I am not prepared to pass judgement on a situation I did not see.
I will say that for most of us aikido is very much a martial art and it is one that does indeed include atemi.
A few thoughts:
It sounds as if the initial student did not take the attacker's balance before trying to "do a technique." In general, aikido training at basic levels is taught as a kata, in which one tries to do the technique as shown by the instructor, regardless of whether or not uke's energy is appropriate to this technique. In this sense, it IS a cooperative undertaking: uke will try to give the type of attack that will elicit the type of technique to be worked on. In more advanced, non-kata type training, nage will not have any technique in mind and will act in response to the energy of the attack.
If my uke simply roots and stands still, I very often do the same, since as far as I am concerned, we do not have an attack. If I am able to begin to discern a pattern of movement or energy in uke's grab, then I will connect and work with that.
I don't know if any of this makes sense to you....
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