Quote Originally Posted by Lt. Columbo
but DDT with arts like aikido you need to have at least 10 years under your belt to be any good what so ever!! plus most street fights are extreamly scrappy and end up on the deck within seconds.
That is true! It takes years to master Aikido. (Which I have not) That is why I take other martial arts alongside it. Hapkido is a nice compliment to Aikido. The story is that Hapkido came from Aikido. Although it still takes almost as long to get to black belt in Hapkido, it gives you a quicker proficiancy for real life defense. Keep in mind that most of the time a martial art practitioner is attacked, he will be attacked by the "unskilled" ie drunks in a bar or parking lot or some "tweeker " and not a fellow martial artsier.

I think that it is a mistake to judge the effectiveness in real life on the street combat of a particular martial art form, from watching sports competitions between two styles. Only when two people are fighting for real can (which includes eye gouges, throat punches, chokes and elbow, arm, finger and thumb breaks and attacks to the heart, all of which are standard practice in Hapkido) can you tell if someone is a proficient fighter or not. You can't use those in a sport!
And as I have been told a thousand times, "In a real fight you will fall back on your training." So train for "real", not competition.

Btw, Not all Aikido training is equal. Some of it is far too new agey and soft for my likes.