Hi all-
I come from an atemi dojo, and recently I was thinking about two different types of atemi. For example, with the technique tsuki sumi otosh ushiro, one can strike across one's body (with the outside hand) towards the side of uke's head as uke is coming around, or one can strike directly to uke's face or center once uke is around.
The first is nearly impossible for uke (or me, anyway) to avoid or even see; often I don't even react to it until I'm already on the way down. I imagine, however, that someone with great upper body strength could knock uke out at that point.
The second means that uke gets further before being corrected, but personally I react quite strongly to a strike (or even the suggestion of a strike) towards my face.
I'd like people's opinions on which atemis are more effective in the martial sense and/or in dojo training, as well as how their philosophy of aiki fits in with that.
I'm sure that non-atemi people will also reply and tell me that striking in aikido is verboten, but I'm just going to ignore that.
