No punching or kicking is allowed in the Joe Frank Sanderson Center Studio B while students and practitioners practice aikido.
Industrial and systems engineering professor John Usher, who instructs the club, said there are different guidelines to follow while practicing aikido.
“It more involves the utilization of someone else’s energy against them, so you kind of flow with the person until they get themselves in trouble,” Usher said. “It doesn’t look like traditional karate or judo or those type of martial arts. It’s throws and joint locks.”
Usher said a person using aikido should not stand still during the fight.
“The basic principle is […] do not apply force, do not speed up,” he said. “It’s almost like dancing to some degree with your opponent.”
Chris Ellzey, senior English major and student instructor of the club, said he likes aikido because doesn’t require strength or speed.
“It’s all about positioning yourself in relationship to the attacker and using body motion, keeping your posture and influencing body mechanics in effect to use the attacker’s strength against him,” he said.
Ross McCool, sophomore computer science major and club president, said he has not only learned self-defense, but also control of his anger and other emotions.
“It does help you provide a way to control your emotions because it’s not an aggressive martial art. It’s a very defensive martial art,” he said. “You do what your opponent is basically telling you to do, and you just stay safe.”
Usher said he has never had to defend himself before, but he has had students who have, and they are always surprised at the outcome.
“One of the first comments is, ‘I never thought this would work,’ [and] the second thing they usually say is, ‘I didn’t do anything, it just happened,'” he said. “That’s just what you want; you want it to be a natural reaction of yours to the situation that occurs.”
Ellzey said one time when he was still new to the club, he was training with Usher and attacked him and Usher seemed to disappear.
“All I could feel was myself falling one way, then falling another,” he said. “All of a sudden I just feel him grab onto me, and my face is about two inches away from smashing into one of the mirrors at the Sanderson Center.”
He said the first rule of aikido is to get out of the line of attack.
“That sense of evasion and keeping yourself safe and getting out of the way of force or energy or anything that’s going to hurt you can be applied anywhere,” Ellzey said. “If you’re stressed out about something, remove yourself from the situation. If you’re not there, whatever it is that’s bugging you can’t get you.”
Junior computer sciencemajor Tony Arick said the most important thing he’s learned from the club is self control, both physically and emotionally.
“I’m a whole lot more balanced,” he said. “I’m not as clumsy anymore.”
Ellzey said the teaching style of aikido is very laid back.
“[Usher is] amazing to work with and that is evident from near the first or second time that you’re working with the guy,” he said. “Class is always really fun and laid back because there’s no need for discipline because everyone’s just having fun and really wants to learn.”
Usher said there are no aikido tournaments because the result would be broken bones and people falling on their heads.
“We do have clinics that we go to for instructional purposes,” he said. “We travel to a clinic in Houston, that’s our national headquarters, once a year and then we have guest instructors come from outside the university.”
Usher said when he came to the university in 1989, there were only a few of martial arts organizations in the area.
“Me and another professor started one that combined several martial arts and he kind of branched off and went professional, and I just kept teaching on campus to students to make it affordable,” he said. “It’s not costly at all, it’s just a recreational sports club.”
He said there have been no broken bones in the club’s 20-year history.
The Aikido Club is open for new members during the first three weeks of the semester.