ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the communication and embodiment of notions about practice and learning through the practice of aikido, a Japanese martial art, in the northeast of England. It illustrates how many practitioners there feel themselves drawn into what they perceive to be ‘other’ or ‘new’ ways of speaking, moving, thinking and feeling through their practice, and how they often struggle with making these new aspects of ‘self ’ integrate smoothly with other transforming aspects of their working and social lives. ‘Practice’ (keiko) in martial arts discourse is something less associated with the attainment of a hard won goal (as in the sayings ‘practice makes perfect’ or ‘no pain no gain’) and more associated with a way of living or a path with no end.
