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Larry Camejo wrote:
Of course I know many don't engage in resistance type practice (which is not only physical), but for those who do, what are your thoughts?
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Larry, you are yourself answering the question so well that I regard it as purely rhetorical
Training should include resistance - not always, but regularly. An example of this, within aikido basics, is
gotai - allowing uke to complete the grip and hold on to it. Most Japanese shihan I have studied for, have a lot of gotai in their classes. And they manage it well, indeed.
The aiki principles should work, and if they don't, we simply need to train more and/or correct our technique.
In a higher tempo, let's call it
jutai, resistance and randori style training increases the risk of injury - for both tori and uke. So it has to be done with care, and in different ways for beginners and advanced aikido students. Still, it can be done, and I would say that it is part of the aikido curriculum.
Already when I started doing aikido I was immensely impressed by the brilliance of aikido strategy and principles: Moving completely out of the way instead of blocking, joining instead of resisting, leading instead of pulling, relating to uke's center instead of his/her hands, arms, whatever, and so on and so forth.
Of course, the aiki principles can be applied also to other Martial arts. The thing is to recognize the potency of those principles, and train enough to be able to apply them.