I don't hate Ki Aikido: I just don't rate it.
I've tried to find out about it - i've looked for videos on YouTube, and there isn't much; I also found out that if you want some videos of the techniques/syllabus, you have to be a certified instructor in order to buy them (at a very high price) from the Ki Aikido HQ.
So I have the impression it's very secretive, and profit-driven...like scientology is.
Then there's the videos I have seen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VGH--Z6RVc
Not that i'm an expert, but the ukemi looks...not so good. It looks like there is never atari/musubi, and with regards to the irimi-nage ukemi in particular: why are they going flying off in a straight line?
I've always been taught - by various teachers, in various styles - that you try and keep close to nage during that (and most other, for that matter) throw: it's the safest place.
Also: the ukes are never stretched - they never get onto their toes; so how can I believe that they're connected to nage, and not just falling down when prompted?
This is what I encountered when I went to a Ki Aikido class: the guy had me in ikkyo, and was just walking around the mat, unable to move me to the floor; eventually, he said "Feel free to go down..." - I said i'd go down if he caused me to (which is, y'know, what an aikido technique does...), to which a dan grade who was practicing with us got all shitty and said "That's not how we practice.".
...shouldn't she have stepped in while he was struggling, and showed him how to effect the technique?
Then when I was training kata dori-nikkyo, the instructor said that when you are grabbed, you don't perform an atemi: no...you raise your hand up towards uke's face, 'With a big wave of energy.' (Ki balls...?).
I'm all for getting abstract and into the philosophy, but I think these Ki people don't know much about budo/aikido, and prefer purely 'spiritual' pursuits - so that's how they practice aikido; they don't understand the whole 'Stopping violence with the spear.': the point of aikido (as I understand it) is not never hurting someone - it's doing the minimum harm possible while doing the right thing/protecting others.
I'm all for resolving things amicably - but some people will never listen: try talking to a drunk, or George Bush, so you might actually have to deal with somebody in a non-verbal/'spiritual' way in life.
This is a foreign language documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_uG_tCdID8
...about eight minutes in, the dan grades are training; the ukemi is stuff I got told off for when I was a beginner: the attack is slow, half-hearted; they don't stay connected when their wrist is taken: they leave their back exposed in kote-gaeshi, then just collapse...where's the aiki in that? No connection.
And isn't it unhealthy to receive like that - with just your wrist, as opposed to with your entire body?
I've only been training a few years, but only the other night I was told off for collapsing as uke, and leaving myself exposed to strikes.
These are dan grades, and nobody says nothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCk_g5-FhuM
Again with the ukemi...it's embarrassing.