Martial Arts Info Westchester NY: White Plains, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Bronx

Martial Arts Westchester: White Plains, New Rochelle, Yonkers, Bronx

The Martial Arts Info Westchester section of Aikido Westchester is educational and designed for beginners in their search for martial arts or self defense training.  Aikido Westchester provides instruction in the martial art of Aikido and the Shaolin Temple Overseas Headquarters provides instruction in the martial arts of Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan, both in White Plains (centrally located in Westchester for the White Plains, Yonkers & New Rochelle region).  

Martial Arts Presented:     Aikido - Kung Fu - Tai Chi - Karate - Tae Kwon Do - Judo - Jujitsu - MMA - Weapons

Taking the historical development of Asian martial arts from Shaolin Kung Fu, these striking oriented martial arts traveled through to Japan as Karate and Korea as Tae Kwon Do.  In addition, internal martial arts developed in China much later in the forms of Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua and Hsing Yi.  In mainland Japan, the ancient Jujitsu forms were developed for Samurai to defend themselves if ever caught without a weapon. Over 1,000+ years these martial arts splintered into many systems (e.g. Brazilian Jujitsu) and were eventually modernized into Judo and Aikido. Today, many of these martial arts are offered in Westchester County, NY.  Mixed Martial Arts or MMA, although not prevalent in Westchester, is a recent innovation enabling practitioners of different martial arts to compete with each other. The original weapons martial arts, such as Kendo and Iaido sword forms, may also practiced separately, although they are not prevalent in Westchester County either.

As the development of each martial art relies heavily upon the culture and situation of its founder, each system tends to emphasize different aspects of technique, training methods and the general spirit of practice. For example, certain martial arts tend to emphasize striking as the ultimate objective of the technique. Kung Fu , such a martial art, employs a vast array of physical movements, often in various forms. Karate is derived mainly from this system, but is a simplified form, and the movements tend more towards being linear as opposed to circular. Tae Kwon Do , derived from Karate and some indigenous Korean martial arts, tends to add particularly high kicks as well as an overall emphasis on kicking. These martial arts involve external (hard) power, and teach mainly through forms or katas.  One on one competition is used as well, but specific applications are not practiced as much as in other martial art systems.  As for the spirit of practice, these styles teach powerful and disabling attacks right from the outset to build confidence.  While the ultimate objective of all martial arts is to minimize harm to everyone, self confidence is a vital ingredient in minimizing injury to an attacker, so these martial arts begin with an expedient to build such confidence.

Tai Chi Chuan developed in China later than Kung Fu, and emphasizes the slow practice of forms often for health benefits. The purpose is to develop internal (soft) power, as opposed to the external (hard) force emphasized in the martial arts of Kung Fu, Karate and Tae kwon Do. The training methods (competition, forms, etc.) are also similar to Kung Fu, Karate & Tae Kwon do.  While the emphasis often tends to be in striking the opponent, traditional Tai Chi Chuan teaches how to control an attacker rather than injure them from the outset of training, thus bypassing the expedient above.

Jujitsu takes on many forms, emphasizing grappling, throwing, striking, etc.  That said, most forms of Jujitsu, Judo and Aikido minimize the use of strikes in favor of throws, pins, etc. Ground work is common in the martial arts of Judo and Brazilian Jujitsu, for example.  Judo is one modernization of Jujitsu, Aikido being the other.  Judo emphasizes throwing and submission grappling on the ground in competition.  Aikido emphasizes movement to deal with multiple attackers in a noncompetitive setting. In Aikido , an attacker is controlled and thrown or pinned.  Forms, or katas, are used minimally or not at all in Aikido, Judo and many forms of Jujitsu, in favor of the practice of applied technique.  Of the three, only Aikido teaches to minimize harm to an attacker from the outset as in Tai Chi Chuan, while the other martial arts use the expedient to build self confidence.

Mixed Martial Arts ( MMA ), a recent innovation, falls into a category of its own in that it employs the use of numerous martial arts. The globalization of society enabled practitioners of differing backgrounds and cultures to contact each other, and martial artists have taken advantage of the opportunity to test their skills against other practitioners. The characteristics of training are more likely to retain the nature of the underlying martial art in which each competitor trains, although the competitive process surely focuses on the use of destructive technique in the early stages. While in theory MMA competition is a useful tool for a martial artist to learn and study their respective systems, in practice the crude search for the most effective martial art by junior practitioners is a distraction from the study of the critically important principle notions that actually cause all martial arts to be effective.  In addition, the availability of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Westchester is limited.

Although not prevalent in Westchester, many of the empty handed martial arts were originally derived from weapons systems used for warfare.  Some weapons only martial arts employ competition (Kendo) and others use forms (Iaido). However, most of the empty handed martial arts also retain their weapons training in varying degrees.

Regarding technical emphasis, some martial arts focus on striking an opponent (Kung Fu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do & Tai Chi Chuan, Mixed Martial Arts - MMA), whereas others emphasize throws and pins (Aikido, Judo, Jujitsu, Mixed Martial Arts - MMA).  Those that focus on striking also tend to use katas or forms as a primary training method (with the possible exception of Mixed Martial Arts - MMA), whereas the others use practical application.  We find most martial arts utilize competition (Kung Fu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi Chuan, Judo, Jujitsu, Mixed Martial Arts - MMA), while others are more traditionally interested in survival (Aikido, Iaido and some forms of Jujitsu).  Regarding the spirit of training, most martial arts teach destructive techniques first to establish the student’s confidence and then how to control an attacker, but Aikido, traditional Tai Chi Chuan and perhaps Hapkido reverse the order.  All martial arts developed in response to different circumstances culturally/historically and all martial arts are very effective.