[quote=David Orange]If that's what they're doing, I just brush them off.
. . . .
And along that line, I have experienced a good bit of the toughening effect of being struck, but in general in aikido, I think it's bad to actually hit the partner. Especially if he is training sincerely and not fighting the technique.
/QUOTE]
Hey, so I am evil.
(That is the best I could do for an evil grin.)
You good guys need someone like me to be evil so that you can be good. All that two sides thing / ying-yang / etc.
Honestly, I guess I would just do as the locals since I am a visitor in the local. It isn't my dojo so I would not place my values on their practice but just practice as they do. If they like hard resistance and lots of atemi, fine. If they like hard resistance and no atemi or force but good technique, even better. If they like no resistance and flowing technique, fine. Their dojo, their rules, and their way of doing techniques. If I visit, I am there to learn their way of doing things without valuation, not to impose my values on my training with them since that would not allow me to learn what that teacher is trying to teach. Of course, I tend to push the envelope, even in their own ways.
It would be the same at a seminar. If someone goes past the bounds of the seminar, it is your duty to inform them of their faux pas so that junior students don't get injured. As a Shidoin, it was even my formal job to do so. I have been sent to "inform" practitioners, even those of a higher rank, of their faux pas. The rule of the "informing" I have been told, is "no talking". You teach them by doing to them what they are doing to others, only harder. If they still don't understand, do it even harder until they get the message or leave the mat, voluntarily or involuntarily, or until the Shihan-dai calls this dog off.
In my dojo, my rules. Hard resistance but not so much as to be injured. Enough to stop even me if I don't do it right. Students never know wether I am going to demonstrate an ineffective way or effective way so they have to give me the same amount of resistance all the time. I don't like throwing atemi too much since it slows down my movement a bit and distracts from my flow at times. Also, I have found it a crutch for my bad execution. Less I rely on atemi, more I have been able to improve my techniques and more I have discovered the correct applications of the principles. The discoveries that lead from not being able to do a technique have been so exciting that it keeps my enthusiasm for Aikido going a long time. I keep remembering the line about the only way to learn is by making mistakes, if you never make mistakes, you never learn. So, I force my students to force me to make mistakes.
Rock