Aikido - the organizational context

Chapter 29

A few
decades ago I was chairman of Dutch Aikikai. One day a student told me that an
instructor had threatened to hit a female student. Knowing a little about the
dynamics of their relationship I wasn’t necessarily surprised, but of course
it’s not acceptable. A few months later I heard that she had gone to the police
to press charges.

At the time
I was working as a consultant on communication with victims, and one of the
things that were considered important at the time is that a victim of abuse
should get every support when making her complaint. The reasoning behind that
blunt choice isn’t too difficult to explain: if the complaint is justified the
weaker victim should not feel threatened in any way to make a complaint. On the
other hand, victims often fear public criticism and to avoid further emotional
turmoil simply don’t report such incidents.

On the
other hand, any report should lead to thorough research. This may result in
three types of outcome: the complains was justified; the complaint was not
justified; or the outcome is unclear. None of these outcome give reason not to
support the victim when making the complaint. If it’s justified, there is no
problem anyway; if it’s not justified
nothing has been lost; if the outcome is unclear the organization can do
nothing and the support in the beginning may be the only support the victim can
take away from the ordeal.

I was caught
by surprise when she walked up to me at a seminar and asked my opinion on the
matter. But she mainly wanted to know what I thought about her pressing
charges. While I was giving her a reply in line with the line of reasoning
above, she responded positively. She confirmed that she was afraid of the
negative response of others.

But I was
caught even more off guard by what happened next. A instructor walked up,
interfered in the conversation and stated she should never have gone to the
police. It was an internal matter that we should have resolved internally.

As I said,
I was caught off guard. I had no reply other than repeating my personal
opinion. Our association did not have a procedure for such complaints, and the
position that we would resolve the matter internally, was a complete fallacy.
As an individual I knew what was right and wrong, but as a chairman I had no
guidelines whatsoever.

Now, it’s
not my nature to leave such things lying. So I set out to find out what other
instructors thought about the matter and I came to a disturbing conclusion. The
large majority had one of the following opinions: I don’t want to think about
it; the hierarchy of Aikido prohibits a student going against his teacher; it
doesn’t happen that often so why make a point of it. And as statistics go,
after some odd 30 years I have to agree with the latter fact: it doesn’t appear
to happen that often, with the stress on appear. But frequency isn’t a valid
justification. I have heard of instructors intentionally injuring students, I
have heard of instructors setting up their students to hurt other students. I
have heard of senior instructors forcing other instructors to expel students. Looking
back I have heard of far too many incidents and literally none of them have
been addressed by the organization*.

Over the course of time, too many incidents were brought to
my attention: instructors making out with students, instructors going through
one relationship with students after another, complaints even to the board of
the IAF about violence, sexual harrassment, physical abuse. But the board of
the IAF struggled with these questions just as much. But there was one additional argument: the IAF could not
get involved in the internal affairs of a national federation.

Being on
the short end of the stick myself, filing a complaint about abuse of power,
manipulation, conflict of interest, providing false information and
intimidation, I now find myself in the same position: the people who are in the
position that they need to do something take the side of the official the
complaint is against; the people that have the power to do something (the
representatives of the member organizations) don’t want to be involved; senior
Aikido instructors have actually expressed that I should just conform to the
situation.

The
fundamental nature of a complaints procedure is that you do not know in advance
what the complaint will be and what the context will be. You do however know
that virtually always that procedure is the only straw a weaker party can hold
on to against a stronger party. In Aikido we fundamentally make seniors
stronger than juniors, teachers stronger than students. So, the only thing we
have to offer as protection is that procedure. If we fail to provide that protection,
to my opinion, we fail our students and ultimately ourselves.

If your
organization has such a procedure and follows it, take this chapter as a
compliment. If your organization does not have it, it’s advise: you need it. If
your organization has it but doesn’t use it this chapter is an accusation: you
have failed a moral code that should be self evident.

The next
chapter will give some considerations on what such a procedure must consider.

* I trust
there are examples of complaints handled well, but none of the examples I have
heard of were ever acted upon.

Chapter 24

In the previous post I’ve described the Tornado Festival in Russia. It is a good example of how the preparations for the Combat Games can take place. The following describes why – to my mind – the format is so suitable.

Some background information on the SportAccord
Combat Games

I will make
a short trip into history: in 2005 SportAccord came up with the idea of the
Martial Arts and Combat Games. Aikido was just struggling with losing its
position as demonstration sport in the World Games. So, when the possibility of
participating in a new platform was presented, we jumped at the occasion. The
format of the event was to present the 80 best athletes from each sport or
martial art. Each participant was asked to come up with a transparent procedure
to prove that the best athletes were sent. Another part of the format was that
there would be three days of competition for each of the sports. Which poses a
challenge for Aikido, because we do not have competition and we did not have a
format that would fill three days. Thinking of these challenges my idea was to
develop a program that would be meaningful to the other sports and to the
public. In Aikido the custom was to have each country do a demonstration, and
generally speaking the senior instructors would demonstrate. In many occasion
that would lead to a program where each country did more or less the same thing
for 5 minutes and the average age would be between 40 and 60, sometimes even
higher. That format would not hold up in this new environment. So we developed
a format in which the demonstrations would not be per country, the program
would not be random but match the progress in the level of participants, for
instance by having the first demonstration with 80 people doing basic
techniques, the second demonstration being 40 people doing advanced techniques,
the third with 20 people doing very advanced techniques such as weapons and
multiple attackers. During these demonstrations the comments by a moderator
would tell the story behind the program: we all practice together, but who
practices longer will have more experience and skill. The demonstrations would
then be topped off with a demonstration by a few senior shihan, showing how Aikido
can be done effectively until a very high age.

