“Depending on the circumstance, you should be as hard as a diamond, flexible as a willow, smooth flowing like water, or as empty as space.” - Morihei Ueshiba
The best Aikidoists are masters of adaptability.
The single greatest skill every Aikidoist should cultivate is adaptability. Adaptability is “the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions.” In Japanese, one way to say “adaptability” is tekiouryoku (適応力). Tekiou means “to adapt” and ryoku means “the power to.” Thus, adaptability is having the power to adapt to one’s circumstance, environment, or opponent.
Adaptation is a fluid state of mind that is both willing and capable of finding a way to surmount any situation or circumstance. Every day we are confronted with things that are out of our control. Our egos look upon new or different things with fear and thus it tries to control it. Adaptation looks at it with curiosity and says, “Let’s see what this is all about.”
If every day is the same, then we are probably not growing. To grow, we have to be willing to look at something new or different with a mind to “start over.” Starting over is a function of courage and humility. Do you have the courage or humility to try something new? If not, you are giving into the fear of change. Aikidoist not only court change; they desire it. They desire it because they know that the only way to change is to do adapt and try something different. As Henry Ford once said, “If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.” The normal person likes familiarity and seeks comfort - that’s stagnation. Growth is about trying something different and seeing if it is in fact as scary, hard, or painful as we thought.
Every martial art, Aikido included, has kata (型) or “predetermined movements.” When one thinks of kata, we tend to think of them as being static and one dimensional. What is different in Aikido is that although the attacks and the outcomes are predetermined, what happens in between is not. Aikido movements are supposed to be free flowing and thus its movements are not thought of as kata in the traditional sense. What this means is that the nage or “one doing the technique” has to adjust their movements according to the situation, environment, and how the uke or “one receiving the technique” is moving their body. With every movement of the nage’s body, the uke has to adjust and with each adjustment of the uke’s body, the nage must adjust. No two bodies are alike and so each person will present with a different skill level, body type, and temperament to name just a few. Therefore, each person will have to adapt because every encounter will be similar but different. The mark of a good Aikidoist rests in their ability to adapt their movements to what is being presented. It is a low level of skill to just “do it the way you do it” disregarding the presentation of the situation.
In Aikido and in life, the one constant is change. Each day a new challenge arrives on our doorstep. The challenge will be similar but different than what we were dealing with yesterday. Thus, we have to have the ability to adapt or in a sense “start over.” No matter what comes our way, we have to find a way, mostly a new way, around it, over it or through it. With every adaptation, we simultaneously become bigger and smaller. We become bigger or stronger in what we can do but smaller or more well defined in who we are. As the Buddha once said, “Change is never painful, only resistance to change is painful.” So true indeed. In Aikido and in life, it is all about change or rather our ability to adapt to change and that is why the best Aikidoist are masters of adaptability.
Today’s goal: The secret to life and Aikido is being adaptable to change.
Watch this video to better understand adapting