Chapter 16: Counters...another aspect of Aikido just like marmite, you either love 'em or hate 'em

Having recently obtained the level of 4th Kyu (Orange belt) I learned that for green I also needed counters as well as Hikkitat. Okay, thinks I lets have a go.
I quickly found that counters as THE worst thing to learn (apart from rolling) and whlist some people like them, others hate them with a passion.
However, counters do have their uses both inside and outside of the dojo. Inside, they are obviously employed as a technique in Hikkitat but outside they may also be used as a form of defence should an attacker also have knowledge of martial art (or so I'm told).
At the moment I'm reserving judgement as to whether I like them or hate them but there's no doubt that a knowledge of counters are useful in certain situations.