Perhaps weapons and/or armour may be a consideration in some of those pins? Anyway, on the subject of what makes a martial art, I thought I might as well post this I saw yesterday: Stephan Kesting's interpretation of Dan Inosanto's trinity of martial arts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WStMlyRn_sE&t=729s
Yes this plays a big part in TJMA pins Predominantly pins were used to hold someone down in a way that: 1 Prevents them from using their weapons on you (remember that historically they carried a few). Typically this means face down, and 2 Gives you enough time to either draw your own weapon or to cause sufficient injury to stay safe. Typically TJMA forms end with drawing a weapon, a kick/strike or crank after a pin Another important consideration was to retain freedom of movement, which creates a trade off in terms of how firmly you can secure someone down So the objective is not really to hold someone in place until help arrives Of course chokes are used liberally in TJMA too, but I'm separating these from pins for the sake of this discussion
I think that in order to understand atemi you have to study it deeply The strikes included in the old Japanese martial arts are very effective and, in my view, absolutely critical parts of the technique. But like everything they need careful study I'm not suggesting that this is always the case in Aikido training, but just pretending to hit a bit here and there while you execute a compliant waza isn't going to help much
I agree mate. I think actually do the atemi but stop before one gets hit. If you can make them jump or react even better. I guess what I'm trying to say do the atemi.
I think boxing will have given you a good understanding of power generation, rolling with the punches etc But…. It’s a very different context from atemi in grappling