cutting his structure down like chopping wood with an axe. It is powered by the forward step, not the arm’s strength. It’s a more vertical strike.
Tsuki: This is the equivalent in IMA to Beng Chuan. You knock him out by advancing into his space and punching his torso, neck or face right on like a battering ram. Again, it is powered by the forward step, not the arm strength. It is more of a horizontal strike.
Although there are others, these are the primary attacks of Aikido, which by conincidence are exactly the same as Xing Yi’s two most feared and effective attacks.
From my perspective, these are the core of Aikido, just as much as Xing Yi. All the joint locking and throwing only happens if the opponent withstands your attack.
These two attacks are less common in other JMA, thus the rise of the idea that O-Sensei may have learned them during his many years of travel in Northern China during WWI and WWII.
After one year of either Xing Yi or Aikido the practictioner should be the equal of any external martial artist trained the same amount of time. It shouldn’t take a “Looooong time” to learn IMA or Aikido for fighting.
If however, the Aikidoists Shomenuchi and Tsuki are not understood and heavily trained, then of course he will get his ass kicked. Same goes for the Xing Yi man who doesn’t train Pi Chuan & Beng Chuan obsessivly.
The only real difference I see between the two arts is that O-Sensei didn’t leave behind a solo training method, he cut out the forms, but kept the applications. The Aikido people don’t have a good way to train their attacks daily, so they get into faking it in the dojo just to get on to the throws and locks. If Aikidoists got back to mastering their core attacks, they would be dominating the UFC by now! Ok, maybe that’s a bit much.
Once you have those two attacks built into your body, you have a basis to get into the fun stuff. Until then you are merely faking it.
-JessO
Aikido/Aiki Jujutsu/whatever other variation of the style, IS internal to some degree. We are trained to take the hits we can’t avoid and turn them into something useful, like leverage or use the momentum to strengthen our next attack.