| The people who put the program together are from NY Aikikai, where I've studied off and on. I can tell you that wrist manipulation generally involves a tolerable level of pain in practice there. Uke's are expected to present resistance to techniques aside from impromptu footwork or anything that would endanger themselves. The uke also taps out after being put in some form of submission based on the level of discomfort. Pushing that limit is part of the conditioning. Basically, if someone can't literally force you down, they aren't doing the technique correctly and you shouldn't react as though they can. Some schools don't take it to that level and that can tend to discredit Aikido's legitimacy as it lends itself to practitioners who can't actually employ Aikido. Also, Aikido does involve weapons, for what it's worth. As with the unarmed techniques, the practice revolves around hypothetical exchanges. Aikido 3D only gets into knife techniques as the defense against a knife differs very little from unarmed techniques. |