Why are you at practice today? Aikido can be a practice of a variety of skills; practice leading, supporting someone in crisis, reducing opposition and conflict, being less of a jerk, being more assertive, best intentions, adaptive response, non-verbal communication…. Aikido can be a practice of your personal goals if you can focus on your goal as a theme of practice. This brings the benefits of practice into relevance for the rest of daily life rather than needing to walk out the door into a fight on the street. Thanks to Joaquin Phoenix for wearing his dogi (uniform) on the street. Dude, that’s not okay…
You want to focus on leadership; look at the role of posture, engagement, goal-orientation, and non-verbal communication. You are trying to get someone to do something, are you building resistance, are you overbearing (maybe even creepy), are you providing an opportunity for the person to go towards shared goals.
You want to be more assertive or empowered; focus on extension, structure, moving to security, regaining your center when things are going poorly, finding how you can be effective even with inferior strength or size.
You want to express good intentions without coming off as a jerk; focus on how your “non-violent, compassionate aikido” is effecting uke. Are you pushing, pulling, crushing, intimidating, and throwing uke with nice pretty movements or are your movements establishing mutual security, fluid movement, safe ukemi, and a good balance of de-escalation and re-orientation?
You want to practice non-verbal communication; do you look like a badass peacemaker or about to start a duel? Are you offering a chance to attack or challenging your partners strength? Does the shape of your body, breathing, feeling stay positive or are your intentions and experience in conflict?
You want to do better Aikido; figure out a reason for practice beyond rising up the ranks, or getting that pretty skirt (okay I really wanted the skirt). Figure out your goals so that Aikido is currency in your long term objectives.
Although I can certainly see how one can use Aikido to improve their own leadership skills, get their goals accomplished, be assertive, and expressing good intentions, I would contend that there are often easier ways of doing these things, and additionally, context is everything in examining what you are trying to do. I’ve always believed for example, that one of the most effective methods of leadership is “leading by example;” something that could be very hard to do with Aikido if whoever you are working with is not a practitioner. Additionally, many people have a difficult time reading body posture – ever since humanity developed language to communicate, we’ve actually become nearly blind to the hundreds of little body posture things everyone does, and what that tells us about what that person is thinking. So, how does aikido help us exactly in remaining assertive with our body posture? Chances are that unless they are an aikido practitioner themselves, the meaning of the balance and openness of your stance will be lost on that person. However, this isn’t to say that I think aikido isn’t useful in achieving some of these goals – I think aikido, not just as a martial practice but as a lifestyle, is especially helpful for regaining the center and finding the self when things get rough.
Thanks for the comments, there is a lot of research demonstrating the effects of posture and personal space for both the one expressing and for the viewer. Your personal experience is an interesting contrast to the literature which I will try and post before class is over if you are interested.
I can definitely agree that Aikido is more than a martial art it’s a skill that you can use to help bring yourself to a peaceful state. It can show you so much as to being a great leader to not being stress out or how to just control one’s actions and mindset. In life you always go through ups downs, roadblocks and Aikido can be used to overcome and conquer those things stopping you from being that person you need be. I feel as though it’s not for everyone as well it may not be the same getaway for everyone to feel at peace or at ease. But Aikido can teach you many things about life to how to better your communications skills to improving just your overall lifestyle for positive vibes. It can be someone’s safe haven. It pushes you away from violence and shows you to worry about yourself and your actions in everything you put your hands and mindset to do.
I can definitely see how Aikido can be a useful tool in raising self awareness, changing how you feel about yourself and how the world may see you, and even the roles of leadership. But I do feel as if there are some major limitations. The biggest of which is the fact that so much of Aikido requires a second party to perform. Outside of breathing exercises, rolls, and stances, there’s not a whole lot of things to do solo. Granted these are some of, if not THE, most important aspects of aikido, but it does leave the practitioner limited to a couple of times of week, tops, to develop those leadership and interpersonal skills so sought after through aikido. The non-verbal communication, however is an ideal candidate for growth through those solo practices, such as improving one’s posture through breathing exercises and stance practice. So while there is definitely a lot of potential for advance of the mind, body, and soul through aikido, it does come with limitations that are hard to meet more than once a week to fully achieve those goals.