This format
left only one question unanswered: how do we prove that we have sent the 80
best athletes in the world, but without competition. This where the concept of
regional teams came into place: each region would organize a seminar where the
countries would send their representatives. During the seminar they would
demonstrate, and experts would select who were the best representatives at that
point in time. These 20 people would be part of the 80 to start in the
demonstrations in the Martial Arts and Combat Sports Games. During the event a
similar procedure would be followed, for instance: in the first demonstrations
the 80 athletes are randomly paired, and after the first day they decide themselves
who will continue as tori and who as uke in the second demonstration. In the
second demonstrations experts could determine who were invited to do the most
advanced techniques in the final demonstration. In this was we would have
neared the format that competitive sports follow, without entering into
qualification, winning, etc.

The Russian
Federation was the first and only to take up this format, and with success. In
the period before the Combat Games they worked as a strong team and created an
excellent demonstration. Today this format is still used.

Chapter 21

As
described in chapter … the IAF was established as a cooperation between Doshu
Kisshomaru Ueshiba, the Aikikai Foundation and active Aikidoka from different
countries in the world. While we are decades away from what happened at that
time exactly, I feel it is reasonable to presume that they were all entering
new territory, in the sense that they could not foresee the consequences of
their actions. I think it is also a fair assumption that the people involved
would have looked at the consequences in terms of their own cultural background*.

While these
actions took place in the late seventies and early eighties of the previous
century, finding information, communicating, meeting, organizing, etc. were not
nearly as easy as they are today. If you want to know about the law in a
foreign country today, you google. If you had to do that at that time, you
would struggle to get into the university library to find a translated book of
law. If you wanted to consult a knowledgeable lawyer, you would have to search
with great pain, you could not google. If you wanted to meet, you had to go
through lengthy processed of organizing, you couldn’t hold an on-line meeting
or mail the optional dates. If you wanted to organize the meeting you had to
prepare over long periods of time, because every step in the preparation would
go by mail. Even fax was a new thing at the time.

Why is that
relevant, because it challenges our frame of reference what could be expected
from volunteers at the time. But at the same time, it justifies assumptions
about what was actually agreed on and how that worked out.

It seems reasonable
to state three decisions were taken:
– Join
the International World Games Association
– Establish
an International Aikido Federation
– Establish
Continental Aikido Federations

One of the
consequences that nobody could foretell was that joining IWGA did not just mean
giving Aikido in international platform, but also would imply meeting the
standards of the international world of sport. Over time I was led to believe
that joining the IWGA was not initially intended to allow Aikido to participate
in the World Games, but simply to give Aikido international recognition. It
wasn’t anticipated that this would imply participation in the World Games,
which would make Aikido a demonstration sport. It certainly wasn’t anticipated that
this in turn would lead to Aikido being expelled from the World Games for not
having competition. It simply wasn’t foreseen that this simple step of joining
IWGA would open ‘a can of wurms’.

An other
thing that certainly was not foreseen was the dynamics of national federations
that was triggered. Until that point in time national organizations existed,
but Aikido was in its infancy. In very few countries did Aikido exist as an
independent sport with an independent organization with national recognition.
When I got involved the big Aikido countries were:
– France:
FFAAA – French Federation for Aikido, Aikibudo and Affiliated Associations
– Italy:
Association of Traditional Japanese Culture
– Germany:
Professional Association for Aikido
– Sweden:
Swedish Budo Association
– Netherlands:
Budo Bond Netherlands

With no
disrespect to the other countries that were there, the plate was very diffuse:
in several countries different martial arts were in an association together, in
other countries the organization was cultural, in other countries the
organization was professional. There was no clear picture what a national
Aikido organization was supposed to be.

There were
however two things that were clear:
– They
were all connected to Hombu
– They
were all in a democratic organization called the IAF

All across
Europe (as I am describing the experience I have personally) the volunteers
organizing Aikido were trying to work out how to run their organizations and
cooperate, amongst themselves and with Hombu. And it soon became clear that
this discussion could be summarized as a struggle to match the vertical and the
horizontal.

The
vertical implied the teaching relationship in the dojo, the relationship
between instructors and their Japanese teacher, the relationship of the
Japanese teachers and Doshu. The horizontal represented the cooperation between
dojo’s, the cooperation with other countries, the cooperation within the EAF
and IAF.

But as is
predictable when trying to reconcile the horizontal and the vertical, there
were many domains where there were irreconcilable tensions. For instance:

–
In
many dojo’s the legal form was that of an association, but by example the
instructor would lead as the man in charge;

–
In
many national organizations the legal form as association, but out of respect
for or force exerted by the Japanese instructor, decision making would be democratic
only as long as the Japanese instructor allowed it;

–
In
the IAF decision making would be democratic until senior instructors in Hombu would
raise concern, after which the democratic process would slowly grind to a halt
and need to be restarted.

