Before being introduced to Physical Literacy and Dean Kriellaars by the Swedish Budo and Martial Arts Federation I had together with my friend Åsa Bergström in Stockholm invented our method "Happy Aikido" to inspire and motivate children and teens to train Aikido. We had published two books about it. When I realized our method was similar to the Physical Literacy wheel taught by Dean I became very happy. After many years now we know the balance between games, physical stuff, coordination, ukemi, props etc. And we get very good results with the AIkido as well, in fact, we realized that teens get even more motivated to learn "the real Aikido" when they do many different things. We have a Young Leaders training so that youths between 13-19 learn how to teach in a fun way according to physical literacy. If anyone is interested to know more or read/watch what we done, just reach out! Happy to share! And yes, to some extent this is also a natural part of the adult class when needed and the 65+ Senior training that we call SLOW Aikido. We are now a pilot dojo for senior 65+ initiated by the Swedish Budo and Martial Arts Federation to find a happy Physical Literacy training for that age group. Some people tend to think physical literacy and happiness is a threat to "the real learning" but our experience is the opposite. Better shape, better aikido, better ukemi. Best regards from Pia Moberg, Riai Aikido DOjo in Gothenburg, Sweden. www.riai.se
Thank you for your rich comment! We have a lot of inspiration for physical literacy and teaching children and youth coming from Sweden - you do marvelous work and exploration there!
I like your sentence: 'Some people tend to think physical literacy and happiness is a threat to "the real learning" but our experience is the opposite.' - I know those voices and our experience is the same as yours... Aikido learning is faster when people know how to move.
I'm curious how you do some things so I'll probably write you an email soon :)
One of the greatest downfalls of "traditional" form is the reduction of movement complexity. Professional athletes understand this very well and continue to implement cross-training throughout their career. For Aikido, this is even more accentuated because the form does not include jumps, etc...so most of the movement performed in a Dojo is incredibly limited - exception being Kids' classes which often incorporate games and other ways to move (mostly to retain students, not for actual movement development). In our case, our movement programs combine somatic work with a very open movement exploration approach.
This is less popular with parents who want to see their kids line-up, receive color belts and trophies, and basically train highly impractical choreography. Ultimately, Dojo owners must walk a narrow path of student retention versus deep teaching. Sadly, society has determined that entertainment is king, therefore recreational classes have prevailed over deep developmental learning.
I do not know the state of affairs in other parts of the world, but in the US a huge majority of kids lack the most basic movement development pointing to the tragedy originating from diminishing physical free play outdoors with all of what it entails.
Thank you for your comment! The "reduction of movement complexity" is a very nice description.
And also your observation about parents who want their children be Olympic winners in Aikido. In our dojo we're very honest about our intentions: we clearly claim to parents from the very beginning that we care about "all-round physical development" for general well-being and growth of children. Of course, we practice also Aikido techniques and we do gradings... but the purpose is development of children, not their black belts.
When it's communicated and children are enjoying, parents are also satisfied.
The trick with teenagers and mainly adults is to make movement learning interesting, fun, and seemingly a part of the Aikido curriculum. We must always communicate the purpose of why we do it. When they understand, we can go pretty deep with the exploration, and they are curious and motivated, especially when they see the progress they make in Aikido practice as well as in their daily lives.
It must also be said that it is very possible that the local culture plays a part in this. I think kids reflect a lot of the parenting styles specific to one country or another.
Thank you for your kind comment, Henrieta! You're right, not many people in Aikido environment think like this, but it's getting better and better. I'm glad to hear that you're also on the side of physical literacy in our art.
There will be more articles on this topic in the following weeks - feel free to subscribe to Aikido: Art for Life to follow them :)
A mimochodom, môžeme si písať aj slovensky... :) Ako si toto miesto objavila? Ukázalo sa Ti v Substack-u alebo si našla link niekde inde na webe?
Hello Martin sensei, I would be very curious to explore animal walks with our adult students. I can see how that could be beneficial. Is there somewhere where I could find more information about those?
We filmed it for our members during lockdowns, without much more information, since we give instructions during live classes. I hope the main points of the movement are clear from the videos. If you have questions about it, feel free to contact me.
