when i was growing up my best friends dad was a very high ranking aikido a guy and we would spend maybe 2 hours every day, 7 days a week learning and practicing aikido! i did this for around 5 years , as i wasnt forally training i never bothered with gradings but i must of been black belt level and my friend had been training since he could walk and after about 2 weeks of boxing i would wipe the floor with him the fact is you cant catch punches or what not ect its a beautiful art but martial its not.
It's true, you can't catch punches. If that's what you were trying to do, it's no wonder that your aikido wasn't effective.