In many
countries people worked hard to find ways to reconcile both worlds. Some
examples worked better, some did worse. But in all fairness, this struggle wasn’t
foreseen by the people who started the process.

Today I can
describe it more easily. At the time there was no such frame of reference to
understand what was going on. When I was asked to join the board of Dutch
Aikido my instructor was general secretary of an association for Aikido and
when I got to work I bought a book on the law on association. This seemed
justified, even in the realm of cooperation with Hombu and its vertical
structure, because the International Regulations from Hombu stated that the
organization was responsible for running its business according to the laws of
its country.

Luckily the
laws on association appeared to be both quite common sense, and they are quite
similar all around Europe. So, when talking about problems, people organizing
could share experiences and benefit from each other**. So, we developed solutions and work-arounds for
the clash between horizontal and vertical.

For
instance: proposals would first be discussed with the Japanese instructors
before being presented to the general assembly: if you couldn’t get their approval, you just didn’t
bring it to the general assembly. However, over time this appeared to be rather
undemocratic. It implied self-censorship.

At the level
of the European Federation this however did not apply: there was no European
Japanese instructor to censor the process. So, this level of organization
became the crack in the structure. Here representatives would make highly
democratic decisions, and representatives would go back to their national
organizations, and deal with the tension within their own boundaries***.

For the IAF
this was different. The IAF was organized very close to Hombu. From our
European perspective this had practical reasons:
– There
was a language barrier: we didn’t speak Japanese, Hombu didn’t speak good
English.
– There
was no IAF infrastructure: the IAF was small, had nowhere near sufficient budget.
Hombu volunteered to do the office work, and very diligently at that.
– The
IAF didn’t need to be big: activities were limited and the main effort was IAF
meetings and the World Games. The former was organized by Hombu, the latter by
the hosting country.

So for
those few things that needed to be done, it was always in close cooperation
with Hombu. However, here the first cracks in the democratic functioning of the
IAF became clear. For one thing, any new challenge to the IAF was taken up with
Hombu and Doshu for advice (and rightfully so). But through this it soon became
apparent that Doshu would generally refrain from taking a standpoint, and that any
such standpoint would usually come from representatives of Hombu (and in
particular the senior instructors). Since the topics we were involved in weren’t
that consequential, this was noticed rather than addressed as an issue.

However, as
time moved forward and all the organizations involved became more mature,
things started to change. And that will be the topic of the next chapter.

* I will
address that cultural background in a later post

** Over
time I have come to the conclusion that for instance in the USA there is little
understanding for European laws on association. On the other hand, reading a
translation of Japanese Law on association indicates that there are great
similarities.

*** I
believe this is the main reason why there was such a strong call from within
countries for the IAF not to interfere in any way in their countries.

Chapter 14

AIMS stands for Association of Independent Members of SportAccord. As described earlier, it can be seen as the remaining sports in the structure of the IOC, IWGA and SportAccord.

Several of the martial arts and combat sports are member of AIMS: Kendo, Muay Thai, Sambo, Aikido, etc.

As described AIMS started off without much of a goal, but it found it’s goal when Mr Stephan Fox from Muay Thai became chairman. His position is also general secretary of Muay Thai, and he is an energetic and pragmatic official who will get things done. When he became chairman of AIMS he started to work diligently to make AIMS the steppingstone for members to IOC recognition (ARISF: Association of Recognized International Sport Federation; ic. recognized by IOC).
He quickly found out that eventhough Muay Thai is no small organization, it did not meet the standards of the IOC. So, as he set to work on recognition, he learned what it implies to meet the standards. And he decided that this effort should be shared with the other sports in AIMS.

When SportAccord collapsed, he made a heroic effort to protect the members of AIMS. He started negotiations to get IOC recognition for AIMS, and as such protect AIMS members from the consequences if SportAccord would lose its power of cease to exist. He phrased his intentions at different occasions, and stressed to the AIMS members that on the one hand this recognition by the IOC implies access to IOC resources, NOC resources and such, but on the other hand does not give individual recognition to sports. Aikido can not claim to be IAF recognized, but it can make that claim through its membership of AIMS*.

On the other hand, he clearly stated the consequences he sees that follow from IOC recognition. There are two major lines. The first line is that other sports that want IOC recogntion now have a clear path. They can prepare within AIMS. AIMS will support the process and will work closely with ARISF to achieve such recognition.

The second line is that the sports that do not seek IOC recognition will still have to live up to the standards of the IOC. His work to get us recognized have therefore raised the bar for Aikido to meet the IOC standards.

The first question we asked, was what does that imply. It goes too far for here to go into detail, but looking at the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Agenda was given as advice to get started.

And this is one of the important challenges for Aikido in the coming years: to not look or act below standard in an international community where most sports will work towards the IOC standards.

* In fact some IAF members have already reported that they have been contacted by their NOC. Others have stated that this finally gives Aikido the recognition they need in their country.

Chapter 13

GAISF was trying to expand its reach from being an empty umbrella organization with little real function (pretty much like AIMS) into a meaningful position. The chairman of GAISF, Mr Hein Verbruggen, was a marketing professional and had been chairman of the Cycling Association. His view was to move GAISF from Monaco to Lausanne, base it next to the IOC, create its own games and therefore its own source of income, and so turn the organization into a viable counterpart to the IOC. In the meantime the strength of IOC and IWGA were growing. Their events became increasingly successful and valuable. The budgets grew accordingly.

