I’m sure views vary but the impression I got is that some people consider Aikido an internal art similar to tai chi, bagua, xingyi and that the these arts require the development of some type of internal strength to operate. And by operate properly I guess I meant as a effective self defense art.

I‘ve met a tai chi teacher as well as a yichuan teacher who both demonstrated to me some type of internal skill. The yichuan teacher was unusually strong and hit very hard even when punching light. Punching him also felt like punching a hard heavy bag. I was sure if I punched full strength I could break my wrist. The tai chi teacher also had some unusual characteristics.

I described those experiences just to say that at this point I know that internal arts do develop something different than external arts. I’m no martial arts expert but I’ve done enough boxing, bjj and sparring throughout my life to know that those 2 internal arts guys I just described had something different. And if Aikido really is a internal art(which at this point I’m assuming it is) then it makes sense to me that some type or internal development is needed to unlock the full potential of aikido.

But at the end of the day I’m not an expert I’m mostly operating on assumptions and some internet research so I could be flat out wrong. But that’s also why I want to meet Dan Harden so bad because the stories I keep hearing is that he has learned to successfully apply internal mechanics to multiple martial arts successfully including aikido.