I have to agree with both you and @Bill Mattocks. Fundamentally, the mechanics of most kicks have not changed greatly however, the variety of kicks (even within the same kick) has. And fight strategy has changed exponentially.
Reassessing Aikido in the Modern Age
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Aikido Riai means aikido complete; this must include atemi and weapons training. Some aikido groups do not use weapons training saying that the use of a weapon is against the pacifist nature of aikido. There is a great difference between one who shall not fight until all other avenues have been tried and a pacifist who shall not fight for any reason. A martial art cannot be a pacifist art.
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This is a common philosophy I've seen in Aikido schools I've visited. It's even made its way into NGA (a cousin art, probably not derived from Ueshiba's line).
I've never seen it really addressed practically. The assertion I've heard from instructors has always been not much more than "use no more force than necessary, so you cause no more harm than necessary." But then during practice, there's no real emphasis put on how to do that with specific techniques. I think there's a blind spot because they are so good at their falls. There are techniques the Aikikai can do over and over with each other, that would feel much more punishing to me, because I'm not trained in their falling techniques. And if they'd feel more punishing to me, on mats, they'd be devastating to an untrained person on harder surfaces. And you just can't see that when you look at a room full of trained aikidokai.
That's not to say those techniques are more powerful than those from other arts - Judo certainly has techniques that are just as punishing (and, IMO, easier to get to), but Judo doesn't train feather falls, so they know how hard their falls are.
I don't like this article, or Pranin's view on this. There are certainly many reasons folks might participate in or watch combat sport matches, and to place a moral judgment upon them as a monolithic group ("common mentality and morality") is absurd and insulting. It's also elitist, in a "we are morally much better than them" way.
That's a great video for showing the more direct, classical approach in Iwama. IMO, the circles have become exaggerated in many branches, either caused by or causing those exaggerated "attacks".
OP
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It's certainly good advice from a legal perspective.
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I'd like to learn a little more about that, do you have a reference?
That's an interesting observation - it explains some things I'd thought about over the years when looking at the breadth of what was common in the Aikido I'd seen and/or experienced. There were gaps I couldn't quite understand, because they weren't present in NGA (most likely because of our Judo influence), though we certainly had our own odd gaps.
My understanding of Aikido (and it's certainly true within NGA) is that it includes a bit wider range of "blending" - though what you've described would be accurate of the most basic version of blending. There's a redirection principle, which doesn't rely on overextension in the same way (in concept, you create an overextension in a new direction, because they don't have the structure in that direction). Aikido does interfere with movement in several techniques, sometimes appearing to clash with it (look for clips of kokyu nage) - the redirection in those is hard even for me to quite grasp, because we use a different set of principles in a similar-looking way, though I think we use similar principles in a different technique. (Yeah, I'm confused by that, too.)
It depends why you're training. If I were to train Aikido, it would be specifically to explore their approach to aiki mechanics and their basic strategy. I'd personally explore beyond that, but in class I'd be interested in exploring what works within those constraints, as I would with any other style (much the way @JowGaWolf looks for solutions within the techniques and principles of Jow Ga, rather than adopting solutions from catch wrestling or such).
Sometimes, we just want the intellectual exercise - the challenge - of working within the constraints of something. It's really why I enjoyed the aiki side of NGA most, as much as I enjoyed the wider curriculum.
I don't think it has to be an "issue". Sword training solves a relatively small set of problems, but that's just inherent in the type of training. If I'm training to learn swordwork, I don't really want to spend time learning to escape the mount. That's useful, but not within the scope of the training.
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Bring your attacker down with a sword and you are guaranteed to make the news.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Don't see that at all, I get no such impression from it either way..... but then I posted it just as info, I have no feelings about it one way or the other
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Neato, all their training materials are in there!
drop bear
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drop bear
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The ring is you can get a guy like GSP. who is as good a martial artist as anyone can ask for.
And he can train with John Wayne par who is probably a better striker.
And the trickle down effect of that is martial arts just gets better.
And this hasn't been the case traditionally.
It seems clear to me, but that may be partially my bias. I've heard a lot of that exact attitude within Aikido, and within the SD-oriented community.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
I have heard things as well, on both sides of that fence, but I still do not see it that way, but that could just be me.
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If I do this then it's clear that the attacker was in my house. Lol
