kewms

In the OP's defense, I think he was talking about a situation where an ostensibly senior student was unable to throw him. And apparently it was not clearly explained why he needed to adjust his ukemi to the situation.

Without having been there, I don't want to speculate on what actually happened. But the case of a relative beginner in aikido with extensive experience in other arts can be tricky for instructors and senior students alike.

"Basic technique" *doesn't* actually work that well, and isn't really intended to be a practical self-defense tool. Its role is to teach the shape of aikido, the movement patterns, the body sensitivity. In a real situation, things are likely to be a lot smaller and more direct. Uncorking "real technique" on an aikido beginner with limited ukemi skills is kind of rude, though. Moreover, different dojos have different attitudes toward "improvisation." Some expect students to do exactly what the instructor demonstrated, but that might not actually be the appropriate response to the particular attack delivered by uke.

And all of this can be especially confusing to someone from another art, who not unreasonably expects senior students to have some degree of ability to handle challenging attacks.

So yes, I agree that the OP's attack was probably not appropriate to the situation, but I think the dojo bears some of the responsibility if the results reflected poorly on the art as a whole.

Katherine