Another Perspective: ‘In Aikido, there are no borders’

Most combat sports are competitive. The goal is to win. Aikido, like Judo and Taekwondo, is a form of martial art. However, the goal of Aikido is not to win — it’s to resolve conflict peacefully.

“In fact, Aikido is not an Olympic sport because it is not competitive,” said Ginny Breeland, a 61-year-old Petaluma resident with 35 years of Aikido practice under her black belt. She and her husband, Pete Breeland, are instructors at Cotati Aikido. She’s also been teaching at Bay Marin Aikido in San Rafael since the 1990s.

The Aikido method they teach involves hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting using wooden weapons in place of real swords. The emphasis is on self-defense, harmonizing with the attacker’s force rather than opposing it.

Ginny Breeland was born in New Jersey in 1961 into a Filipino immigrant family. During World War II, her father and stepfather both served in the US Navy in the Philippines. Tens of thousands had served the US military before them, dating back to the Spanish-American war in 1898 when the United States took over the Philippines, Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico from Spain.

After living in New Jersey for several years, Breeland’s family relocated to Napa County for work. She first encountered Aikido at age 18, when her sister asked her to take a class at Napa community college.

“We had fun in the class! People were friendly,” Breeland remembered. She met her husband, Pete Breeland, there and married in 1980. “I was young – just 20 – when I had my first child,” she said.

She quit Aikido while she was raising her children and attending school.

“I went to Santa Rosa Junior College, Sonoma State University, then to UCSF to pursue a career as a cell specialist,” she said. “I worked in a medical lab looking at biopsies.”

A few years later, with her husband’s encouragement, she returned to the dojo. There are Aikido dojos throughout the Bay Area and Aikido enthusiasts worldwide. Aikido is one of the most popular martial arts disciplines, especially among women in Japan. Breeland is noticing that more women are coming to her classes. The Breelands’ students range from 8 to 72 years old.

“A 72-year-old immigrant woman from Hong Kong joined after we gave a workshop on self-defense for Asian women during the pandemic,” Breeland said. “But many had been practicing for years.”

Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido in Japan, drew from traditional samurai techniques and other combat methods from China and Korea. As a young man, he embraced Japanese militarism, but was, at first, rejected by the Japanese military during the 1904 Russo-Japanese war because he was too short. After experiencing the devastation caused by the bombings in Japan during World War II, he became a pacifist, speaking against war wherever he went. Aikido means “a path of unified spirit.” Ueshiba explored ways to teach how to resolve conflict and make connections among people.

Breeland is also small — 5’1” and weighing 100 pounds.

“Most of the people I trained with were bigger, stronger, and weighed more,” she said. “When a big man pinned me down, I used to get a bit upset thinking, why would someone who could easily outpower me give a small woman such a hard time?”

With her sensei’s encouragement, however, she persevered.

Over the years, Breeland has learned to change her perspectives, master her emotions, and polish her technique. Following the founder’s example, she’s become skilled at using her short stature to her advantage when practicing with larger people.

“Being small forced me to work hard on developing a good technique,” Breeland explained. Eventually, to her surprise, her sensei asked her to teach at Bay Marin Aikido.

Breeland is a quiet presence in the classes she leads with her husband, who does most of the talking. When she speaks, she does so with clarity and purpose.

“I like Aikido because you don’t have to talk,” she says about the sport, which is often watched in silence in Japan. There is no pumping music, cheering or breathless narrators – only the whump of a body thrown to the floor.

As an example, Ginny and Pete Breeland demonstrated one of Aikido’s basic practice techniques.

“Because of my size, I can’t rely on strength alone. So, I concentrate on his biceps because I am bigger than his biceps,” she said as she threw her husband, twice her size, to the mat. As she pinned him, she serenely discussed strategies to maximize her leverage. He tapped the floor to signal that he was ready to be released.

He was unharmed, and she looked unphased.

Breeland has written articles for both the US and European versions of Aikido Journal. A colleague at Bay Marin Aikido has videotaped her demonstrations in a series posted to Youtube called “Aikido advice for women and a few men.” As the title suggests, her instructions focus on female practitioners and shorter people in general.

“I’d love to see more women in Aikido,” she said.

Breeland added that Aikido has helped her navigate challenges in her personal and professional life. At work, it helped her get along with a sometimes difficult boss. It has also helped her feel more confident, physically and mentally.

“It’s an investment you make in a lifelong process, as opposed to getting something quick,” she reflected.

Still, for Breeland, Aikido is not just about personal development.

“Fighting and war can destroy us utterly,” Ueshiba wrote in his book “The Art of Peace.” “What we need now are techniques of harmony, not those of contention. The Art of Peace is required, not the Art of War.”

Breeland herself once wrote, in an echo of the founder’s yearning for peace, “Aikido promotes peace by trying to change our mindset through our body technique.”

With the war in Ukraine now front-page news, and with ongoing conflicts in places like Yemen and Syria, even people who live far from war zones are worried that war could spread.

“History is repeating itself,” Breeland said, shaking her head. “I am saddened to see what’s happening. I have no doubt Russians and Ukrainians would prefer to practice Aikido together. In Aikido, there are no borders.”