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.