On the question of self-defense, the martial defending of your person by your person against the assault and/or battery from another person(s), said defense should consist of interdependent and overlapping armed and unarmed fighting systems or group of tactics. The two major group of tactics, armed and unarmed, should also be further overlapped and made interdependent within their own armed or unarmed categories. Meaning, as much one’s armed tactics should support and be supported by one’s unarmed tactics, and vice versa, a single weapon should support and be supported by another weapon, and strikes and takedowns, etc., should support and be supported by each other. The Aikikai-based or derived Kihon Waza curriculum does not meet the above-mentioned criteria in and of itself. This is a result of its socio-historical self-imposed and arbitrary limitations, but it is also a result of its inherent design and purpose. Meaning, Aikido Kihon Waza does not function through or for the sake of a self-defense problem. Aikido Kihon Waza is not seeking self-defense solutions directly through a 1:1 ratio, an "If/Then" modality of thought and practice.
The “If/Then” training paradigm was rightly rejected by earlier warrior cultures as incapable of leading to performance in battle, though today, out of ignorance, it has, mainly for marketing reasons, become once again unproblematic for the simpleton that is the modern martial artist. Nevertheless, Aikido can easily play an elemental but major role in the type of self-defense defined above. In fact, in addition to its midrange locks, pins, and throws, the art’s other tactical aspects, such as its grip counters and its weapon disarms and retentions, as well as the art’s strategic aspects, such as its strategy of non-contention and its battlefield strategic geometries addressing multiple attackers, as well as the art’s mechanical advantages, derived from its spiraling-rotating cross technical architectures and its internal reconciliation of opposing energies, really should be a part of everyone’s overall self-defense system. For, wherever you see Aikido absent from a self-defense system, you see its tactical and strategic advantages gone as well. As a result, proposed tactics often antithetically rely on size, strength, and speed resting with the defender, and strategic short-comings often require a severe and artificial reduction of the environment, such as no one is armed, only one opponent at a time is involved with the assault, and ambushes have institutionally or culturally been negated.