When Mr Verbruggen first had the idea of organizing the Martial Arts Games, he contacted two Dutch speaking representatives of martial arts, including myself. He explained the background of his ideas, and explained how he wanted the Martial Arts Games to be positioned: not just as the next competition program, but as an event that would showcase the other aspects of martial arts. He referred to the presentation given by Mr Ogi in 2005 and the role of sport. He proposed the idea that martial arts had much to offer in terms of personal development, reconciliation, discipline and upbringing.

Because we were both Dutch, we got along well, and we had some private conversations, in which he told me that he had done Aikido as a student, was well aware of the non-competitive nature of Aikido, that he knew about the issue in IWGA and still wanted to involve Aikido in the Martial Arts Games.

To my mind, this was a tremendous opportunity for Aikido. To finally be given a platform to present Aikido in such a manner that all the philosphical aspects could be show-cased, seemed like an unprecedented chance. I was invited to participate in the preparations of the Combat Games and could follow the road leading up to the first event from up close*.

But as a consequence of GAISF becoming more active and organizing events, its dynamics changed. The convention drew more and more participants from the commercial world. The participants were actually getting younger and younger. More and more the other sports felt that AIMS could be a meaningful organization to them.

GAISF tried to cash in on the success. The name GAISF was changed into SportAccord to benefit from the brand value. SportAccord became a stronger organization towards the IOC. And with several successful games accredited to its name, an unexpected change happended. Mr Verbruggen was followed by a new chairman, Mr Vizer, who had strong commercial goals for SportAccord. He was reported to have made his career in illegal gambling in Eastern Europe, but to have turned legitimate. And contrary to some scepticism he actually made SportAccord more successful.

For Aikido this became apparent between the first and second Combat Games. While in the first Combat Games each participating sport had received some € 15.000 in benefits afterwards (but had been requested to forfit this sum to allow for the preparation of the next games), Mr Viser promised the participating sports € 50.000 profit, and delivered on that promise.

So, after a while the members of SportAccord were happily waiting for the next favourable development. SportAccord for a short while was almost as strong and present as the IOC.

Unfortunatel this success did not last long. After the Combat Games in 2013 the IAF was looking forward to the next SportAccord convention. But Mr Vizer got into a frontal attack on the IOC. He published a letter which led to a chain of events. A large group of sports sided with the IOC against Mr Vizer and he was forced to resign. In the year that followed everybody was waiting for the dust to settle, and in 2015 it was even expected that SportAccord would cease to exist. In 2016 it became clear that fundamental changes had taken place. The IOC had decided to keep SportAccord alive. It would be scaled down, but continue under a new chairman, Mr Bach.

For Aikido this period is structured in a different perspective. In 2010 we were participating in the Combat Games. In 2011 and 2012 we were preparing for the next Combat Games. In 2013 and 2014 we were participating and evaluating the next Combat Games. In 2015 we were overwhelmed by the developments in SportAccord.

But in 2014 and 2015 one other development started that continues to be relevant today. AIMS became more active**.

* I will post more on the Combat Games
** The next post will be about AIMS

Chapter 12

GAISF was trying to expand its reach from being an empty umbrella organization with little real function (pretty much like AIMS) into a meaningful position. The chairman of GAISF, Mr Hein Verbruggen, was a marketing professional and had been chairman of the Cycling Association. His view was to move GAISF from Monaco to Lausanne, base it next to the IOC, create its own games and therefore its own source of income, and so turn the organization into a viable counterpart to the IOC. In the meantime the strength of IOC and IWGA were growing. Their events became increasingly successful and valuable. The budgets grew accordingly.

When Mr Verbruggen first had the idea of organizing the Martial Arts Games, he contacted two Dutch speaking representatives of martial arts, including myself. He explained the background of his ideas, and explained how he wanted the Martial Arts Games to be positioned: not just as the next competition program, but as an event that would showcase the other aspects of martial arts. He referred to the presentation given by Mr Ogi in 2005 and the role of sport. He proposed the idea that martial arts had much to offer in terms of personal development, reconciliation, discipline and upbringing.

Because we were both Dutch, we got along well, and we had some private conversations, in which he told me that he had done Aikido as a student, was well aware of the non-competitive nature of Aikido, that he knew about the issue in IWGA and still wanted to involve Aikido in the Martial Arts Games.

To my mind, this was a tremendous opportunity for Aikido. To finally be given a platform to present Aikido in such a manner that all the philosphical aspects could be show-cased, seemed like an unprecedented chance. I was invited to participate in the preparations of the Combat Games and could follow the road leading up to the first event from up close*.

But as a consequence of GAISF becoming more active and organizing events, its dynamics changed. The convention drew more and more participants from the commercial world. The participants were actually getting younger and younger. More and more the other sports felt that AIMS could be a meaningful organization to them.

GAISF tried to cash in on the success. The name GAISF was changed into SportAccord to benefit from the brand value. SportAccord became a stronger organization towards the IOC. And with several successful games accredited to its name, an unexpected change happended. Mr Verbruggen was followed by a new chairman, Mr Vizer, who had strong commercial goals for SportAccord. He was reported to have made his career in illegal gambling in Eastern Europe, but to have turned legitimate. And contrary to some scepticism he actually made SportAccord more successful.

