Hi Rob,
By "not moving" I meant as nage, the one being attacked. For example, more often than not, after I move in for iriminage, my partner stops moving and is waiting for me to "do the technique." I trained for a fairly long period of time with Endo and Yasuno Shihan so I think with your background with Gleason Sensei we both understand that movement should never stop, especially the one doing the attacking. (It was interesting to me that those who stopped moving while attacking Endo Shihan would get soft touches to the face while those who did it to Yasuno Shihan often got hurt.
)
I really like your post on resistance, the kind I think of as salt water taffy ukemi. Uke moves in a smooth, but heavy way, developing in both uke and nage what Endo Shihan has called "aiki-heavy." To out and out block one`s partner requires one (in my opinion) to take ultimate responsibility that the person you block learns something from it eventually and is not just frustrated. Most people who block don`t seem to do this, so it ends up just an ego thing.
Here is my blocking story: a number of years ago during Yasuno Shihan`s class at Honbu, a friend of mine from CA paired up with an older gentleman. This gentleman blocked my friend right and left and was not really attacking. My friend naturally got a bit perturbed, and although I`m not a lip reader it was obvious he was mouthing "stupid old man" over and over. He also started to realize that those of us around him were watching out of the corners of our eyes and laughing. After class I took him aside and explained that his partner had been Tamura Shihan, visiting from France!
Charles