Principles of Aikido

Rating:
Summary: Belongs on any Aikido Bookshelf
Review: As the title states, this book is about the "Principles of Aikido". Saotome Sensei concisely yet clearly explains his personal view on the philosophy of Aikido and his insights into its spiritual nature. His account is insightful and yet very down to earth.

Saotome Sensei takes his time to introduce the reader to the correct mentality of executing technique before introducing the techniques themselves. He has cleverly grouped the various armed and unarmed techniques by the principles they demonstrate, thus showing the reader the common thread between a variety of techniques and situations.

This book will probably not be helpful to the beginning Aikido student, although the introductory sections give an excellent account of what Aikido is and what its philosophy and aims are. "The Principles of Aikido" is a must-read for Aikido practitioners who have two or more years experience behind them and is a veritable treasure-trove of insights. I have re-read it many times and each reading has, and continues to, cast a new and refreshing light on my training.

Rating:
Summary: Belongs on any Aikido Bookshelf
Review: As the title states, this book is about the "Principles of Aikido". Saotome Sensei concisely yet clearly explains his personal view on the philosophy of Aikido and his insights into its spiritual nature. His account is insightful and yet very down to earth.

Saotome Sensei takes his time to introduce the reader to the correct mentality of executing technique before introducing the techniques themselves. He has cleverly grouped the various armed and unarmed techniques by the principles they demonstrate, thus showing the reader the common thread between a variety of techniques and situations.

This book will probably not be helpful to the beginning Aikido student, although the introductory sections give an excellent account of what Aikido is and what its philosophy and aims are. "The Principles of Aikido" is a must-read for Aikido practitioners who have two or more years experience behind them and is a veritable treasure-trove of insights. I have re-read it many times and each reading has, and continues to, cast a new and refreshing light on my training.

Rating:
Summary: Belongs on any Aikido Bookshelf
Review: As the title states, this book is about the "Principles of Aikido". Saotome Sensei concisely yet clearly explains his personal view on the philosophy of Aikido and his insights into its spiritual nature. His account is insightful and yet very down to earth.

Saotome Sensei takes his time to introduce the reader to the correct mentality of executing technique before introducing the techniques themselves. He has cleverly grouped the various armed and unarmed techniques by the principles they demonstrate, thus showing the reader the common thread between a variety of techniques and situations.

This book will probably not be helpful to the beginning Aikido student, although the introductory sections give an excellent account of what Aikido is and what its philosophy and aims are. "The Principles of Aikido" is a must-read for Aikido practitioners who have two or more years experience behind them and is a veritable treasure-trove of insights. I have re-read it many times and each reading has, and continues to, cast a new and refreshing light on my training.

Rating:
Summary: Above average
Review: I really enjoy this book. It's very well written. Just be sure you know your Aikido terminology because you will find yourself going back to the glossary often. There are many photos, however, more photos would have been nice. Some of the important in-between movements are left to the imagination, which could cause some confusion. But, it is a BOOK after all. Maybe a video featuring the same moves would better exemplify the techniques. There is some unintended humor here too. The somewhat egotistical sensai/author (who must ALWAYS be the nage and NEVER portrays the Uke, even after he exhaustively explains how important it is to be a good Uke) uses his daughter in several of the photo examples. Despite it's glaring weaknesses, I really like this book and would not part with it. It has a permanent place in my martial arts reference library. If you buy it, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Advanced study especially for those using bokken
Review: This book is a sparse collection of short essays and photo series of demonstrations of Aikido techniques. For those unfamiliar with Aikido, and looking for an introductory text, I would recommend looking elsewhere. For experienced Aikidoka looking for new thoughts on familiar concepts, I highly recommend it.

The photographs of demonstrations of techniques are difficult to relate to real-life motion unless you are already familiar with the techniques and Aikido training. To put it another way, you can't imagine the flowing grace, unless you have seen it before.

The text is thoughtful, yet concise. It took me two readings before I really appreciated the value of this book. As it is, I re-read it about every six months, and usually find some new insight. The great value of this book over the many other excellent Aikido books is its brevity. After any training session, I can re-read an applicable chapter in about twenty minutes, and still learn something.

This book has been, thus far, the most useful reference and training manual I have found. The video series of the same name is an invaluable supplement, but this book has elucidated for me many of the core concepts of Aikido.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, but most suited for the experienced Aikidoka
Review: This book is a sparse collection of short essays and photo series of demonstrations of Aikido techniques. For those unfamiliar with Aikido, and looking for an introductory text, I would recommend looking elsewhere. For experienced Aikidoka looking for new thoughts on familiar concepts, I highly recommend it.

The photographs of demonstrations of techniques are difficult to relate to real-life motion unless you are already familiar with the techniques and Aikido training. To put it another way, you can't imagine the flowing grace, unless you have seen it before.

The text is thoughtful, yet concise. It took me two readings before I really appreciated the value of this book. As it is, I re-read it about every six months, and usually find some new insight. The great value of this book over the many other excellent Aikido books is its brevity. After any training session, I can re-read an applicable chapter in about twenty minutes, and still learn something.

This book has been, thus far, the most useful reference and training manual I have found. The video series of the same name is an invaluable supplement, but this book has elucidated for me many of the core concepts of Aikido.

Rating:
Summary: Advanced study especially for those using bokken
Review: This is a great book on aikido that helps the student see how the empty hand techniques of Aikido directly descend from the sword and staff weapons styles that were studied by Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido. I really like the way Sensei Saotome shows how the techniques look when using the sword, and then shows you how the empty-hand technique was developed out of it.