We do some more animals and many many variations - I plan to make some more videos later, also to show connections with Aikido movement. The time is a bit limiting factor ;)
I saw your website last year and I really liked it and the way you present Aikido. So I'm glad that it connected today with your comments here.
In our dojo's children classes we practice what we call animal walks. If you are familiar with Ginastic Natural, a lot of the exercises we do are similar. In our adult classes we have several falling exercises beyond the basics and explore postures and standing exercises that are similar to yoga, foundation training and chi gong but relate them specifically to aikido. I also believe that physical literacy is critical for good practice and longevity in the art.
Thank you for your comment! We do animal walks also with adults, which is a bit different than with children. We use many variations and "games" of animal movements for different purposes. At first, it was strange for adult students, but now they see how much they have improved and they consider it a part of our practice :)
And thank you for mentioning Ginastic Natural. I'll take a closer look.
I agree with you Martin. For example, I look closely at the development of the "Primal Movement" which illustrates quite well the desire to move differently of beginners. Many new approaches to movement have emerged in recent years (systema, crossfit, nordic walking, etc.). Aikido teachers are behind on this subject, you are right to point it out. In addition, the public is waiting for this.
We need to change our view of preparation for the practice.
It's like water for tea. It must be heated up beforehand, and it is quite an art!
I like your metaphor about water for tea... that's exactly it. We cannot make warm tea with cold water :)
We have experimented with this for more than 10 years in our dojo, taking inspiration from Taiji, Karate, Systema, Movnat, Ido Portal, contact improvisation, new circus acrobatics, physiotherapy, shiatsu, and child movement development patterns... to enable students to move better in Aikido techniques and also for their health.
As you say, generally Aikido teachers are a bit behind with this. However, I teach it in the courses for Aikido teachers here - and some slow changes are already happening around :)
The funny thing is that all these connections with other movement arts just show us how rich Aikido is and how many good things we have in our art; we just have to rediscover their logic and purpose. And sometimes we need simpler exercises to get to the value of more complex Aikido exercises.
Before being introduced to Physical Literacy and Dean Kriellaars by the Swedish Budo and Martial Arts Federation I had together with my friend Åsa Bergström in Stockholm invented our method "Happy Aikido" to inspire and motivate children and teens to train Aikido. We had published two books about it. When I realized our method was similar to the Physical Literacy wheel taught by Dean I became very happy. After many years now we know the balance between games, physical stuff, coordination, ukemi, props etc. And we get very good results with the AIkido as well, in fact, we realized that teens get even more motivated to learn "the real Aikido" when they do many different things. We have a Young Leaders training so that youths between 13-19 learn how to teach in a fun way according to physical literacy. If anyone is interested to know more or read/watch what we done, just reach out! Happy to share! And yes, to some extent this is also a natural part of the adult class when needed and the 65+ Senior training that we call SLOW Aikido. We are now a pilot dojo for senior 65+ initiated by the Swedish Budo and Martial Arts Federation to find a happy Physical Literacy training for that age group. Some people tend to think physical literacy and happiness is a threat to "the real learning" but our experience is the opposite. Better shape, better aikido, better ukemi. Best regards from Pia Moberg, Riai Aikido DOjo in Gothenburg, Sweden. www.riai.se
Hello Pia,
Thank you for your rich comment! We have a lot of inspiration for physical literacy and teaching children and youth coming from Sweden - you do marvelous work and exploration there!
I like your sentence: 'Some people tend to think physical literacy and happiness is a threat to "the real learning" but our experience is the opposite.' - I know those voices and our experience is the same as yours... Aikido learning is faster when people know how to move.
I'm curious how you do some things so I'll probably write you an email soon :)
Take care!
Thanks for your comment! Send me an email anytime! Let's exchange what we have so Aikido can continue growing in the future.
One of the greatest downfalls of "traditional" form is the reduction of movement complexity. Professional athletes understand this very well and continue to implement cross-training throughout their career. For Aikido, this is even more accentuated because the form does not include jumps, etc...so most of the movement performed in a Dojo is incredibly limited - exception being Kids' classes which often incorporate games and other ways to move (mostly to retain students, not for actual movement development). In our case, our movement programs combine somatic work with a very open movement exploration approach.
This is less popular with parents who want to see their kids line-up, receive color belts and trophies, and basically train highly impractical choreography. Ultimately, Dojo owners must walk a narrow path of student retention versus deep teaching. Sadly, society has determined that entertainment is king, therefore recreational classes have prevailed over deep developmental learning.
