[rodolphoarruda]

OP here. Lots of comments from non-aikidokas. Interesting and unexpected to me. The thing about "throwing himself" is pure self preservation that advanced students acquire with time. It looks nice on public demos, but you can practice the same techniques slowly in a way that the partner feels grounded, unable to create momentum. In those cases, the partner will feel a lot of pressure on their limb/join or back. Do that to beginner students and you'll see their eyes pop-out in desperation because the pressure is too great and don't even know they can tap to ease down. In advanced practice, if you don't do self-preservation, you'd end up with snapped tendons, broken collarbones, toes etc. If you are already injured, you have to tell your partner in advance "I can't roll today. Don't project me." or "Don't apply the elbow lock", and so on. So you won't see great projections either. Those are the details you can't imagine just by watching videos; you've got to be in the mat. It's like me watching fishing videos. To me, fishing can't be anything more than: throwing bait => pulling line.