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My experience is that aikido ukes should look a lot different than what you will see in the street because aikido ukes should have a bit more knowledge than "the street mob". Ukes should be able to keep their bodies somewhat straight and move from thier centers. Many people walk like gorillas until they take up something like aikido for a few years(at least in my culture).
Another reason may be that ukes should be able to attack in balance. If one strike doesn't make contact, they should have enough physical integrity to keep coming. This is not an easy skill to develop, especially if your first attack is sincere. Also, aikidoists should know some things about distance. Take it from a sword perspective: Two samuri stand tip to tip with katanas. Why don't they stand closer?- Because it's too dangerous for both of them. Why not further apart?- too many steps to reach the other guy. Even when the battle begins, both are struggling for the position where one is safe and the other is not. This applies in open hand. Most people in the street may not be that aware. They may not move to good. They may be running into a burning building and they don't even know it. If you move your feet well, you may not need to do any of these cranking things. Finally, an uke should be learing how to move exactly the way the other guy moves. Uke delivers an attack, but at a certain point it turns over and the nage is in the better position. The uke should be striving to move at the exact same time nage does. Not to slow, because you may end up flying out the window to catch your arm. Not too fast either because it means your not really connected. Uke should move so exactly with the nage that nage has no reason to want to have ideas to do other more dangerous things. Who knows- maybe nage has a blade in his other hand. Too fast or too slow can get you into a bad place. All these things apply to sword as well. I realize that this is not how things are generally taught these days, especially since this philosophy doesn't leave room for all of this resistant uke practice that everyone loves so much (although that's not very street realistic either). Watch O'sensei's ukes on the tape. They move that way because they know something about what they are doing. Their not just falling that way because O'sensei can just make it look that way with everyone.
Something to consider.
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