{"id":3030,"date":"2025-12-05T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2025-12-05T02:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:50:15","slug":"how-where-and-what-am-i-doing-as-a-birankai-instructor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=3030","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHow\u201d, \u201cWhere\u201d and \u201cWhat\u201d am I doing as a Birankai Instructor\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A.G. Peterson, Summit Aikikai<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I committed to Chiba Sensei to become a teacher and he allowed me to join the kenshusei program I had a distinct perspective on how, where and what my dojo would be. Since that time (20+ years ago), my perspective has evolved. Perhaps I matured, perhaps I drifted or perhaps evolution is natural. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I consider two challenges facing our communities, 1) attracting younger people to Aikido, and 2) the public\u2019s interest level in Aikido as a non-competitive martial art, I see a shift in both my perspective and the way I feel I can most effectively address these challenges while remaining true to my understanding of Sensei\u2019s transmission to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, my original perspective was that it was increasingly difficult to attract younger people and that perhaps this reflected a cultural shift away from interest in Aikido as a non-competitive martial art. I saw mainly older incoming students in my (and other) dojos. I saw the rise of UFC, mixed martial arts, World Combat Games (with Aikido) and the public\u2019s excited acceptance of competitive sports (as reflected in the media driven marketplace).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this original perspective, I continued to train, to study, to search for a successful niche, to run a dojo, to support my fellow teachers\u2019 dojos and to understand what was going on. Over time though, I am seeing, feeling, a shift in my perspective, particularly in \u201chow\u201d and \u201cwhere\u201d. For example, I wonder if the difficulty in reaching younger students is because of \u201chow\u201d I am communicating. Perhaps, I am not communicating effectively. Perhaps, they are there, looking for a teacher, looking for training; but I am speaking the wrong language. Do I understand \u201chow\u201d younger students communicate, their language? They have the same basic human motivations as everyone else, but perhaps I am not appealing to those motivations in a way that can be heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, \u201cwhere\u201d am I communicating? Am I communicating or appealing in the correct forum, or am I just throwing my message out to the world, and hoping, like I have always done? Do I know where these younger students communicate? I thought it was Facebook, the Internet, and the web; but with a teenage daughter and son, I am learning that their forums are much more sophisticated and constantly evolving. Forums that I had never before heard of, don\u2019t know how to enter, or I am uncomfortable in. I guess my perspective has changed from believing younger people are uninterested, to wondering if perhaps \u201chow\u201d and \u201cwhere\u201d I am communicating to these younger people is ineffective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, my original perspective was that there had been a cultural shift away from Aikido as a non-competitive martial art; perhaps that explained my lack of students. But here also over time, my perspective has evolved. As I looked to the growth of MMA gyms, other martial arts schools, my eyes also saw the growth of Zen groups, yoga studios, new mega-churches and an increasing public awareness of health and fitness concepts. I learned about a new political perspective, LOHAS, that called for political choices to be made based on a \u201cLifestyle of Health and Sustainability\u201d. An achievable \u201cbetter\u201d life had become a catalyst in the public and media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, perhaps my original perspective was too narrow. Perhaps, Aikido wasn\u2019t just a non-competitive martial art. Perhaps, I needed to learn to see it as something different. As I\u2019ve come from the very martial background of a career of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, I asked myself whether I was training in Aikido to learn a non-competitive martial art. I know when I started Aikido it was to maintain a martial edge while I was away from the military service, finishing law school. But law school was only three years and there I was back in the military still practicing Aikido. So what else held me to this art, this training, that Chiba Sensei was transmitting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, it was the promise that I might change, develop or mature who I was. As I look back, I now see a system of training that provided me the time, distance, space, and opportunity to transform who I was as a person. My prejudices, weaknesses, impurities were revealed. I learned how to let them go; to take ukemi. Now, I ask whether I am practicing a martial art or a transformational art. Perhaps, the martial seriousness of our training provides a context or background for the real purpose of changing human beings? If so, then have I overlooked plenty of potential students who are seeking a transformational process and a structured environment to support that transformation? Perhaps, the cultural shift needs to be my perspective or understanding of Aikido. Instead of trying to teach me non-competitive martial arts, perhaps Chiba Sensei was trying to teach me to be a different person, a fully actualized person.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these changed perspectives of \u201chow\u201d, \u201cwhere\u201d, and \u201cwhat\u201d, as a teacher I see that I have some work to do still. First, I need to learn \u201chow\u201d to communicate with the potential younger students and \u201cwhere\u201d those forums are that their communication occurs. Second, I may need to more accurately communicate \u201cwhat\u201d I am transmitting. Instead of offering non-competitive martial arts, perhaps I am offering a way to transform yourself\u2026 and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Editor\u2019s note: this article was written in 2014. In 2025 Peterson Sensei was promoted to Shihan. <\/em>
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A.G. Peterson, Summit Aikikai When I committed to Chiba Sensei to become a teacher and he allowed me to join the kenshusei program I had a distinct perspective on how, where and what my dojo would be. Since that time (20+ years ago), my perspective has evolved. Perhaps I matured, perhaps I drifted or perhaps … <\/p>\n

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