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Hi - my name's Azu. Welcome to AikidoFlow. I'm here to basically explain to you or basically
answer the question why I choose aikido over any martial arts. Now I wanna stress I'm not
saying aikido is the best martial arts in the world; there's aspects of it which are
brilliant, aspects of all martial arts - all martial arts is brilliant. But for what I
do, aikido I've found is the best martial art. My day job I work in a school, teaching
kids, part time I do security in nightclubs. I've been doing that for about 15 years and
I've been in a lot of situations where I've used aikido in real life. And the reason why
it's best for me is because it gives me choice. Now, I'm not that young anymore, and it's
nice to be able to do something without having to punch or kick all the time. I've seen - I've
been arrested twice on the job. And that's often been the result of me hitting somebody
back in the day and police come, they see blood, a broken nose or whatever, next thing
minute I'm in cuffs, I'm being arrested. And that was just me acting in self defence. But
aikido lately I've found has given me a choice, like for example - sorry, Ondrej can I borrow
you please? Ondrej! For example, I've been in many situations now. Let's..I'm gonna talk
about first of all the situations where I've managed to defuse a situation and have it
not escalate to anything. Ok, one scenario - one guy here, his mates are kicking off,
so all security are fighting here, this guy I'm trying to keep him calm, and suddenly
he just grabs me, ok. And he grabs me and he goes for a punch here, ok. I was able to
block it and come with a nikkyo and say to him "Hey my man, relax, calm down, ok". He
felt a bit of pain here and that was enough for me, I didn't even have to take him down
all the way or anything, that was enough for him to say "Alright, alright, I'm good I'm
good I'm good." And this defused the situation. Another time, same thing, guy went for a grab.
I grabbed his hand, and I gave him a nice lock here and I said to him "My man, please,
relax yourself, calm down." And that was enough to disperse it. It was about to kick off,
but it didn't. I've also escorted people out of the club many times where I've come along,
there's been lots of security pinning down one guy, trying to hold him, this guy's been
struggling, and I've come along and I've just grabbed him here, got him in a bit of a lock
here and said "Alright, everybody let go let go. Come on mate, let's go." And I've walked
him out the club. Take him out the door, yes, goodbye mate. Done and dusted. So it hasn't
really had to escalate to me throwing punches or whatever. And to be honest, sometimes people
do silly things, and maybe you wanna inflict a bit of pain on them for them to make you
realise that ok I shouldn't mess here. So it makes it easy for me to do that without
leaving any visible damage on them. I've also been in the scenario when I was attacked.
Kicked out about 20 guys from the club, me and my other security. They started to rush
the door. Now, we're all kind of fighting here but one guy came at me, he's come with
a big swing, ok. Boom! This is when I thought I have to go all out. So the block was here,
and I just came here with my elbow, ***! Took him out; he was done, ok. And then, the
other guy he came along, same thing. They always go for that haymaker. And all I did
was I go here...boom! A nice clothesline. That could be seen as a tenshio-nage, but
this time was a block, ***! I just went through. This was a scenario where I thought ok, I
need to do something here. There's 20 of them; I need to damage some people. Because what
it resulted in me damaging a few people and everyone just like "Woah" you know what I'm
saying. Everybody just backed off once they saw these people on the floor. They backed
off. I've also been in the scenario where one guy threw a punch, and as I blocked, I've
just gone here, and I was able to take him down and just hold him there until more security
came and then took him out but like I say, it gave me a choice. The last time I punched
somebody in the face, me and a colleague, big guy, he came at me, I moved here, I punched
him here, ***! I had teeth marks in my hand. My hand was bleeding. I had to go for a tetanus
shot. I didn't want to take any chances. So that's why I love aikido. It gives me choice.
I don't necessarily have to - I don't always have to punch, I don't always have to kick,
but in a situation where I feel like I'm overwhelmed, I can go all out and truly damage somebody
whether it's an elbow, or even some punches and a elbow, and something different here
to finish them off, but it gives me choice. That's why I love aikido. And for me, it's
the best martial art for what I do. Thank you Ondrej.