A recent interview I stumbled across revealed a surprising and perhaps alarming story regarding Steven Seagal.
At one time Seagal was among the most successful action stars in Hollywood and had a run of major hit films in the 90s.
His fame has somewhat dwindled now but he is still famous throughout the world.
Seagal began his life in the martial arts and went to Japan. He trained in Aikido and eventually began his own dojo.
He relocated to California to seek further fame and fortune and found his way into films.
Seagal’s life and achiements is the subject of some dispute. He has made many claims that seem hard to verify.
He has made claims to have been a friend of Bruce Lee, though Bruce Lee died long before Seagal found his fame. He also claims to have met the founder of Aikido. Though this is possible it would have to have been when Seagal was 17 years old or younger. And it is unlikely that Morihei Ueshiba was very active in his last few years.
In the MMA world Seagal is seen as a bit of a figure of fun. He claims to have helped fighters improve their performances but others don’t believe him.
But Seagal certainly found great success in films. Sean Connery tells a story that he was to perform some Aikido in the film “Never Say Never Again” and had a private session with Seagal.
You can see the clip in this interview:
“I got a little cocky and thought I knew what I was doing. I got a bit flash and he broke my wrist!”
I looked at some responses to this and it seems Seagal had a reputation for roughness.
Injuring someone in Aikido is not something to be proud of. In combat sports it is inevitable that injuries happen. But in Aikido, that should happen very rarely.
We are offering up our body to be used by our partner to help them improve their technique. Especially working with beginners, injuries should not happen and I have rarely seen an injury and personally never seen a wrist broken.
Aikido For Glasgow 