A lot of people separate bjj and aikido claiming a world of difference between the two martial arts. After all BJJ is in part to blame for the loss of popularity aikido has suffered over the last couple decades.
Ray Butcher is both a bjj black belt as well as an aikido black belt.
When prompted about the two Butcher gave quite a democratic answer:
“Choosing one over the other is kinda alien to me. It’s not something that I even think about. People always ask me what do you prefer and that’s a very hard question… They all have some fantastic aspects to them all of them (martial arts). “
Butcher was first exposed to bjj in 2003:
” BJJ was something that I found on a trip to the US in 2003. I was studying a self defense class for women in particular and the women practiced brazilian jiu-jitsu. A lot of the ground stuff was brazilian jiu-jitsu based. And it’s very very practical. And I did a class with them a BJJ class and the first thing I felt was because I was training with a very high level bjj practitioner – the first thing I felt was this is like Aikido on the ground from a physical point of view. So I just became fascinated with it. “
As to how bjj is different in his eyes from aikido Butcher clarified :
“I think what separates the two martial arts is the attention behind what you’re doing. I think it can be difficult for an aikido practitioner to see bjj… Maybe it’s more difficult the other way around for a bjj practitioner to see aikido as a kind of a practical martial art… I think from my perspective – bjj practitioner will focus on a conflict, the physical part of the conflict and it’s a win lose situation wheres in aikido the intention is very very different. We’re looking at a completely different intention going into the conflict..”
Butcher continues:
“With bjj you would control and dominate in aikido that’s not the intention. A lot of very high level practitioners would have a very aikido intention without even realizing it. I think that just comes with many years of experience”
And as to what exactly an Aikido intention is, Butcher says:
“I would approach it – let’s say if we’re grappling my intention is to stay in the moment and include the person in what’s happening… I’m not looking to submit the other person, if a submission comes up easily I may or may not take that submission. I’m just trying to experience what’s happening between the two of us at that moment in time which is what we do at aikido.So I treat grappling the exact same way. I’m not looking to win or lose I just want to experience that moment. That for me is interesting. That’s what draws me to it. I’m not worried if I’m gonna win or if I’m gonna lose that doesn’t come into it. It’s just an experience in that moment. A lot of bjj teachers would say it’s ok to tap and tap often and that’s the way to learn. I would add to that: Don’t worry if you’re gonna win or lose just experience the moment. See what happens and stay very present. If the opportunity to submit your opponent comes, it comes and that’s ok and you don’t have to take it. You can choose not to. Because you may not want to end the experience right there. “
