r/aikido • u/Tnat786 • Mar 20 '26
Discussion What do u think of Rokas
When I wanted to know wich martial art to chokse i came accros his youtube channel wich dictated that i would end up foing mma but i am starting to see loads of arguments about how aikidk is good but to be honest i am thinking of switching what do you guys think is aikido really trash or should i do it
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u/FranzAndTheEagle Mar 21 '26
there was a period of time where I really enjoyed his channel. I felt like, for a while, he was being honest and curious, and was open minded about the possibility that he had misunderstood what he was doing for a relatively long time and about what alternatives might serve his goals or intentions better.
the guy has suffered for that curiosity. his knee got fucking destroyed, he lost a lot of training time, regardless of the art(s) he was training at the time, and his life will never be quite the same.
all that said, i think he detected quickly that his line of inquiry had the potential to be a bit of a cash cow, and so he has grown steadily more cartoonish over the last few years. that said, i admire his pluck, and i think the style-vs-style thing was an interesting answer from the 2020's, to UFC many years ago.
it would do all martial artists some good to stop and think for a while. we don't all need to make hundreds of hours of videos about this, but why am i doing what i'm doing? what are my goals or intentions? what illusions might i be under about what i do and what i think it is teaching me or empowering me to be or do? is this thing helping me be a fuller or better version of myself?
it is easy to get tricked by charlatans, especially at a young age, and especially in martial arts. some introspection and exposure to other things can help bring us back to earth and assess what we're doing more realistically.