While Aikido is a Martial Art, I believe that it is also a lot more. Most people who know or understand little about the Martial Arts see all the styles as merely forms of self defense, with lightening quick punches and kicks that can kill an opponent with a single blow.  What these people do not understand is that Aikido is something else as well.

The philosophies behind it affect not only a situation where we must defend ourselves physically, but it is also with us in our everyday lives, in any conflict that we may encounter.  Aikido is the art of non-combat, where a peaceful solution is desired over physical conflict.  There are no competitions in Aikido because to say that one person is the winner and the other the loser automatically degrades the principles of Aikido.  In all sports the emphasis is placed on winning, and this is not the purpose of them.  While sports do train our bodies, making them strong, they do little for the mind and the spirit.  O Sensei said: "Sports nowadays are only good for physical exercise, they do not train the whole person.  The practice of aiki, on the other hand, fosters valor, sincerity, fidelity, goodness, and beauty, as well as making the body strong and healthy."  Of course any physical activity you pursue will involve mental work, and if you are genuinely involved, passionate about what you do, that can be called a type of exercise for the spirit.  The problem is that sports do not really players in their everyday lives, meaning that when confronted by something other than, say, a baseball, they do not deal with it in the same way, and this is because sports were never designed to be used like this.  In Aikido a punch and a verbal attack are the same thing, and are dealt with similarly.  I have often told people that if they are in the class to learn how to fight, then they are in the wrong class.  This is not to discourage practitioners, it is simply because in our class our Sensei concentrates on the technical moves, but is more interested in, say, a Tai-sabaki (the basic body movement that begins just about every technique), than the final throw, but many people think that if the throw works, then you are good, which is not necessarily the case.  In fact, most of the techniques are fairly easy to do, if they are done with strength and speed, but this may only be true if your partner is smaller than you.  It is easy to pick on smaller people, and even easier to fool yourself into thinking that the technique works, but how often will someone smaller attack you?  It is always the bigger, stronger guy that finds you, so we must be able to perform the techniques regardless of strength, and that is when harmony and Aikido will make your technique work.  To practice Aikido one must use one's entire body, and not, say, his arm to block or his foot to strike, acts that require using strength, and this is because there will always be someone stronger than you.  Aikido techniques come from the center of the body, usually said to be about two inches below the naval, and from there the hips are used to control the extremities.  This type of movement is very hard to learn, because it is contrary to what most of us have been doing for our entire lives.  Therefore, in order to learn these techniques, we have to forget what we've already learned.  When O Sensei was in his 80's, he stood in the Dojo and held a Jo (staff) in front of him.  Four huge, muscular students pushed the Jo from the side, and couldn't budge it.  This from a man who was in his 80's and under five feet tall.

Aikido was thought by O Sensei to be a way of life, not merely a fighting art.  In fact, it would be very hard to argue that the principles of Aikido are only good for fighting.  Because of this, someone who enters the class with the focused goal of learning how to fight will not even grasp the parts of the class that pertain this goal, because in order to understand the technique, one must understand the philosophies behind them.  I have heard people say that the techniques are the "manifestation of the philosophy of harmony and unity," and watching a demonstration it certainly seems like that.  Attacker and defender move at the same time, and in the middle appear joined, and it is often hard to tell who is performing the technique.

Aikido offers so much in terms of life, the awareness one will have, the ability to see the life all around us as something we should live with, and not from, live for, and not against.  It seems that too many people today focus on material goods, trivialities, instead of concentrating on the important aspects of life, and I honestly believe that Aikido is one of the answers to what many people are looking for.  If you feel like there is something missing in your life, something that you want to give it all meaning, or at least an explanation, give Aikido a try if you haven't yet, I know that I myself cannot even begin to describe what I have taken from it already, and this is after only four short years. "Aikido offers you yourself."