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Many years ago I told a brother student of mine, a kohai I think, but we didn't talk about who was junior and who was senior, I probably was. Anyway, there we were at Hombu and there was this teacher, I was in his Sunday class, you just paid a little more extra and you could practice seven days a week. And I really liked his class. Somehow I told "Rocky" about how he encouraged people who were shy, especially the young women, high school or college age.
I noticed a group of them at the back and there was Watanabe Sensei and he gave them a real pep talk to get over their shyness:
"Nani ga asonde iru? Mottainai jikan!" What are you doing? Time is valuable! I don't quite know how to translate asonde iru, it could actually mean "goofing off" in this context, but the American phrase is way too strong. The young women were just shy about their practice, they often tilted their heads to one side after a technique as if to say they weren't sure they understood it right, or had done it correctly. Watanabe Sensei I'm sure was trying to cure them of this kind of hesitancy about their practice.
I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him, I think I got it right. He was very kindly, always, he just kind of made a bit of a bear expression with his eyebrows to get our attention.
One time I was practicing with someone and I noticed him watching us. So we slowed down a bit. Then we glanced at him and he had a bit of that bear scowl, so we slowed down. It got to b
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02-13-2011 06:49 AM 
