No, the one I remember seeing he's all fat and bloated and stationary in a white gui. Opponents are running at him and he's barely doing anything, but the people running at him are obviously taking a fall. Maybe I imagined it all.

Top comment lol:

Unfortunately, people don't voluntarily flip over on the real world.

I'm gonna go on a tangent here.

While that is obviously what's called compliant demonstrations, there is a degree of misconception about what a training partner is going to be doing during active sparring, or non compliant training.

See, grappling arts in general, as well as arts that feature throws and joint manipulations, include training in how to either counter or mitigate the effectiveness of the techniques being used. For one, if you run into it ina competition or real fight, knowing how to counter is always a plus. But training itself is risky. Even a really chill, friendly dojo means that at some point, you'll be hitting the ground, or having your body twisted.

So, you learn not just how to fall safely, but to roll, flip, or otherwise use your body to reduce the effectiveness of a throw or joint manipulation. And when you're doing that, it kinda looks similar to what the performers are doing in that video, just a good bit more energetic.

Those aikidoka throwing themselves around aren't just faking it to make segal look competent. They're using good techniques to counter the moves being performed, if it were all real, active sparring.

Tbh, when it comes down to the techniques being performed, he's not even that bad. They're being applied correctly, if with less than ideal footwork and mechanics. The problem isn't that segal doesn't so aikido well, it's that he's a fake in other ways, and aikido has never been a combat system. To phrase it the way some folks active in martial arts say it, it's a do, not a jutsu. And that's true. Aikido is less about fight training than it is self development. There's nothing wrong with that at all. It just isn't the same thing as something like jujitsu where there is fight focused training and methodology.

It could be. Aikijutsu exists. And some aikido is taught/trained with active resistance and cross training with other arts. When done that way, it's not as bad as people make it out to be, though I'd still argue there's better ways to reach a given degree of self defense or sport combat effectiveness.

But, yeah, that video is essentially an ego stroking demo, not even an actual demo of aikido techniques.