Teaching qualitative research methods on the one hand, and Martial Arts, on the other, seem to have only little in common: one is academic, and one is not; one is essentially somatic and kinesthetic, and the one is not. Yet during two decades of teaching and practicing both I repeatedly noticed a fruitful interaction between these ‘arts’, which I experienced as exciting embodied insights that shed light on both spheres. In this article I wish to ‘translate’ three concepts used in martial arts pedagogy, specifically in Aikidō, to the teaching of qualitative methods and methodology.