Aikido is a Japanese martial art founded by Morihei Ueshiba aka ‘O Sensei’ or ‘Great Teacher’. The martial art that had the most influence on Aikido is Daito-Ryu Aikijujutsu. Aikido consists mainly of joint locks and throws. Punching and kicking are taught not as the main technique but to compliment the technique. It is used as a distraction, to imbalance and weaken the attacker. Anyone can punch or kick, it takes skill to be able to apply techniques. Most martial arts consist mostly of punches and kicks, that not only hurts the attacker but that also hurts the practitioner. Aikido practitioners are taught ways to blend and redirect the opponents’ aggressive energy away from themselves and redirect it towards the aggressor. The attacker gets thrown resulting in minimal hurt to him and no hurt to the Aikido practitioner. Aikido is a compassionate and peace-loving, gentle yet effective martial arts that aims to protect not only the Aikido practitioner but even the attacker. In fact, Aikido is too gentle until it gets criticized for being ineffective and not practical in a real-life situation. My response to that is that the techniques people see in the dojo (Training hall) or in videos are just for training and practising with your fellow dojomates so too much force cannot be used. A lot of force and strength is controlled to avoid causing injury to each other whereas in a real-life situation, there is no need to control any force or strength.