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What is Aikido?

The Four Basic Principles

  1. Keep One Point to Develop Calmness
  2. Relax Progressively
  3. Find Correct Posture in Everything
  4. Develop your Positive Mind

There are many reasons to train in a martial art. Of course, there is the issue of personal protection. As aikidoists, we enjoy the exploration of movements, attitudes, principles, and training procedures that can keep us from harm in times of danger. The martial arts aspect of aikido is pleasurable to us the way that young cubs of all animal species enjoy playing at combat. In those terms we can learn about our capabilities for courage, power, speed, and timing from our training. We also learn that we can overcome many obstacles that may stand before us and about our ability to act to protect life.

We are not, however, preparing for some future event. The event is now. There is no competition, no sparring or fighting for which we are preparing ourselves. We train in aikido simply because we enjoy the nature of the training. Aikido is a way of life. It is the opportunity to learn how to reconcile the conflicts in our lives that has attracted most of us to aikido The best moment to make peace with ourselves is the present.

Aikido is meant to create personal and social harmony. Along with the effectiveness of our techniques, we especially concentrate on developing that harmony in our daily practice. For this reason, Aikido classes generally have a happy and relaxed atmosphere with all levels of training. While the sounds of heavy falling and plenty of sweat are filling the dojo, we still experience joy and gentleness with our partners. The spirit of aikido truly is love, and you will find it easy to experience this love in the midst of learning your protective skills.

Culturally, we have all been conditioned to separate ourselves from, and perhaps even fear, other human beings. As aikidoists, our interactions on the mat provide us with endless opportunities to close the gap of alienation between the world and ourselves. Through aikido we have found a pleasant and relevant way to contact others of our own kind.

Our enjoyment of aikido is also linked to the experience of a greater sense of spirit within ourselves and in the universe around us. Aikido releases our spirit in tangible, simple way. There is also the personal discipline and mental cob-web-clearing that we appreciate. We like sharpening our minds along with our bodies and derive great benefit from the mental exercises and practice which aikido has to offer.

As we gain a better understanding of ourselves, we can find that training to live in peace is more relevant (and fun) than learning better means of warfare. The condition of our world surely has shown us that. The escalation of fighting among human beings is a dead-end path of destruction. We are training in skills that can serve to protect our loved ones and ourselves, and these skills are meant to turn our enemies into friends and our hearts away from fighting. The result of this training can be a peaceful world.

Along the way, however, we learn many techniques that could cause serious harm. As we learn about these devastating skills, we also learn to respect all life and to nurture it. So, as our aikido arts develop, our capacity for harmonious reconciliation of conflict will develop also. An aikidoist prefers an "I win—you win" situation to a "I win—you lose" situation.

Please be aware that you can't "accomplish" aikido. You can't master a martial art. You can only master the art of being yourself.

Through the years of training before us, we will learn about our personal resources and abilities in surprising ways. Martial art training is a rather basic matter. There is little room for useless or wastefull thinking. The process of self-judgement is eventually replaced by acknowledgment, assessment, and utilization of attributes without chastising ourselves for what is or isn't there.

Those who persevere in aikido do so because they truly enjoy it. The take all the time they need and appreciate the step-by-step process of their learning. There is no benefit in super ambition or punishing yourself for making mistakes. By rewarding yourself for discovering a mistake, you get to use the discovery. Slow down and pay attention to the new learning that each class brings, and you get to enjoy every step of the path.

If you'd like to learn more about aikido, please join us at the Hamel Rec Center in Studio II on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30pm-6:30pm and Sundays from 4:00pm-6:00pm.