Thank you, training partners

​Domo arigato gozaimashita!

Last week, toward the end of a class in the Beginners Course, I explained to students the reason we need to thank our training partners is that, without them, we cannot do Aikido. As in any martial arts, we need another person to train with, to get feedback from and perfect our techniques. However, in Aikido, more than a person, we need a partner, someone who understands what we are striving for and contributes to our cause. We don’t just need a target to hit, or an opponent to take down, in order to test our accuracy and might.
In Aikido, our training partner trusts us and gives her full energy and attention to the interaction at hand. She is willing to put her body in vulnerable positions so that we may see and feel the impact of our technique. Our partner serves as a mirror that reflects all our doings on the mat. Her body position gives us feedback on movements that we initiate and helps us recognize our errors so that we might improve.
So, we are mirroring each other on the mat, but what is it that we are both trying to achieve, if not the defeat of one of us? This is singularly the most important question for all sincere Aikido students. The answer reveals whether we are practicing Aikido as intended by the Founder.
To the same group of beginning students, I had pointed out in the first class that the most crucial information that they must retain from this course is that we train in Aikido with the aim of connecting to each other, center to center, at the physical level first, then mental, and eventually spiritual.
In an ideal interaction, I initiate a movement from my center that sends Kienergy traveling outward through my body to reach my training partner, who receives it through her body all the way to her center; most of the times, she absorbs the energy and allows it to pin her center to the ground (pinning techniques) or to knock her center off vertical balance (throwing technique). Due to imperfect control of the Ki energy, alignment of body parts, and timing of movement, I will not be able to achieve the pin or throw in the most effective manner; thus I continue adjusting and training until I can effect this connection from my center to her center in the first attempt; similarly, my partner continues to adjust until she can receive at her center. This is the essence of Aikido training.
In this paradigm, Aikido is an exchange of energy between two individuals with the goal of helping each of them find their own centers, hence discover their own true selves. It is not unlike a ball game in which participants pass a ball back and forth, except that the ball in this case is made of Ki and aimed at the other person’s center. The Kienergy that is exchanged between the Aikido students can also be viewed as information, and the exchange is now a communication between two individuals trying to understand each other and their own selves. This analogy facilitates the application of Aikido in our daily life.
The scene of two Aikido students training as we have described thus far is obviously not congruent with that of a fight in a ring in which two bloody opponents are trying to take each other down vying for the champion title. As you might have discerned, the key differences lie in the purpose, the attitude and the method of engagement. The purposes are to help versus to conquer. The attitudes are trust versus distrust. The methods are to connect versus to suppress. These three elements, in this order of importance, distinguish Aikido from other martial arts.
If Aikido teachers and students are not vigilantly safeguarding these defining attributes, Aikido stands to lose its authenticity, as created by the Founder. We should ensure that when we interact with another student on the mat, we intend to help our training partner to grow rather than vanquish an opponent. Our mental attitude is to trust and allow, rather than guard and push back. We engage by connecting with, and protecting each other, rather blocking and breaking.  Even with this vigilance, we should always exercise the highest self-control, because after all, we evolved from the animal kingdom and have retained the survival instinct in our limbic system. Such instinct will manifest and take over should the body’s natural response to perceived threat be allowed to run its course, uncontrolled by our higher self. Such is the case when we engage with a stronger or more skilled training partner on the mat and we feel inferior or insecure, to the extent that we unknowingly activate animalistic fight mechanism, and let the engagement become a con test.
In our daily training, we must remember these teachings from O Sensei (The Secret Teachings of Aikido– by Morihei Ueshiba, translated by John Stevens, prefaced by Moriteru Ueshiba):
“True budo has no enemies. True budo is the manifestation of love. Love never kills; love nourishes. Love brings all things to fruition. Love is the guardian angel of all beings; if there is no love, nothing can be accomplished. Aikido is the embodiment of love.
Techniques used for fighting, for determining victory or defeat, are not true budo, because true budo is Masakatsu agatsu katsuhayabi [True victory is self-victory, a victory right here right now] – it is invincible. It is invincible because it does not contend with anything. Victory means to utterly defeat the mind of contention that exists within. My mission is to teach how to accomplish that feat.
All living beings originate and are manifested by love. Aikido is the purest expression of that love. It is a means to bring all people of this world together.”
With these thoughts in mind, we should remember to give thanks to our training partners, and constantly remind ourselves that, as we think, so we act.
I pray that serious readers share other enlightening thoughts and insights that would help further O Sensei’s mission.
Hoa Newens
April 22, 2019