Quote:
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What, in your mind and experience, makes a technique an "aikido" technique?
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Nothing.
In my mind there does not exist such a thing as "an aikido technique". Of course anyone can argue that we use and train techniques in aikido, however aikido is not defined by the sum of the techniques practised, the techniques practised are not exclusively used in aikido and even the way techniques are practised or performed is not unique for aikido.
Maybe the need to try to answer this question is born from a deeper need to go and label things in the world. Unfortunately labeling does not lead to understanding and acceptance. Why would I want to claim that I am doing a specific aikido technique when doing for instance ude osae but a ju jitsu guy/girl doing ude osae isnt?
Even the claim that certain idea or principle is what makes a technique aikido does not make a lot of sense because a lot of the ideas like aiki or love and respect are as fundamental to other martial arts as well. I have seen a judoka display a fair understanding of aiki yet I am a 100% certain this girl was not doing aikido.
I often find that people tend to use the words aiki, aikido and aikido technique in a manner as if they are claiming to have a higher understanding of men, the world and the universe because the are followers of the only right religion and therefor have special insight. This can even been seen in the willingness some people show to claim that some other martial artist can be doing aikido without knowing it themselves. (Nobody in his right mind would claim that I was doing gymnastics if I slipped over a banana peel and made a perfect salto.) This to me sounds like the "we have the only true religion and someone who is doing something we cant debunk must be following our religion without knowing it"-reasoning. A kind of reasoning I personaly find very scary due to its use in history.
Maybe the question "what makes a technique an aikido technique?" represents the failure for some people to answer the more difficult questions like:
"What is aikido?"
"What defines me?"
"What am I doing?"
"Should we agree?"
Understandably these questions can be quite scary and for most people are so uncomfortable with realizing their own insignificance they rather ignore it anyway.
I hope this was pleasantly discomforting.
(Slipping on asbestus flameproof suit)