That's all it ever was, Demetrio. Nothing more and nothing less. A more effective and efficient way of powering martial movement and technique, compared to the conventional methods of familiar athleticism. Takeda, Ueshiba, Sagawa, Horikawa, et al. represent the virtuosos -- the people so obsessed with aiki that they spent their lives honing and polishing it. They are the Niccolo Paganini, Yehudi Menuhin, Jascha Heifetz, Itzhak Perlman, et al. of their craft. The rest of us are varying degrees of great, good, so-so, and crappy.