@@arjandevries-imajukuaikido exactly. When I lived in Japan and had the opportunity to train regularly with 6th dan, 7th dan, 8th dan etc. practitioners, I was amazed at the consistency of one thing: Of course, they all felt really good when I took ukemi from them. But the ones who felt REALLY special, extremely heavy, yet agile, were the ones who had been thrown a LOT in their younger years. I would tell a Senpai that I trained with so-and-so and they were INCREDIBLE. My Senpai would say, “oh, yeah. Yamaguchi sensei threw him all the time when he was younger.” My point is that there’s a certain quality in our Aikido that we cannot gain any way OTHER than taking ukemi. AND… In regards to a student of mine who wasn’t making much progress, I said to a Senpai that I don’t know why he’s not making progress. He comes to the dojo regularly, and I throw him a lot. My senpai’s answer was a bit harsh, but succinct and accurate. He said that I can’t just be throwing them. That I had to also be very loose while I’m throwing them. Because uke takes on the qualities of Nage through a subconscious, osmosis like process. This was such excellent advice. And so if we reverse this, we can say that having a lousy teacher who never works on themselves is one of the worst things you can do for your Aikido. Undo this muscle memory that you subconsciously gain from such a teacher takes double or triple the amount of time that it took to build. or maybe even longer. Or maybe impossible. Just my two cents. Let me know what you think. I’m looking forward to seeing you in Bonn!

@@liasuzukisvirtualdojo6240 I cannot agree more with what you are saying here! At the shoheijuku dojo's in Fukuoka people are very heavy too. I used to do it as well but lately I stoped doing it because people are not realy able to see the difference between heavy and being coorperative and only being heavy and stopping things. No matter how many times I took ukemi for them they were not able to grasp it. That brings me to the next point of being thrown a lot. I started Aikido when I was 26 and before that I had done Taekwondo from the age of 16. So I was young enough to be thrown around. People nowadays tend to start in their 40ties and even their 50ties. Not so flexible anymore I am afraid. So it takes longer to understand the art of ukemi. So in this aspect I have to be loose also because if I am to rigid people get to be thrown much harder and the have difficulty handling this. And yes! We have to work on our own Aikido very hard. I try to do this every day. On and off the mat. Lets keep going Lia Sensei!