I have training experience in aikido for about 2 years (not contiguous though)...From my point of view its difficult to categorize aikido into a particular KIND of martial art!It depends on various factors:i) Instructor- His skill, experience and how he himself percieves it to be. What other aspect besides pure physical training does the instructor delve into and so onii) Student- Your motivation to learn (as self-defence, to be aggressive, just for fun and so on)iii) Aikido is PERCEIVED as self defence art since usually attacks are not taught in aikidoSo far from my experience with two instructors, the aikdo movements are heavily derived from sword fighting movements.As such you mainly have cuts in sword fightin, no kicks and punches, rather if you were not skillfull you wouldnt survive beyond one cut.So how does sword fighting techniques help in aikido??The idea of gettng quick into motion, gaining momentum (and even blending your momentum with the opponents) is what is derived from swordtechniques and is appied here for defending/overpowering/throwing etc. the opponent. if you are in total balance and really know how to do atechnique, even a simple move can devastate your opponent!!!
