DH

If you examine Aiki (do) it....is..... Internal skills and spiral movement, and everything else people talk about is just window dressing. I think people are making far, far, too much of the after effects of IP/aki (meaning-waza). The stunning, and powerful aspects of the art are in the changed body and it's use. If you take away the waza, your going to end up internally moving the same way and be powerful and motivating no matter what you do. Aiki(do) simply happens when a person possess aiki. I think the vast majority of those in the art have no aiki and therefore use technique as a substitute for their lack of understanding.

Weirdly...once you understand what Ueshiba was doing and you train your body that way...every, single external waza in Aikido is built on it. Yet take away the IP/aiki and you get a not too impressive jujutsu art. This explains the profound inability of Aikido Shihan to be able to do anything to someone who actually has IP/Aiki. Ueshiba's Aikido was simply internal skills, and there is simply nothing else in Budo that compares with good IP/aiki.
Dan