As aikido is a purely defensive martial art, attacks take on a different significance.

Whilst attacks are not included in the overall system, it should nevertheless be possible to practise countermeasures against as wide a range of potential attack scenarios as possible.

To this end, codified forms of attack are employed. These stylised movements are recognised and internalised by the aikidoka as patterns as part of their learning process.

The role of the attacker (Uke) requires a certain degree of ‘cooperation’ in the shared movement (Aiki), so that Tori and Uke can develop the inner forms through practising the outer forms.

This way of practising, which often gives the impression that Aikido is scripted and not ‘real self-defence’, stems from the fact that Aikido is first and foremost a martial art, just like Kyudo or Iaido, for example.

It inherently holds the potential to help those who practise it to develop their personalities, whereas a martial art practised as a sporting discipline must be regulated in order to be contested in competition and to determine winners and losers.

Real-life conflicts are, in any case, fought entirely without rules – but not blindly, rather in a strategically and tactically well-coordinated manner.

On closer examination of all codified forms, it is important to note that an attack is never carried out entirely spontaneously out of a peaceful situation.

The development – essentially the escalation path – always takes place in stages:

If a previously executed action fails, the next one follows. In and of itself, a sudden attack from behind by an opponent armed with a sword is extremely unlikely. However, Ushiroryotedori can arise during the course of a confrontation when an initial attack is parried and fails.

The attacker then finds themselves in a position where they can either abandon the attack or move sideways past the aikidoka to get behind them.

The aikidoka may also deliberately allow this path for tactical reasons, in order to lure the attacker into taking this action.

In the following, the German spelling ‘dori’ (to grasp) is used for the Japanese names of attack techniques; the spelling ‘tori’ is also commonly used as an alternative.