Re: Ask sensei to demonstrate "at speed"?
i had been studying about a month when I cornered A senior yudansha in the dojo with a "real" situation and kinda owned him and he really couldn't answer the question.
Then "sensei" walked in and they turned to him and asked him to assist with answering my question.
He did and I got the answer I was looking for and was sold. It was a painful lesson, but one that impressed me enough to stick with studying under him.
Saotome Sensei essentially laid me out. I am sure he doesn't remember it at all as it was all in a days work for him, but it certainly left an impression on me.
If I were asked that question, I am always happy to answer as well. You have to remember that aikido is a methodology to train "aiki" not necessarily to be used in the full context of: (insert reality scenario here).
When someone asked me what would I do against a kick boxer, for example, I reply with...well I get to use the same rules you do right?
Same with the eye gouging, groin kicking, and weapon scenarios.
Sometimes you get the reply back...well that is not what I asked, I wanted to know what "aikido" you would use.
we then get into the philosophical discussion about why that is really not a logical question to ask and why you would constrain yourself in this situation and why there is no really pure aikido solution to anything in the physical context.
It certainly is a difficult topic though to explain to a beginner that looks at the methodology from a simplistic context.
It is like discovering a hammer for the first time and thinking "what a useful tool!" "What can I use it for?"
and then you proceed to approach everything that looks like it might work with and pound on it.
A perfectly logical question for someone that has just discovered it.
A seasoned carpenter knows though that not everything is a nail!
Of course, everyone knows that analogy, but I think we tend to forget that beginners (and even not beginners) tend to not see things the same way we do.