It has always seemed (to me) somewhat optimistic against a resisting opponent, and often not practiced with resistance, as you note. <-- the main reason.
I can totally see it being useful if practiced with resistance AND in conjunction with something else; there are aspects to it that would be quite useful, even to my un-aikido-trained eye (and I'm a big advocate of cross-training, period). And I'm 100% sure that aki-jutsu and so forth - back when this stuff was being used against people in fights - didn't look at all the same, with more stripped down, basic fundamentals.
What else did you study? I remember you talking about Aikido, which was always interesting.
Indeed.We did have an head instructor who believed a martial art was worthless if it did not work as self-defense and he emphasized the -jitsu side rather than the -do side but he was already in his sixties and only taught once a week. He once did a match against a boxer friend of his who wanted to do it and neither could get any real advantage on the other but that he could step in against a boxer and stalemate is saying a lot.
As always, it's less (not completely, but less) about the art and more about how one practices, and this guy sounds like he practiced with some zeal against resistance.
We get what we practice for. We practice for long-distance running, we're going to suck at a sprint. We practice field hockey, while some of it will carry over to ice hockey a whole lot won't.But, in general, average class, there was a lack of any real resistance training which I've come to feel is the biggest weakness any martial art could have.
Going with Sharp's story about getting thrown into a wall, there was a woman in the class who was obsessed with the idea that what she did had to work and she meant right now. Mind you, we were maybe yellow belts at the time. She was doing a throw and oblivious to the fact that we were five feet from a wall. Rather than throwing me some other direction, she tried to throw me at the wall. She didn't have the joint locked properly so I just didn't let her throw me. I remember she was so mad, not because I resisted but because it made her realize none of her moves worked. Everyone was just cooperating.
Obviously, cooperation is essential to learn but there is a point where real resistance training is required.
We practice nothing but forms and compliant technique repetition, that's what we get - skill at fighting people who are compliant. Might help a wee bit in a physical altercation against someone with zero experience or fight-training, and no size advantage.
As you say, some compliance is necessary to practice some stuff, especially at the start; it's a poor partner who punches people in the nose every time they try something. ^_^ And even forms have a point; they can, to SOME extent, teach smooth, balanced, precise motion (as long as they're practiced with that intention in mind).
But at the same time, the increasing resistance training, the unrehearsed stuff, the open sparring (light-to-heavy-to-full contact, depending on someone's comfort zone!)...that's of more use when actually trying to apply one's practice against someone who isn't interested in getting thrown/getting punched/whatever. And will also help iron in whatever one learns from the compliant stuff/forms/whatever.
Same deal with weapons, after all. Some clubs that laud themselves as being ultra-realistic when it comes to fighting, who have actual sparring and heavy-to-full contact training, who would be really nasty when it comes to an empty handed fight...utterly fall to pieces when confronted by a knife, in that they've never trained realistically against people armed with even practice knives. It's like they forget what they say about other clubs when it comes to weapons, and assume that compliant, practiced techniques, or no training against weapons at all, will be enough. Hilarious example: some highly skilled BJJ guy on rec.martialarts stating that against a knife he would 'just pull guard'.
[Everyone who has knife experience] Don't do that. O_o
Blind spots are everywhere. I'm 100% sure I have them myself (because they're blind spots, I don't know about them until something kicks me in the head, so to speak).
I don't actually blame clubs, these days, so long as they're not selling BS or con-jobs. People don't need to learn to fight like we used to, not so much. And learning to fight is a painful, scary, and sometimes damaging process, depending on how close one wants to get to practicing 'for real'. So clubs that just do light workouts, forms, pointsparring...the people there don't really WANT to roll around trying to push in each other's faces, and I completely don't blame them. I regret a lot of the injuries I have, and ones I've dished out.
At the same time, has taught me a lot.
However people look at me weird and back away slowly when part of my answer of 'what did you train in?' involves explaining Arnis. So I have learned to read the room a little before going into details these days.
A dissenting opinion! Always good to see.As to the main question, the 3rd Doctor versus Kirk, tough call. I remember the Doctor Who fight choreography being incredibly slow but I don't remember much about the details. Kirk's fights moved faster but were incredibly unrealistic. Probably Kirk just for having more fights.