The idea of testing a martial art vs. trained, active resistance is as obvious as swimmers wanting to get in the water and swim. Incomprehensibly, Aikido adepts don’t test the art, ever, and instead do the equivalent of wandering around a room while waving their arms and making water noises, all the while believing themselves to be swimming. As a result, their actual self-defense skills are less than zero.
Failing to have a practical side is not necessarily a failing in martial arts. Tai Chi masters only rarely claim the practice imparts significant self-defense ability, so practitioners, most of them, rightly understand they are developing their health and wellness. Yoga is a warrior art, but teachers do not claim the practice imparts self-defense ability, so practitioners rightly understand they are developing their conditioning, peace of mind, and a host of other vital qualities. The sole issue with Aikido is that it claims to provide self-defense ability, and does not. The founder being a wizard is a little weird, but nothing consumer advocates need be concerned over.
The vast majority of techniques in Aikido are utterly useless at best, and the few that are real, like the front kick, are rendered useless by the lack of getting in the water. In the 100-year history of Aikido, there have been just a handful of times that Aikido has verifiably been tried, and it invariably ends in comical failure.
In the video below a Turk living in Australia named Levent Altunbas was in Vietnam, stopped by the largest Aikido dojo, and was challenged to grapple by a 4th-degree black belt.
What makes this contest all the more comical is that Altunbas is terrible. Grandmaster runs something called Martial Kinetics in Campbellfield, Australia, and claims to have revived the ancient fighting system of the Ottomans, the Turkish submission wrestling art of Teslim Alma Guresh.
The ad copy on his website is textbook inadvertent martial arts comedy.
Time has hidden many of man’s greatest achievements. Secrets have been buried. Arts have been lost. This is particularly true to the martial arts.
After thousands of years of hand-to-hand combat, almost all martial arts have been reduced to patchwork techniques cobbled together over the last few decades.
The history has been forgotten. The development of martial arts has either been handicapped by sporting rules, or crippled by the commercialism of the black belt salesmen.
Occasionally, a lost art is rediscovered and the true essence of a martial art is revived. In recent history, these have been rare but exciting events.
Jim Arvanitis in Greece brought back the ancient art of Pankration. Helio Gracie combined the roots of Brazilian grappling with traditional Jiu Jitsu, creatively calling it Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Viktor Spiridonov and Vasili Oshchepko reconnected Russia with its Turkic fighting roots with the development of Sambo. Tellingly, each one of these revivals has seen a definite similarity in style.
Each martial art revival that has looked to its roots has seen its wrestling origins. Not of the sporting type, but the vicious close combat style of submission wrestling. It is today, in the 21st Century, another revival is taking place.
The oldest form of submission wrestling. The most complete and comprehensive style of fighting, Teslim Alma Guresh. The Reviver, Grand Master Levent Altunbas.
As a young fighting Turk, Grand Master Altunbas was unsatisfied with the traditional Asian martial arts and the wrestling sports he found in Turkey. He began to research the fighting accounts of the Turkic and Arabian warriors. He found Teslim Alma Guresh, a fierce fighting method, with ancient roots in the early Sumerian empires and the Turkic-Asian tribes and perfected in the first Islamic Empire.
There were accounts of legendary warriors being forced to admit defeat hand-to-hand combat against the Islamic leaders. This was the beginning of the rediscovery of Teslim Alma Guresh. With a basic foundation, Grand Master Altunbas began to travel the world, testing his techniques against the world’s deadliest fighters.
He fought against Olympic wrestlers, Presidential bodyguards, Ninjas, Aikidoka, Kung Fu masters, even Mixed Martial Arts fighters like George Sotiropoulos. He was, and still is, undefeated. Over a period of more than twenty years, each victory brought another development and another refinement of Teslim Alma Guresh.
Teslim Alma Guresh Reviver and Grand Master Levent Altunbas defeated retired UFC lightweight and welterweight George Sotiropoulos, presidential bodyguards, and actual ninjas! Neat!
The truth is, if you ask any grappler to watch Altunbas, he is a blue belt at best. And the bottom line is, Aikido is so ineffective from a practical point of view that even martial arts clownshoes like The Great Reviver Levent Altunbas can defeat masters of it, effortlessly.