For Aikido this became apparent between the first and second Combat Games. While in the first Combat Games each participating sport had received some € 15.000 in benefits afterwards (but had been requested to forfit this sum to allow for the preparation of the next games), Mr Viser promised the participating sports € 50.000 profit, and delivered on that promise.

So, after a while the members of SportAccord were happily waiting for the next favourable development. SportAccord for a short while was almost as strong and present as the IOC.

Unfortunatel this success did not last long. After the Combat Games in 2013 the IAF was looking forward to the next SportAccord convention. But Mr Vizer got into a frontal attack on the IOC. He published a letter which led to a chain of events. A large group of sports sided with the IOC against Mr Vizer and he was forced to resign. In the year that followed everybody was waiting for the dust to settle, and in 2015 it was even expected that SportAccord would cease to exist. In 2016 it became clear that fundamental changes had taken place. The IOC had decided to keep SportAccord alive. It would be scaled down, but continue under a new chairman, Mr Bach.

For Aikido this period is structured in a different perspective. In 2010 we were participating in the Combat Games. In 2011 and 2012 we were preparing for the next Combat Games. In 2013 and 2014 we were participating and evaluating the next Combat Games. In 2015 we were overwhelmed by the developments in SportAccord.

But in 2014 and 2015 one other development started that continues to be relevant today. AIMS became more active**.

* I will post more on the Combat Games
** The next post will be about AIMS

Chapter 11

It is difficult to describe briefly what SportAccord is, how it became what it is today, what it’s function has been for Aikido and what it will mean for us in the future*.

Earlier I have described how sports that were not in the IOC were brought together in the WorldGames, and how the IOC and IWGA together formed GAISF (General Association of International Sport Federations). The name SportAccord was used for the convention GAISF organized, and eventually adopted as their name because of the marketing power of the concept.

But let me go back to the first time I attended a SportAccord convention in Berlin in 2005. The event was hosted in a large hotel (which easily packed the meetings, the convention, the gala dinner, etc.). It appeared that GAISF was a prestigious organization, where literally all the sportorganizations that meant anything were participating.
Another thing I noticed was that there was a lot of political wheeling and dealing going on. There were endless meetings, formal and informal. And it was an old-mans event. There were some younger people, but all the representatives were 60+ in my perception.
I visited the events I needed to: the IWGA general assembly, the GAISF general assembly. I tried to make acquaintance with the people representing other sports. And I tried to find a justification for being there to satisfy my own efforts.

This came when a United Nations Ambassador made an address at the gala dinner. Mr Ogi, former president of Switserland, made a strong appeal to the representatives about their responsibilities. He pointed out the importance of sport:
– for obvious reasons such as health and relaxation
– for less obvious reasons such as sport being one of the last social structures where children can participate and learn social skills
– for the even less obvious reason that in conflict-ridden areas where sport may be the first activity to reconcile people

The next day I found a more pragmatic reason why Aikido needed to attend. The chairman and general secretary of IWGA came to me to inform me that Aikido would need to introduce competition to maintain its position as a demonstration sport**. Of course I realized the sensitivity of the situation, and made not other comment than that I would address the issue in the IAF. I did howver try to ascertain why this was such a strong issue for the IWGA and in the following days I talked to several IWGA officials. Perhaps the strongest resentment came from the IWGA general secretary who simply put it as: ‘we organize competition, Aikido has no competition, why would I organize it’.

Fast-forwarding from this first experience, the IAF found out quite quickly that GAISF was changing each year. The following year the convention was larger, the number of people attending had grown, the political buzz was growing. The IAF went there to see if we could renegotiate its position with IWGA. Some minor progress was made, but still little seemed to be really relevant.

In the coming years we maintained our presence, made an effort to create good connections to people attending and follow the developments and promote the position of Aikido.

This became relevant after the World Games. Because Aikido would always draw larger crowds than a number of other competition sports. We would be negotiating our position as a demonstration sport.

But in the meantime we noticed that GAISF was changing. When Mr Verbruggen became chairman of GIASF he clearly tried to reposition GAISF. Until then the reality had been that the IOC and its substructures had dominated the field, IWGA had been growing, but could be seen as taking care of the fall-out from the Olympic Games. But the number of new sports grew, and at that time AIMS was formed to give those new members a phramework to function***.

At that time AIMS was nothing other than a small meeting for the other sports. It was established, the next year it had its first meeting and decisions, the next year it introduced some new member, the next year it appointed a new board which promised to do more, etc. It slowly moved forward but without a real sense of purpose.

At the level of GAISF things were happening. We found out that IWGA was really going to strike off Aikido as a demonstration sport. But at the same time GAISF wanted to introduce Martial Arts Games. And in 2008 I was asked by the chairman of the IAF to introduce the concept to the general assembly of the IAF.

GAISF had finally become relevant for Aikido.

(to be continued)

* So, this may lead to several posts on SportAccord describing different aspects
** For those of you who wish to be offended by the shere mentioning of Aikido as a demonstration sport, please realize that the current Doshu has agreed to see Aikido as a demonstration sport in the context of the Olympic Games in Japan in 2020.
*** During the SportAccord each and every IOC-related organization would have its general assembly. The other sports would be ‘hanging around’ on those days. Introcuding AIMS gave these other sports their own meeting.

