Aikido - the organizational context

Associations are the necessary legal structure for dojos in many European countries. While I have no scientific data to back up this claim, I do have a wealth of experience to do so. This fundamentally has to do with the fact that sport is promoted by governments and they support democratic organizations. For instance, in the Netherlands to be affiliated with the Dutch government you must be affiliated with the National Sport Federation. This requires your organization to be a democratic association.
And as governments tend to copy one another, one can predict something similar is taking place in many European countries.
But also the IAF requires its members to be democratic. It does not specify at which level, but the applying organization does need to be democratic.

In Aikido associations are not the most probable organizational structure. A dojo is primarily conceived as a place to train, led by a senior instructor, who determines how things shoudl be run. This highly authoritarian approach is much closer to organizations such as a private business, where there is an owner, there are customers, and in an economic sense there is profit. My impression is that for instance in North America this is the preferred model.

In Japan it’s probably not a legal or economic consideration, as much as a cultural custom. However, the problem for all organizations outside of Japan is that we try to understand and copy Japanese custom without properly studying it (present author included by the way).

I would like to rephrase this as follows. We’re copying Japanese culture although we don’t really know what we’re copying and why it exists in that manner. We are forced into a legal choice by our culture, government and laws. These approaches have conflicting consequences. The following blogs will deal with issues that follow from this conflict.

Grading in Aikido is an interesting topic. While we train to develop our own personality and train without competition, it’s surprising to see how important grading is to most Aikidoka. In fact, it’s sometimes shocking to see how individuals ‘abuse’ the loopholes in regulations to get forward as soon as possible. This leads to regulations becoming more strict, it leads to tensions and irritations. But it also seems to lead the discussion about grading in the wrong direction. This article offers some considerations at another level.

1. Grading is important to focus students

If I have noticed anything myself as student and as teacher, it is that gradings focus students on improving at a technical level. Practitioners all know how simple the instruction about techniques is, and how complex it is to execute techniques in the manner presented. During regular training students appear to be more focused on finding any way to more or less make a technique work. Once they have worked something out, they repeat that despite feedback from seniors or instructors. But when they are preparing for gradings, they somehow seem more motivated to apply what they know to what they do. They pay attention more to detail and this helps to improve their Aikido.

2. This focus helps in the continuation of Aikido

We are all well aware of the fact that O’Sensei was ‘something else’. But Aikido as we know it today is disseminated by the Aikikai, Doshu and it’s Shihan. It’s disseminated by instructors throughout the world, trying to pass on what they understand of the techniques. But it’s only because at some point in their development students have actually tried to learn all the technical aspects of techniques that it becomes possible for them to be instructors of those aspects. So the study and focus mentioned under point 1 is necessary to allow the continuation of Aikido instruction.

3. Gradings help students to envision what is expected from them

It has been delegated to recognized organizations to come up with a teaching and grading system. This is expected to follow the guidelines of the Aikikai, but that doesn’t mean Hombu gives strict guidelines. In fact it’s quite the contrary: there is a lot of freedom allowed by Hombu.
But that leads to the challenge of developing such a system. In the early years this was done by the instructors that were students of O’Sensei or the first Doshu. But this has moved more and more into the hands of national organizations, and the senior instructors in those organizations. This has made it a subjective matter, determined by the people who are the seniors at that point in time, and their level of knowledge and skill. Gradings allow the organization to demonstrate what students are expected to know at each level, and therefore allow students to see what they are striving towards.

4. Gradings help the dojo to remain structured

In very few cultures seniority is the structuring principle. In fact, in most countries either grades or skill will structure a group more easily. So, holding regular gradings allows the dojo to keep seniority, skill and grading aligned, thus practically managing this issue.

5. Grading is good for character building

Most dojos practice Aikido for harmony and personal development, not for combat or conflict. But many people ask the question what elements of combat remain in Aikido. One of the things many instructors will agree on, is that any training for combat also has to do with learning to manage your emotions. In fact grading is one of the few stressors that are available in training. It allows instructors to help students cope with anxiety, uncertainty, the risk of failing, etc.

6. Overcoming these emotions is a good example for others

We virtually all live in societies where success and failure are are important issues. Students struggle with these concepts when preparing for and taking gradings. To see others struggle and overcome that stress, is good example for younger students learning to deal with this as well.

7. Grading forces instructors to consider their efforts

It’s quite easy for an instructor in a dojo to become complacent about what he is doing. In fact many instructors want the right to give grades as recognition of their skill and reassurance that they are good Aikidoka. But presenting your students to other instructors is an excellent challenge of your skills as a teacher, not of your personal technical level. By holding gradings and presenting students to each other instructors are forced to look more realistically at their own performance as teachers.

8. Gradings force organizations to look outside

When dojos start, it takes time to reach the level where you have candidates to take dan-tests. Years pass before you reach that point. Those years are often focused inwards, towards developing the dojo and the students. Gradings force the dojo to focus on the outside world as well.

9. Gradings force instructors to deal with individual students

Because they all have a different attitude towards grading, instructors have to deal with students individually when it comes to gradings. You can’t simply apply one strategy to each of them. This is already the case when teaching, but even more so when it comes to gradings.

I look forward to receiving your feedback on how you think about this issue.