I my view there are a lot of misunderstandings and also very good points in this discussion.
When I teach Aikido I always explain that the grabbing of the wrist is not because we in Aikido believe that people attack by grabbing the wrist. People who attack like this is just plain stupid. The grabbing of the wrist is a basic way of learning to feel energy in a movement. When a person gives energy when grabbing the wrist, this is actually an early stage of being able to use the energy in a jab or a punch. If we skip the level of grapping the wrist, people tend to block instead, as they get afraid to be hit. When a person reaches a certain level s/he will be able to understand the similarity of grabbing and hitting. The only difference is the force and speed of the energy.
Does Aikido techniques work in reality?? Some does not! Then the clever person might ask why practice these techniques then? We practice techniques that cannot be applied as selfdefence as they have another purpose! There are techniques (or I should rather call them movements), that shows where in a technique the correct breathing should be. Other how to fell and move energy. All in all, being able to move freely among all Aikido techniques gives the possibility of receiving all attacks.
For a highly skilled Aikido practitioner, there are no techniques at all. However, to reach that level it is necessary to be able to do about 400 Aikido techniques...
What makes Aikido so strong, is the principles of movement and not the actual techniques, they are just a tool to be able to use the principles...!
I have 22 years of experience in Martial Arts, not only Aikido, but also Judo, Ju Jutsu and Tae Kwon Do, and I must say, when I met Aikido, I suddenly understood that the physical movements in any martial art is so limited, and if a person only focus on exact techniques s/he will never meet the potential of any martial art.
I am not implying that Aikido is the top of the mountain, but merely that any Martial art would be a lot better if it brought in the principles of Aikido...
Kimura...