Chapter 10: the Combat Games

If participation in the World Games followed from the wish of Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba, participation in the Combat Games was a choice of the IAF itself.

While the participation in the World Games had turned out to be such a succes for the IAF, it was considered a great loss that Aikido would not be able to participate in these Games any longer,

However, as this door closed another door unexpectedly openend. Within SportAccord* the initiative was taken to develop their own Games: Mind Games, Beach Games and Martial Arts Games. The chairman of SportAccord had the idea to create the Martial Arts Games as an alternative to the Olympic and World Games, by creating an event that would not only have competition, but would showcase the other aspects of Martial Arts: tradition, culture, disciplin, respect. And since he had practised Aikido as a student, he was well aware that Aikido did not have competition, but would represent all the other aspects.

The concept was presented to 13 Martial Arts and Combat Sports within SportAccord. All were enthousiastic. And within 3 years SportAccord managed to get these Games organized. The name of the event would be the SportAccord Combat Sports and Martial Arts Games. However, in the preparations we were told that marketing-wise such a long name wouldn’t work well, and it was decided to name the event SportAccord Martial Arts Games.

For the participating Martial Arts and Combat Sports the forumula was that 80 top athletes and 40 officials would participate in a 3 day event, all expenses paid. The participants would spend 5 days at the event, and the whole event would last a maximum of two weeks. The host city would pay for the expenses.

The first host city would be Beijing – China. The Chinese went to work very dillegently and the preparations were done very smoothly and efficiently. But only when the preparations were well underway, a small snag appeared. The Chinese made it clear to us that Martial Arts in Chinese are called Wu Shu. However, Wu Shu is used as a term for Chinese Martial Arts, not all Martial Arts. Therefore they claimed the name of the event would be confusing. They proposed a Chinese term that translated to Combat Games. Given the progress made and the limited concession the participating sports agreed to this change in name.

The event itself was a great success. Aikido participated with 100 people, gave 3 half day demonstrations, and drew large numbers of spectators (even if these were brought in by the Chinese). The only draw-back was that Aikido did not have a strong organization in China, and therefore the IAF could not organize a seminar to benefit from the event. But the event was a clear boost for the IAF.

Several changes from the formula used at the World Games demonstrations were introduced during the program:
– demonstrations were not done by countries, but all athletes worked together
– demonstrations were not done by seniors in Aikido, but by younger practitioners (4th and 5th dan, maximum 40 years old)
– demonstrations were structured by content, first basic techniques, later advanced techniques, finally weapons techniques and multiple attackers
– the program was rounded off by a demonstration by two Shihan

After the event we could evaluate the results. Several surprising results can be mentioned:
– the younger participants responded well to being given the exposure
– the relationships established between the participants were very strong and positive
– specatators from other sports viewed the demonstrations and were deeply impressed by the performance

As a consequence the IAF could see that the standing of Aikido amongst the other Martial Arts and Combat Sports greatly improved. Also at an organizational level this could be noticed.

However, these positive results were not based on initial strong support from the IAF members. In these first Games only half of the IAF member countries participated. There were grave objections by the other half of the members because:
– the name Combat Games was considered offensive to Aikido
– the risk that Aikido would introduce competition was too great
– the fact that there would be no demonstrations per country was upsetting

In fact one country even threatened to withdraw its participation if it was not allowed to demonstrate as a country.

However, since the result was such a success, the criticism subdued a bit, and in the second event in St Petersburg – Russia, the formula could be repeated, 30 members participated, and the results were equally positive.

In fact the results were so positive that the IAF was only waiting for the next event. Unfortunately political problems within SportAccord have put the next event on hold*.

* I will write a post on SportAccord separately in the near future

Chapter 9

The role of the IAF – The World Games

If the previous posts tried to explain that the IAF was necessary to establish Aikido in countries with governments, this post will address what the IAF has become on top of that.

When the IAF was established its main goal was to create a foothold in the world of sport. Doshu Kisshomaru Ueshiba is said to have been the driving force behind that decision*.
Once looking for ways to do so, the IAF found that there was a new international organization, close to the IOC. This organization was organizing similar Games, which were named the World Games. The organization was named the IWGA (International World Games Association).

It turned out that this was a magic bullit. This was an organization that was new and open to new members. It accepted Aikido without great trouble. It allowed Aikido to participate in its games as a demonstration sport. National Aikido organizations could now claim recognition by an international body such as IOC, there was a reason for countries to be in the IAF, Aikido had a platform to present itself.

This happines however was short-lived. The IWGA quickly (after the second World Games Aikido participated in) made it clear that being a demonstration sport was not a permanent status. Just like in the Olympic Games, a demonstration sport is expected to participate in the next Games as a competition sport. This was asked from Aikido as well.

At that time the powers that be in the Aikido community were unified in their standpoint: Aikido does not have competition. And this was the position I was asked to represent at an IWGA meeting in Berlin in 2005. The response to this position was simple: no competition, no participation. So, as a consequence, the World Games in 2005 in Düsseldorf became the last World Games Aikido participated in. In 2006 – 2008 the IAF tried to negotiate its position with the IWGA, but they were just as flexible as the Aikido community, perhaps even more. IWGA looked for alternatives for competition. They proposed Aikido could hold gradings during the Games, these could be judged and this was considered an alternative for competition. But Aikido didn’t budge. And so Aikido was not invited to participate in the World Games in Kao Shung – Taiwan, or in the World Games in Cali – Colombia in 2013.