I do not know the state of affairs in other parts of the world, but in the US a huge majority of kids lack the most basic movement development pointing to the tragedy originating from diminishing physical free play outdoors with all of what it entails.
Thank you for your comment! The "reduction of movement complexity" is a very nice description.
And also your observation about parents who want their children be Olympic winners in Aikido. In our dojo we're very honest about our intentions: we clearly claim to parents from the very beginning that we care about "all-round physical development" for general well-being and growth of children. Of course, we practice also Aikido techniques and we do gradings... but the purpose is development of children, not their black belts.
When it's communicated and children are enjoying, parents are also satisfied.
The trick with teenagers and mainly adults is to make movement learning interesting, fun, and seemingly a part of the Aikido curriculum. We must always communicate the purpose of why we do it. When they understand, we can go pretty deep with the exploration, and they are curious and motivated, especially when they see the progress they make in Aikido practice as well as in their daily lives.
It must also be said that it is very possible that the local culture plays a part in this. I think kids reflect a lot of the parenting styles specific to one country or another.
Thank you, I can finally I read somebody else also thinks this way !
Thank you for your kind comment, Henrieta! You're right, not many people in Aikido environment think like this, but it's getting better and better. I'm glad to hear that you're also on the side of physical literacy in our art.
There will be more articles on this topic in the following weeks - feel free to subscribe to Aikido: Art for Life to follow them :)
A mimochodom, môžeme si písať aj slovensky... :) Ako si toto miesto objavila? Ukázalo sa Ti v Substack-u alebo si našla link niekde inde na webe?
Hello Martin sensei, I would be very curious to explore animal walks with our adult students. I can see how that could be beneficial. Is there somewhere where I could find more information about those?
Hello Grant sensei,
these are our basic ones in the way how adults do it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNXdTab4S58H-RvJgs1wywm9ungUEtZ9F
We filmed it for our members during lockdowns, without much more information, since we give instructions during live classes. I hope the main points of the movement are clear from the videos. If you have questions about it, feel free to contact me.
We do some more animals and many many variations - I plan to make some more videos later, also to show connections with Aikido movement. The time is a bit limiting factor ;)
I saw your website last year and I really liked it and the way you present Aikido. So I'm glad that it connected today with your comments here.
Really nice to meet you! :)
In our dojo's children classes we practice what we call animal walks. If you are familiar with Ginastic Natural, a lot of the exercises we do are similar. In our adult classes we have several falling exercises beyond the basics and explore postures and standing exercises that are similar to yoga, foundation training and chi gong but relate them specifically to aikido. I also believe that physical literacy is critical for good practice and longevity in the art.
Thank you for your comment! We do animal walks also with adults, which is a bit different than with children. We use many variations and "games" of animal movements for different purposes. At first, it was strange for adult students, but now they see how much they have improved and they consider it a part of our practice :)
And thank you for mentioning Ginastic Natural. I'll take a closer look.
I agree with you Martin. For example, I look closely at the development of the "Primal Movement" which illustrates quite well the desire to move differently of beginners. Many new approaches to movement have emerged in recent years (systema, crossfit, nordic walking, etc.). Aikido teachers are behind on this subject, you are right to point it out. In addition, the public is waiting for this.
We need to change our view of preparation for the practice.
It's like water for tea. It must be heated up beforehand, and it is quite an art!
Btw: are you using some things from the things you mentioned, like systems or crossfit?
Thank you for your comment, Mathieu!
I like your metaphor about water for tea... that's exactly it. We cannot make warm tea with cold water :)
We have experimented with this for more than 10 years in our dojo, taking inspiration from Taiji, Karate, Systema, Movnat, Ido Portal, contact improvisation, new circus acrobatics, physiotherapy, shiatsu, and child movement development patterns... to enable students to move better in Aikido techniques and also for their health.
As you say, generally Aikido teachers are a bit behind with this. However, I teach it in the courses for Aikido teachers here - and some slow changes are already happening around :)
The funny thing is that all these connections with other movement arts just show us how rich Aikido is and how many good things we have in our art; we just have to rediscover their logic and purpose. And sometimes we need simpler exercises to get to the value of more complex Aikido exercises.