If you’re new to the world of martial arts, then you may be wondering what is better, Aikido vs. BJJ? If you’re not new to martial arts then you will probably already know the answer. Without sounding biased (coming from a BJJ site), the clear answer is that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is far superior when it comes to fighting and self defense, whereas Aikido is almost the laughing stock of the martial arts community.
That’s not to say that BJJ is the best martial art either, because there may be more effective fighting styles out there. Instead, it’s saying that in comparison to Aikido it is much better – simply because Aikido has such a bad reputation. Read on as to why this is – as well as who would win in a fight between an Aikido practitioner and a BJJ practitioner.
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Why Aikido is worse than BJJ
Aikido peaked in popularity during the 80s and 90s, but since then has been in a steady decline. Just glancing the google searches for the term shows you everything you need to know about what direction it’s heading. The same cannot be said for BJJ, which actually grows in popularity year on year.
Why is this? Simply put, the rise of the internet has helped teach people about Aikido and educate them. Before, you may hear stories about its uses, but now with videos, you don’t see its uses in self defense.
In other words, if we’re looking at show and prove then this says that BJJ is far superior, as there are ample videos showing its effectiveness in a real scenario. Speaking of which, the video below does Aikido very little favors when squaring up against MMA.
Aikido doesn’t use sparring – BJJ does
For further evidence of Aikido lacking a realistic approach to fighting, it doesn’t even use sparring in its gym. Like most legitimate martial arts, BJJ does involve plenty of sparring. This is really a test of your own skill. When sparring, it doesn’t matter about your belt and the mats don’t lie. However, it seems that Aikido can hide behind its lack of sparring.
Here, you may find overweight, elder people telling people how to fight without ever having any sparring which is massively hypocritical. Simply put, any serious martial art will include sparring as it pressure tests each individual practitioner.
Similar thoughts have been put forward by Rokas Leonavicius who went from years of Aikido training to ditching it for MMA and BJJ. At one point, he was a highly respected Aikido black belt before disowning it.
Does Aikido have any benefits compared to BJJ?
Being totally honest, Aikido has very few benefits compared to BJJ. Firstly, BJJs takedowns are more effective. Both martial arts actually came from Judo. However, BJJ has kept all of Judo’s throws and also included wrestling takedowns which are equally as effective. Although Aikido uses a couple of Judo throws, for the most part its throws aren’t nearly as realistic and it mostly bases throws off wrist control which is hard to do against a resisting opponent.
The second area that both martial arts have in common is submissions. Mostly, Aikido uses wrist locks and the odd arm lock. BJJ also uses these submissions, plus chokes and lower body moves. In short, BJJ’s submission catalog is far bigger than Aikido’s which is tiny in comparison. Why ignore so much good stuff when fighting?
Not only this but wrist locks are also considered very low percentage. In fact, to date there has never been a single wrist lock submission in the UFC. They can be done but are quite rare. Further, the vast majority of wrist lock submissions require control of the elbow. In Aikido, many of the submissions and throws happen without controlling the elbow which shows the uke being too compliant with the moves.
Aside from this, Aikido doesn’t really focus much on pins such as side control or mount which are essential for self defense. Furthermore, it completely lacks a guard game which is also useful in MMA and in street fights which BJJ excels in. To sum up, Aikido offers very little compared to BJJ.
If we’re being super critical of BJJ then it is harder on the body than Aikido. However, there is a very good reason for this. That reason is that BJJ is more realistic and involves sparring, whereas Aikido doesn’t.
Is Aikido being taught wrong?
In defense of Aikido, some argue that the system has been watered down beyond repair and is mostly taught wrong. As mentioned, it was meant to be inspired by Judo – however, in terms of intensity, it’s the complete opposite. Arguably, Aikido is simply too soft to be a martial art and is unrealistic as a result. So, how could Aikido improve? One thing is to at least spar correctly and pressure test its techniques.
From there, it could see what is real and what is unrealistic. At that point, it could adapt and grow. Having said this, it may just morph into some kind of Judo variation if that was the case. And those that know of its founder Ueshiba will know, that isn’t the point of Aikido. In some ways, it seems that Aikido was inherently designed to be unrealistic.
That’s not to say that BJJ is a perfect fighting system either. Some people completely avoid learning takedowns which is bad, whilst some BJJ practitioners also believe they’re safer in bottom positions than they actually are. Still, it’s fair to say that BJJ is still a lot more real compared to Aikido.
Aikido black belt Vs. BJJ white belt – who wins?
Imagine you had a fight or grappling match with a BJJ white belt against an Aikido black belt. Imagine they both had identical ages, weight, and every stat equal. Imagine the Aikido black belt had trained daily for 5 years, with the BJJ white belt training daily for 1 year. Who would win?
If it was a fight or grappling match then the BJJ white belt would win the vast majority of the time. The reason is that Aikido is simply unrealistic and despite years of practice, it just doesn’t hold up in reality. The result is that spending time in a good martial art is way more valuable than spending even more time in a pointless martial art.
As said earlier, this can apply to other martial arts too. It’s not just BJJ – others such as Judo, Sambo, Muay Thai, Boxing, and much more would defeat the Aikido black belt due to learning practical fighting skills, rather than unrealistic techniques.
Final Thoughts
Comparing Aikido to BJJ is fairly unrealistic and it’s pretty clear that BJJ is much better. If you asked your average martial artist who trained neither arts but had a vague understanding of them, they would tell you the same thing. It’s not that Aikido is misunderstood or has secret techniques either, it’s just that its nature is highly unrealistic.
In short, if you’re looking to train either discipline and you’re wondering what to pick – try both. If you approach both with an open mind and you’re honest about your reasons for training then you should see that there’s only one winner.