But, as one door closed, another door opened … (Read the next post 🙂

In the meantime, the World Games Aikido has participated in had been a relative success. In 1989 the World Games in Karlsruhe – Germany were a success because they were well organized by the German Aikikai under the leadership of Asai Sensei.
In 1993 the World Games in the Hague – Netherlands were not so successful as a whole, but compared to other sports Aikido drew larger crowds than many other competitive sports. In 1997 the World Games were successfully organized in Finland, and in 2001 the were successfully organized in Akita – Japan.

Each time the IAF and the national Aikido organization managed to organize a training seminar together with the Games. This turned out to be increasingly meaningful to the Aikido community. Large numbers of Aikidoka came from all over the world to attend these seminars.

This was such a success that the IAF started to see these seminars as a goal in itself. Since then all the IAF congresses have been accompanied by training seminars.

I believe this has been one of the things the IAF has done for its members.

* With certain regularity Hombu-representatives ask why the IAF wants to be in the world of sport. Let there be no mistake, because a Doshu asked so.

Chapter 7

There is an interesting process one can distinguish time and again, that has to do with the creation of new groups. Bluntly put, the process is as follows:
– somebody starts a dojo because he is motivated
– he works hard to get if off the ground and feels it is his property
– he needs to involve students because that’s how dojos work
– over time tensions arise between the instructor that started the dojo and the seniors that outgrow their position as only student in the dojo
– at a certain point the seniors leave the dojo and start a dojo for themselves

In itself this should seem a healthy growth process, but more often than not this process is conflict ridden. As the students become more active in the dojo they also get more influence. This takes away from the position of the person who started the dojo and often leads to conflict.
Students look for new input. They find that with other instructors and start to focsu their attention outside of their own dojo. This takes away further from the position of the senior instructor.
The senior students want to take initiatives and have power of their own. They want to teach, conduct gradings, organize seminars, etc. This undermines the position of the senior instructor more and more.
If the senior instructor does not find ways to accomodate this process, it leads to disappointment and disillusion.

Why is this relevant for the issue of Hombu recognition and IAF membership? Well, every new dojo is looking for forms of validation. The first form of validation is to become member of a national organization. However, in the example given above, the members of that national organization are often the seniors of the instructor of that new dojo. They do not want to give validation to a junior that has just left with conflict. He will not automatically get the power to give grades just because he started a dojo.

The dojo will look for validation by joining up with a more senior instructor. This will often not be the seniors in their own organization. They will seek support from an outsider. This however will create more distance between the old and the new organization.

As a consequence new organizations will look around for support. They will find and create that around the new senior they have focused on. They will try to establish a group. And what will be the first focus of that new organization? Teaching and grading. Dan-grades will be processed through the organization of the new senior. But the next step is to be able to do that independently, and this implies a direct relationship with Hombu through Hombu recognition*.

These new organizations look for further validation. They recognize easily enough that the organization they left was member of an international federation. So, almost automatically they also seek recogntion from the IAF. However, the IAF does not give recognition. The IAF is an international federation with a policy of one member per country. This follows from its relationship with national governments and the world of sport, that uphold a policy of one organization per sport per country**. As a consequence the IAF can not give multiple membership to organizations in a country.

Over the last 25 years I have been in conversations with many people who wanted to start a new organization or were in the process of getting one off the ground. Almost always the question was how to get recognition from Hombu and the IAF. Almost always it was difficult to explain what the difference is.

So, in conclusion:
– you can apply for Hombu recognition if your organization is practising Aikikai Aikido, if there is an organizational and a teaching structure, if you exist for 5 years and if there is a senior instructor of 6th dan. The latter condition is negotiable.
– you can become member of the IAF if there is no other member in your country. In that case you must be a registred democratic organization in your country and have Hombu recognition. If there already is a member organization, join ranks with them. The IAF has recently introduced a policy that new members must cooperate with other existing groups.

* Until probably 1995 Hombu was relatively reluctant to give recognition to new organizations. After 2000 this had turned around and recognition is now given to new organizations big and small.
** Try to imagine how to organize the Olympic Games if is was not an event where countries compete.

Chapter 6

Many people who practice in a dojo will never notice a lot from the organizational structure above their dojo. It will be limited to attending a seminar and receiving a passport, perhaps a newsletter and an insurance most of them will never claim from.

Still, the national organization fulfills a number of functions, both directly and indirectly.

Perhaps the most unnoticed function of national organizations is that through their shere existence they create an environment necessary for Aikido to be recognized at a national and international level. Its a bit of a vicious circle, but the early Aikido organizations actually faced this challenge.

If you practices Aikido and wanted to be recognized as anything, you needed some sort of validation. One form of validation was Hombu recognition. But this only had meaning within the Aikido community. To be recognized by local or national government these groups needed something else.

We are no longer there to question why, but somewhere in the late ’70-ies or early ’80-ies it was decided by Hombu and a number of Aikido organizations in countries to found the IAF, to become member of the International World Games Association and participate in the International World Games. This established Aikido as a sport in the international community, and it allowed governments to recognize national Aikido organizations. However, to enter IWGA and become a recognized organization, it needed to have a minimal number of members in different countries. So, these countries actually needed to cooperate to establish Aikido as a sport and maintain an international body to maintain that recognition*.

