To put it into a bit of perspective, if a grizzly bear captured you and held onto you until you calmed down, would you enjoy the experience? The bear is much larger than you and could easily kill you and eat you! Would you be comfortable with that?
Although I used to train that way, I no longer do. I did it that way because that's the only way I knew how, and that's how everyone recommended on training your bird. You force the bird to sit with you until it stops biting and flying away.
I prefer making each interaction with a bird as positive as possible (when not an emergency) during the taming process. I had at one point in time 5 adult, flighted budgies. None of them tame. One day I decided to start feeding them by hand. It was first thing in the morning before I refreshed their food dishes, I put some of their regular food into my hands and offered my hand inside the cage. Some birds were more hesitant than others, but they all eventually started eating from my hands! (monkey see, monkey do!) I would do this once a day for 5-15 minutes (however long it took them to gobble it all up!). I didn't interact with them in any other way! Just that one small thing once a day.
A month later, I had them flying out of their cage and to my hand to eat!
This technique also worked with 5 adult cockatiels, varying from skittish and wanted nothing to do with humans to previous tamed pets. All but one were flighted. Cockatiels that were previously shy and hesitant became comfortable and confident around humans! Including the tiel that was terrified of being around humans became confident enough that he'd fly to me and patiently wait to be held.
I no longer believe that force is required in order to tame a bird, nor do I believe it should be used when we have come so far in learning about behavior and how we can influence a bird to accept handling even if they are never truly tame!