Prior to the beginning of this spring semester 2015, I had never heard of Aikido. I had a an awkward one credit left over to meet my graduation criteria to graduate class of 2015. I didn’t want to enroll in a full 3 credit class. In my search I found Aikido which met my criteria of one credit. I read the description and sounded like it would really go with my major Criminal Justice.
When I first started Aikido it began as just an attendance for a grade. It has become so much more than that and this article greatly reflects that. Aikido is multi-disciplined. You don’t show up to Aikido just to practice moves, there’s so much Aikido can teach us. I began Aikido simply as coming to practice for a grade but now I practice for things such as leading, stress reduction, being able to adapt to my surroundings and to think at a moment’s notice.
Aikido is definitely more than a martial arts practice for me. I think that for me personally, it has really helped me become more assertive without being overbearing. I have noticed that I have become increasingly more adaptable to situations that I dislike or feel anxious in. I have also found it very useful for becoming more aware of my posture and personal space. I wish that I could practice more than once a week. I do struggle to work on this skill on my own, without a partner. However, the things that I can do by myself are very useful. Practicing rolls really loosens up my body and gets me ready to do more complex movements. Working with some of the different stances also helps me to focus my mind before I begin any sort of long assignment. I believe that Aikido has also been a key reason why I have had more successful performances as a musician this semester. It has really helped me to find other ways to focus and ready myself for what I am about to do. Aikido also was very useful for helping me to regain my center and focus when things start to go wrong in a performance setting.
This article allowed me to reflect on the class this semester. At the beginning, if I read this article I would be a little hesitant on agree or even understanding this blog post. But coming to the end of the semester I definitely agree that Aikido can be more than martial art. I always get excited to show my friends the moves that I learned in class. Of course my moves always seem to work better with females than males. But I think the reason why I like showing the moves because I felt a sense of empowerment. I did not feel bigger or better, but I felt great about myself. It also is a great non-verbal communication tool. Practicing in class you can tell if your partner is relaxed and ready to perform a move. Or maybe your partner is tense and feels uncomfortable. This way of non-verbal communication is great because when you are in a stressful situation where you may need to use these moves, your attacker will be able to read you and feel your vibes. If you are relaxed and at ease they will not feel in charge.
Aikido was the first martial art I ever tried and first contact sport I have tried also although I was exposed to many I never Participated in Many Sports. I think as these things go this is a good first for anyone as the nature of this sport is very non aggressive which is the core of Aikido.
The mere fact of the many ways in which you can continue to improve yourself if that be leadership skills or a simple thing like controlling aggressive feelings this is a great way to grow and experience something that can focus you as well as relax you.
The disciple and practice will allow you to gain something you did not have a skill as well as allow you to develop what was already there to be better then you where.
As a beginner to Contact sports this also allows us to experience something that is not very scary. there is no striking and this makes it a little less shocking if you aren’t use to contact sports specifically.
A good place to grow is Aikido.
This is my first time to study any martial arts and I would agree it is much more than a martial art. I think the non-verbal communication is crucial in practicing aikido because all we learn about relax and flexible is trying to send signals, not only signal to the opponent but also a signal to our body and nerve. It is easy to learn that many tense and stressful gestures that we naturally have when we see a opponent facing us is actually not helping. But it is much harder to relax our body under pressures to practice “non-violent, compassionate aikido”. In many cases, I was asked to drop my shoulder both when I want to be released by others and when I want to press somebody down. Experiencing these kinds of exercise is part of our learning of Aikido philosophy that relaxation could lead us to control. So I think it is definitely about leadership too, that aikido leads opponents to the way we want them to be not by our pure strength but by their strength or body weakness. After all I certainly agree with Aikido being more than a martial art, since its application can also refer to our daily life, especially our breathing practice. I think the breathing practice on our class is very useful. It is similar to a kind of meditation for me that helps me think and I guess I can see many Taoism theories in Aikido that it always absorbs harms rather than against hardly. As a self defense class, I’m not sure if I will have chances to actually defend myself against harms, but I think its philosophy absolutely helps me think and act in my daily life.