As Aikido participated in the World Games this cost money which the IAF did not have. The first World Games where Aikido participated were in Germany. The financial burden was carried by the German Aikikai under the leadership of Asai Sensei. To cover some of the expenses and make the most of the senior instructors attending, a seminar was organized.
The second time Aikido participated was in the Netherlands in 1993. Dutch Aikikai didn’t have the resources to cover all the expenses of hosting the event, and this was the first time the IAF had to provide the means to organize the event**. Again, a seminar was organized to cover some of the expenses.

These seminars slowly took on a life of their own. As the IAF started to organize its 4-yearly general assemblies it became a habit to organize a seminar as well. These seminars became so popular that over time they were intricately linked. In 2016 2000 participants attended the IAF seminar.

Participation in the World Games and participating in the seminars of the IAF were the earliest spin-off. As time passed more and more examples of that spin-off became apparent.

Virtually every national organization was looking for some form of justification of its existence, other than just being there. Simple things like organizing national training courses started happening. Developing instructors courses and getting them recognized was another step that was appropriate in the development of Aikido as well as just the right thing for a national organization.

As the list of topics grew, it reached a point where there was sufficient justification for national governments to start paying attention to Aikido:
– an international body, member of SportAccord
– participating in the World Games
– with a larger number of dojos covering a wider region in the country
– with national seminars
– with a recognized instructors course

Such a track record was just the boost Aikido needed as a phenomenon to be recognized in its own right. It went from ‘what is Aikido?’ to ‘we know Aikido’. And its unprobable that this would have happened without the national and international Aikido federations.

Today national Aikido organizations provide a larger number of services, ranging from supporting starting dojos with tatami, information, experience, instructors, etc. to special programs for gender equality, physically challenged athletes, Aikido for business, and so on.

So, if anybody asks what’s in it for dojos? Realize you wouldn’t be in the position to ask without the national and international organizations.

* Today some people question whether Aikido is a sport. We will discuss that at some point in the future.
** Since it didn’t have the funds Dutch Aikikai covered the expenses, and these were ‘repaid’ through an installment of its membership fees.

(Chapter 5)

I’ll start my analysis of the world of sport with looking at the IOC. Not that I’m an expert, so there my be discrepancies or mistakes in my analysis. But for the general idea, I think the following is valid.

Over time the Olympic Games have become successful. Both in terms of the event itself as well as in terms of impact. Once governments realized the importance of the Olympic Games, they became involved. A structure of IOC and NOC’s was established. Participation of countries in the Olympic Games became a must for any country.
And in return, being in the Olympic Games established a sport as a sport. Governments started to use that as a defining attribute.

But its not that simple. There are more sports than there is space in the Olympic Games. This gave rise to different developments: there is an organization for recognized Olympic sports. These do not all participate in the Games, but they all fulfill the criteria.

For those sports that were not expected to be in the Olympics anyway, they devised the World Games. To become a member, the sport had to join IWGA.

IOC and IWGA formed an umbrella organization called GAISF. They organized their meetings at an annual event called SportAccord. This became such a success that they renamed GAISF to SportAccord.

But what remained was: if you are member of SportAccord you are recognized as a sport by national governments.

Now,within SportAccord there were sports that didn’t really fit in anywhere in the Olympic spectrum. I’m still not quite clear what the defining characteristics are, but they were brought together in AIMS: the Affiliated Independent Members of SportAccord. In 2016 this organization AIMS got recognized by IOC. As a consequence Aikido is now recognized as a sport by the IOC. And in fact that has consequences: if your country has an NOC, it must recognize your sport because it is recognized by IOC. Aikido is by this chain a IOC-recognized sport. That does not give Aikido the right to participate in the Olympic Games, it does not give access to subsidies related to the Olympic Games, but it does for instance give access to the NOC in your country.

Let’s look at the following issues in the next chapter.

(Chapter 4)

The world of sport is complicated. Few people appear to understand the reasons why. And it makes sense, because very few people will ever need to consider what is going on at this level op sport. In this blog I will try to explain my take on the complexity.

The easiest way to start thinking about sport, is that it is something people often do together. This makes it something in the public domain, and the public domain is something governments take in interest in.

For instance, soccer is a simple game children play if they have a ball and a field of grass, or even if the have a tennisball and a garage door. So governments regulate that you can’t play soccer in parks, can’t play of the public street, etc.
But soccer is also big business. It drives national pride. It creates revenue. It demands stadiums. It involves hooligans. Which creates a safety issue. Etc.

So, governments have interest in sports on each level.

Now, soccer is clearly a sport. But how do we know that. There are variations of soccer that certainly do not count as sport. Rugby certainly isn’t football. But American football is quite like rugby. But American football is certainly not soccer. So, is soccer football or not?
And that’s just soccer to start off with.

Why is Aikido a sport? Is it a sport? If it is not a sport, what is it? Who determines what it is? All these questions have turned out to be impossible to answer over the last 40 years for the people deeply involved. How should a government answer such questions?

They have a simple solution. If you are Olympic, you are a sport.

But what does that mean, if you are Olympic. To understand that, you need to understand the international world of sport. Which organizations are there, where did they come from? What do they do now, and why are we related to them.

And finally, how does that impact you.