De Baets, G. A., Niehaus, A., & Van Praet, E. (2022).

Benchmarking aikido principles: today’s meaning

in the world. Martial Arts Studies Conference, 7th, Abstracts. Presented at the 7th International
Martial Arts Studies Conference, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Abstract Title

Benchmarking aikido principles: today’s meaning in the world

Abstract

Theme: martial arts globalisation and tradition

Greet Angèle De Baets, Ellen Van Praet and Andreas Niehaus | Ghent University, Belgium
Faculty of Arts and Philosophy - Department of Translating, Interpreting and Communication
Individual proposal, three authors, Greet De Baets is presenting.

In many parts of the world, aikido is applied as a metaphor or an embodiment method in

other domains such as therapy and communication training (Faggianelli & Lukoff, 2006;
Brawdy, 2001). Aikido often stands for seeking harmony, common ground and non-violence
instead of the combat in many other martial arts. Ueshiba Morihei (1883-1969) founded
aikido and gave form to his martial art in the 1920s. The traditional literature on aikido and
aikido principles, in English and Japanese, is mainly written from "within"; by Ueshiba’s
followers, aikido practitioners and by family members (Niehaus, 2019). A benchmarking
study identified what current aikido experts consider to be principles of aikido on and off the
mat in order to determine to what extent the principles of aikido serve other domains today.
Twenty aikido experts from each continent gave their views in a semi-structured interview.
Relying on NVivo software, we performed a qualitative content analysis of the interview
data. All informants were recruited through purposive sampling. The sample was
homogeneous in knowledge and expertise, heterogeneous in geographical spread (Etikan,
2016). The study found that the informants referred to aikido principles with the same core
meaning, however, with local or individual nuances. Differences were based on the reality
the informants live in and on the aikido style they practise. The similarities are fundamental
and show that many principles are universal. They showed a pattern in which aikido
undergirds principles for interaction (openness, cooperation and other-awareness) and for
self-development (tranquillity and self-awareness). Because the findings showed significant
similarities, aikido has the potential to be a model for embodied pedagogy in other domains.

Keywords

aikido, non-violence, interaction, self-development, embodied pedagogy

De Baets, G. A., Niehaus, A., & Van Praet, E. (2022). Benchmarking aikido principles: today’s meaning
in the world. Martial Arts Studies Conference, 7th, Abstracts. Presented at the 7th International
Martial Arts Studies Conference, Lausanne, Switzerland.

References

Brawdy, P. (2001). Exploring Human Kindness through the Pedagogy of Aikido. Annual
Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle.
Etikan, I. (2016). Comparison of Convenience Sampling and Purposive Sampling. American
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), 1.
https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11
Faggianelli, P., & Lukoff, D. (2006). Aikido and psychotherapy: A study of psychotherapists
who are aikido practitioners. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 38(2), 159–
178.
Niehaus, A. (2019). Sport and Religion in Japan: The Aikido of Ueshiba Morihei as Ritual
Practice to Reconstruct the World. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

Bio-note

Greet Angèle De Baets practises aikido, iaido and iaijutsu passionately. This passion is an
essential part of her profession: she is an aikido-inspired business communication teacher,
lecturer and researcher. These days, she is doing research at Ghent University, Belgium, on
aikido as an embodied training method for intercultural business communication training.
Her career was outside the academic world until 2016. She worked as a language teacher, a
training coordinator and a communication trainer-coach for companies and public
institutions. Her geographical area was Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and
Germany. The trainees and coachees often came from any country in the European Union.
Since 2012, she has coached many Japanese and some South Korean expats working in
Belgium.

Contact email address

greet.debaets@ugent.be

Link to personal or professional webpage

https://www.linkedin.com/in/greetdebaets/