Student Article

Competition as an Inhibitor to Learning:
Aikido's Philosophy of Peace
Andrew Garner
11-12-01

Aikido is unique among martial arts in its emphasis on harmony and avoidance of conflict. Many arts seek conflict either through competition among practitioners or through techniques designed to clash with an opponent's energy and thus overpower the attack. However, the philosophy of aikido teaches growth and development instead of conflict among students. Aikidoka are taught that learning is accomplished through a spirit of cooperation, where students help one another to grow as martial artists and as human beings. In waza, techniques are designed to accept the energy of an attack and redirect it in a way least harmful for both uke and nage. In this manner, the philosophy and the martial application of aikido are combined to create a system where conflict is avoided.

Such a system is more conducive to learning and development than one that places heavy emphasis upon competition. Judo or karate schools oriented towards tournament competition tend to create a disincentive for students competing in these tournaments to teach other students. Especially where students within the same school compete against themselves, the motivation to achieve superiority through competition will make it far less likely for a student to help another student learn techniques that later will be used against him or her. After all, to help a lower-level student achieve mastery is self-defeating for the upper-level student who is already accomplished. The fundamental purpose of a teacher is to help students grow and develop beyond what the teacher has shown them. Furthermore, human nature strives towards self-preservation, and whatever esteem or achievement needs are fulfilled through competition will be jeopardized by helping another student achieve superiority over oneself. We seek superiority and achievement for ourselves, not for someone else. Thus, competition will inhibit learning because it violates our most basic human tendencies and interferes with the need for achievement fulfilled by a competitive victory.

With aikido, the incentive is on development and growth for all students instead of a single student at the expense of all others. That is, superiority and achievement for one student does not mean inferiority and defeat for another. In fact, achievement is found by helping other students grown and develop within the martial arts. And by helping other students, the student-teacher (if the teacher is not a sensei or shihan) helps herself learn more about the technique. Teaching is a higher form of learning and often the teacher learns more about a technique or concept than the students who are seeing it for the first time. Students have an incentive to help other students, and often mastery comes only after helping someone else overcome his deficiency. This supportive environment aids learning for all students at all levels by providing a larger pool of experience from which students may draw. Knowledge is passed more quickly from more experienced students to those who are new to the art.

This should not be taken to mean that learning is impossible in a competitive atmosphere. Older practitioners in other arts will retire from competition and seek to pass along what they have learned to those coming up in the system. Or some accomplished martial artists might not compete at all and therefore will aid students who enter competitions. Learning is indeed possible, but it progresses at a much slower rate when a school or system is oriented towards competition than it does when achievement is defined by helping others. Cooperation speeds the learning process instead of inhibiting it, in other words. With a cooperative environment, there is less reason for students to jealously guard their "secrets" and hard-earned experience. In aikido, new insight into a technique can be openly shared without fear that someone else will use it against you. In fact, the learning itself leads to the fulfillment of achievement and esteem needs. Competition between students may only fulfill these needs when the individual dominates those less experienced, when one students "wins" while another "loses". And by inhibiting learning, competition ensures that even the most accomplished student will lose when it comes to developing her art and helping other students learn.

Competition is also not without merit. Competition does increase proficiency by pushing competitors to become better than their opponents, who in turn strive for greater proficiency. This market approach is similar to "Social Darwinism", where individuals adapt to their environment and evolve in order to survive (in the competitive sense). There is truth in this view, and indeed Olympic competitors continue to achieve new levels of mastery by breaking old records and overcoming the obstacles of other competitors. In fact, Tomiki-ryu aikido incorporates non-combative competition into its practice. The attempt by Tomiki sensei was to combine the proficiency benefits of competition with the growth benefits of aikido's philosophy of peace. However, as O'Sensei often noted, the fundamental concept of competition is incompatible with aikido. The purpose of aikido transcends martial application. Aikido is certainly a martial art with fighting applications, but it is also a way by which individuals grow as human beings. In helping "all things grow and develop" within a system of martial arts, we help others grow as human beings and thereby help ourselves grow and develop. Thus, competition might make us better fighters but it cannot make us better human being.

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