Re: Responsibility and Smiling, or Training for Mutual Benefit
I agree with Peter completely about the importance of ukemi and being uke. I’ll come back to Arikawa Sensei in more detail another time. Being the uke for a teacher gives a slightly different set of problems to the interaction between tori and uke in training - at least until you have reached a certain level of confidence and competence.
About openings. If there is no opening there is no technique. There is no way to attack and perhaps even no reason to attack. So a good teacher will make or leave an opening inviting an attack. It can be very subtle and almost unnoticeable. Often - usually - only one attack is appropriate or possible. I’m talking about mainstream Aikikai aikido, not styles in which tori provokes a reaction attack from uke.
I don't know any teachers who would leave openings after that initial invitation. It would mean giving uke the chance to get back into equilibrium so you can do another technique and that doesn't sound very efficient or useful. I didn't train with Yamaguchi sensei very often.
In kenjutsu kata the technique or chain of techniques is usually initiated by tori making an opening - suki - and giving uke a target to attack. The role of uke is usually taken by the senior partner exactly because it is so important.
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