Aikido: Learning and Enjoyment
A reflection on how our reasons for training can change over time: from learning techniques to enjoying movement, contact and shared practice.
Why Do We Train?
I once asked an 80-year-old man a simple question:
His answer was calm and honest:
This answer says a great deal about Aikido, ageing, experience and the changing meaning of practice. When we begin, we often want to improve quickly. We want to understand the techniques, remember the forms, move correctly and become more confident.
Later, something can change. The question is no longer only, “Am I getting better?” It becomes, “Can I enjoy this movement? Can I enjoy this contact? Can I enjoy being here?”
The Early Stage: Learning
In the beginning, learning is often the main focus. Everything is new: footwork, posture, distance, timing, ukemi, direction, balance and etiquette.
The beginner may think:
- Am I doing the technique correctly?
- Where should my feet be?
- When should I move?
- How do I take ukemi safely?
- How can I remember all these forms?
Beyond the Thinking Mind
Learning is important and should not be underestimated. We need structure, correction and clear forms. We need to understand the technique and respect the way it is taught.
However, we also need enjoyment, freedom and natural movement. We need moments when we are not continuously trapped “in the mind”, analysing every step, every hand position and every possible mistake.
Many Aikidokas remain in this mental state for a very long time. As uke, they watch closely what tori is doing. As tori, they try to copy exactly what the Trainer / Instructor has shown.
Of course, this is part of learning. But if it becomes an obsession, and if we never move beyond it, then something important may be lost.
- Where is the freedom in the movement?
- Where is the flexibility of mind?
- Where is the feeling of play and discovery?
- Where is the ability to respond naturally?
- Where is mushin, the state of “no mind” or “no fixed thought”?
Aikido should not remain only an exercise in remembering forms. At some point, the form should help us become freer, not more rigid. Technique should train awareness, but it should not imprison the body or the mind.
Good practice may begin with careful attention. But over time, it should open into something more fluid: movement, connection, timing, sensitivity, freedom and enjoyment.
This stage is important. Without learning, practice has no direction. We need correction, repetition and patience. We need to meet difficulty. We need to discover that Aikido is not as simple as it may look from the outside.
The Later Stage: Enjoyment
After many years, the meaning of training may become softer and deeper. The experienced Aikidoka may no longer need to prove anything. The dojo becomes less a place of achievement and more a place of movement, connection and presence.
Enjoyment does not mean laziness. It does not mean that learning has stopped. It means that the quality of practice has changed.
Enjoyment can become a form of wisdom.
The older practitioner may still learn, but perhaps in a different way. They may learn how to move with less force, how to receive more sensitively, how to protect the body, how to relax, how to breathe, and how to enjoy the simple fact of training with others.
Learning and Enjoyment Are Not Opposites
It is easy to think that learning and enjoyment are separate. We may imagine that serious students focus on learning, while relaxed students focus on enjoyment. But this is too simple.
In good Aikido, learning and enjoyment support each other.
- If there is no learning, training can become empty repetition.
- If there is no enjoyment, training can become tense and joyless.
- If there is only ambition, we may forget the body and the partner.
- If there is only comfort, we may stop growing.
The art is to keep both alive: the desire to learn and the ability to enjoy.
Enjoyment as Part of Good Training
Sometimes enjoyment is treated as something less serious than learning. But enjoyment can be a sign that the training is healthy. If people enjoy training, they return. If they return, they continue learning.
Enjoyment can include many things:
- The pleasure of smooth movement.
- The feeling of connection with a partner.
- The calmness after focused practice.
- The humour and warmth of the group.
- The discovery that the body can still learn.
- The quiet satisfaction of returning to the mat again and again.
This kind of enjoyment is not superficial. It is part of why people remain in Aikido for decades.
Changing Goals Over a Lifetime
A young person may train with energy, ambition and the wish to improve quickly. A middle-aged person may train to stay flexible, strong and mentally balanced. An older person may train to keep moving, to stay connected and to enjoy the atmosphere of shared practice.
None of these reasons is wrong. They are different stages of a training life.
Aikido can change with the person who practises it.
This is one of the strengths of the art. It does not have to be the same at 20, 40, 60 or 80. The form may remain, but the meaning can change.
Questions for Our Own Practice
The old man’s answer invites us to ask our own questions:
- Am I training mainly to improve?
- Am I training mainly for enjoyment?
- Can I do both?
- Do I allow others to train for different reasons?
- Does my dojo support learning and enjoyment?
- Do we sometimes make training too serious?
- Do we sometimes forget that people also come to enjoy themselves?
These questions are important because people stay in Aikido for different reasons. If a dojo only values technical progress, some people may feel left behind. If it only values comfort, others may feel that the practice has lost depth.
A Balanced Practice
The answer of the 80-year-old man is simple, but it contains a quiet wisdom. At one stage of life, learning may be the main focus. At another stage, enjoyment may become more important.
Perhaps the best Aikido contains both. We continue to learn, but we also learn to enjoy. We practise technique, but we also practise presence. We develop skill, but we also develop appreciation.
In the end, enjoyment may not be separate from learning. It may be one of the signs that learning has gone deeper.