Knives, knives, and more knives.......

Last night me and Bryce went over knife evasion techniques and how the affect our Aikido. We did this exercise due to all the knife postings from Pat and Dojorat. First all, knife work makes my Aikido go to crap. It shouldn't, but it does. I get so focused on that wooden spoon we were using as a knife that I can't relax enough to do proper Aikido. This was the lesson Bryce was trying to get across by jabbing me all night and keeping me on edge. I know it sounds simple to say "well just take a deep breath and relax and do proper smooth Aikido" but it didn't work out that way for me. Afterwards he told me I did well and now I know what I need to work on...staying calm. He was also saying that he was told knife randori is about as close as you can get to the real thing because in an actual life and death encounter you'll be a bit stiff and awkward and moving on reflex. Hence the need for constant practice and proper posture training. The exercise was great at showing me how far I've come and how far I need to go though. Any suggestions from anyone reading these posts on other exercises to try?