Rupert Atkinson

Exactly. Often - if you watch people closely: First, they practice tenkan. Sometimes by themselves, sometimes with a partner etc. Sometimes both. At this level - what they do often differs. Then they do a few waza. And, if you watch, they are not putting what they do when doing tenkan in their waza. They do it differently - they are not unifying their movement. Of course - they think they are - but well, just go watch and see. Then .. more importantly ... examine yourself. It is not an easy thing to do of course. But do it we must. Few people point such out. You have to train yourself - no one will do it for you. Like I said - people who have been training for years think they know it but, well, just stand back and watch. I am guilty of it too - it is hard.

And yes - I think it is very hard to learn aiki through the waza - but that is what Aikido is. Better, train a bit, go away and think, create some exercises to help you unify movement, then go back to your next Aikido class and test out what you have discovered. Use the waza to test your aiki development. I think the most useful training is self-training at home. Thinking about it etc. then testing thinking testing thinking ... and so on. You can never do that in class.

I went on one weekend seminar with Shirata Rinjiro Sensei many moons back. He just taught normal Aikido stuff. Maybe he had some solo exercises for his students???

I do have some exercises I have made - I just love them - but if I show them people ... well ... they are just not interested. They just see them as warm up exercises. I guess you have to think and make your own - they will be 1000 times more relevant.