yeah, this is just a mix of weird and bullshit.

Funny presentation scheme, though:

'The problem is that many American's hyperglide with a bimodal pronation, instead of hypogliding with quad-polar pronation.
Hypergliding with bimodal pronation during a marathon is like flipping the pages of a 20000 page book with your toes in 4 hours.
Other top American runners who hyperglide with a bimodal pronation include Jason Lancooly, Ned Jacobson, and Tom Frankel-..., -berry...'

...he's also pronated on his left foot. I have a great podiatrist I can recommend.

I understand what you're saying, TS. I understand that it's a demonstration, which is the reason for the compliance. I also know that the ukemi is taken in such motions as to prevent injury to uke from the lock. Still, that's not my main gripe.

I do believe in the possible effectiveness of many of aikido's techniques and concepts. I have learned a decent amount of aikido, sparred against a number of aikidoka, and discussed aikido theory 'til my ears bled, but my real issue is the manner in which aikido is trained. Without real resistance or hard sparring, how can one learn to apply such techniques effectively in a combat or self-defense situation?

If one were to argue that aikido is meant as a philosophy/religion/way of life, and that sparring is contrary to this meaning of aikido, then that's fine, but that means that that version of aikido will continue to be non-functional in a combat/self-defense sense. Otherwise, aikidoka need to spar and train against lots of resistance for aikido to begin to approach any sort of functional use in a true fighting sense.

One example of this is the kote mawashi. (In English this is the inward wrist-turn lock, and anatomically is a pronating lock.) Applied in a compliant setting, it is really nice, and results in a very painful lock that is nearly impossible to escape once a secure grip is established and the rotation is begun. In a sparring setting standing up, it is a bitch to get the proper hold and lock it in, due to its nature as a fine-motor movement (which is known to be difficult because of the loss of such small control due to the effects of adrenaline, as opposed to gross-motor movement, which is relatively amplified), and wrist control in that particular direction and manner almost never occurs when an opponent is punching or pushing with real intent. In addition, with somebody resisting full force, kote mawashi is countered by a number of simple and natural reactions, including sidestepping before the attacker can line up side by side with his opponent, clearing the attacker's grabbing hand with one's own free hand, stepping straight in for an over-under clinch to perform a leg reap a la judo o-soto-gari or ko-soto-gake, re-grabbing the attacker's grabbing hand and arm-dragging a la freestyle wrestling, punching the attacker in the face with the free hand, ripping one's arm free, or any combination of the above. Hell, you could probably use something straight from aikido like kote gaeshi to counter kote mawashi. I'm not saying mawashi will never work, I'm just saying, somebody attempting kote mawashi must be aware of these counters, and be ready to provide a counter-attack should that fail.

Of course, it's easy for somebody to look at what my breakdown of kote mawashi and say, "Oh, well, in that situation, if my opponent resisted my a with b, I would just counter his b with my c," and we can continue on down the road of hypothetical rock-paper-scissors 'til kingdom come. But my point is, I've countered a kote mawashi when somebody has tried to use it against me in a live setting. Hell, I've used mawashi as a gimmick submission hold when grappling on the ground. I'll often attack with it from guard, especially after going for a juji-gatame (straight armbar), when my opponent will counter by turning his elbow sideways so I can't lock in the hold, and I'll grab the wrist, lock in a secure grip, and begin switching my hips as if going for an omoplata to apply pressure. I've found that using this wristlock, as with most wristlocks, is easier on the ground because I have more control over my opponent with my legs wrapped around his body or trapping his arm at the elbow to isolate the limb, controlling his movement, than if we were standing or clinched up, and because I have more time to secure the hold on the wrist than when an opponent can step out or pull his arm out, and because I can use the full rotation of my body immediately to apply the lock. I know this particular setup and attack works (skip 'til the end, the sub flow begins around 30 seconds from the end), just like I know I can counter a standing attack of mawashi reasonably well, because I've pulled it off while fighting with a fully-resisting opponent. And of course aikido has many more counters and re-counters to mawashi than I know. But if one has not actually played this situation out against a fully resisting opponent, how does one know one can do it, and how can one have developed the proper muscle memory and/or reaction without having gone through the real, resistance-included motions? The techniques are all there in aikido, but I feel that many aikidoka are missing out on the point that learning the techniques and combinations isn't everything, they need to learn how to actually apply them.

I like Yoshinkan and Tomiki aikido and similiar substyles of "hard" aikido that practice sparring regularly and have even begun attempting to implement sparring in tournaments, even though I believe their attempts are somewhat misguided. I also respect aikidoka who do not spar but also acknowledge that they are not practicing for self-defense or practical application, but rather for the cultural and spiritual development - I don't understand it, but I respect it. I only take issue with aikidoka (as well any other martial artists) who claim to have effective self-defence and/or combat skills, yet have never pulled a single move off against anybody other than a person whose designation begins with the letter "u" and rhymes with "boo-kay". In those cases, I'll take my judo along with a heaping of resistance, thank ya kindly, and leave the magic pants for others.