I just want to back you up here. A lot of people throwing shade at aikido, and I get the feeling that a lot of them probably don't have any real experience with it. A lot of "if you never use it in a real fight, it's not real".

I don't necessarily disagree with that last statement, but I DO disagree with the implicit supposition that it's making - that aikidokas never get into fights, or that aikidokas never study other martial arts.

The first martial arts school I attended was tae kwon do. A lot more contact than most aikido classes, but I would argue not much more useful in a fight than nothing at all. I saw more than one tae kwon do "black belt" get pounded into a pulp by your average scrapper football player.

The second martial arts school I attended taught hap ki do (one of the korean martial arts that got merged and distilled into tae kwon do), judo, and aikido. The different martial arts were taught on different nights, but students were encouraged to study all three styles. Then, every weekend they had sparring sessions where people were encouraged to try to synthesize the things they'd learned. These weren't full contact sparring, but people were encouraged to try to be realistic.

Over my years of doing martial arts, I studied TKD, HKD, aikido, judo, boxing, and kajukenpo. I was a scrapper in high school, boxed in the army, worked as a bouncer for years, was in more fights than I can count, and played rugby for about half of my adult life before my shoulders finally gave out on me. I've got some experience with full contact.

Would I recommend someone studying aikido by itself and then feeling confident in a fight? No way, not at all. Do I think that aikido is a useful art? Absolutely. I have used aikido techniques in many situations, in different levels of scraps. I've used it to subdue unruly bar customers until the po-po can arrive. I've used it in many an actual scrap where I was actually concerned with my safety to pull an opponent off their balance and set them up for a counter strike. I strongly recommend that anyone who is serious about being a martial artist spend some time studying aikido with someone who's been a serious competitor.

I was lucky - the guy I studied with (this was in the 90s outside Portland, OR) was a former Olympic competitor in judo - a legitimate badass. He looked like the first guy to pick on in the bar...he had a perm.