The art of living is more like wrestling than like dancing, in that it stands ready for what comes and is not thrown by the unforeseen.
Marcus Aurelius. Meditations, VII, 61
Here one of the most profound thinkers of Western Civilization contrasts ‘improvisation’ wrestling with a choreographed dance.
In Ki Aikido the purpose of practice is to train the mind to cope with unexpected events in our life. Multiple partners’ attack represents problems in the daily life that come to us from all sides and are quite unforeseen. Through Ki Aikido exercises we learn ‘to stand ready … and not be thrown’ by such overwhelming attack in a quite a literal sense. This teaches students coping skills most relevant for modern life. The ‘art of living’ as Marcus Aurelius would have said.
Ki Aikido 