Marie Noelle Fequiere

Please address these questions in your responses, and then feel free to add whatever you deem necessary to further the discussion.[/quote]

Addressing these questions in my response and answering them one by one does not make me feel comfortable to formulate my opinion, so I did not do that. It's just that my english is not my mother language, I apologize for that, and I hope that you will understand what I'm trying to say.

My first commentary is: our instructor always repeat to us that Aikido is not a compilation of techniques, but a compilation of principles. Any technique that puts to good use the principles of Aikido is Aikido, even if you won't find it in any Aikido book.

As a result, he often teaches us some techniques of his invention that can help us deal with the thugs roaming our streets. Those techniques are not in any book, but the footwork is here and so are the mahai, the methods for unbalancing our opponent, etc... (my english is failing me a bit here, but I hope that you get the idea).

A few students training with us have reported fending off unexpected attacks on the street. They did not always use the traditional techniques that we need to learn for the exams, but they used footwork, mahai, unbalancing techniques, etc...

Ok, nowadays, nobody will attack you by grabbing your hands from behind, but we still enjoy practicing defenses from those attacks, not only because we need them for the exam, but just because of the fun. Same thing for suware waza, it's fun and it's good workout for your legs.

And finally, concerning the good old shomen uchi, in my country, people still like to come at you with the intent of breaking a bottle on top of your head. The weapon may not be a sword, but the movement and the momentum are the same, and can be dealt with the same way.

If my explanation is missing something, tell me, I will try to formulate better.