Quote:
Graham Christian wrote:
Yet I havn't even mentioned teaching. That itself is an art. A whole new set of targets of improvements. In fact I remember only a few years ago suddenly realizing I could teach anyone. That was a massive one for me, it suddenly didn't matter who came through my door be they a beginner or a 10th dan for I knew I could help them.
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Exactly. Precisely.
There is actually only one sensei, and none of us is that!
If a person can receive all points of view considering them exactly as you proposed namely as an "offer" and not like an academic discussion or as an attempt to pose as a sensei, then you can become very rich.
Basically, every opponent, for the mere fact s/he is opposing you, is a teacher too.
It is our intelligence, let me say even our humanity, what must be able to see beyond the belts in order to see the human being and his/her potential to be a teacher, or a trove of opportunities, to improve our fighting skills (and this not because we want to fight - nobody would train years in order to cope with an unlikely street assoult: we have guns for that... - but because fighting is highly educational and molds one's character).
I often found failing a techinique against a 6th kyu infinitely more instructive than many words by a teacher. The 6th kyu has teached something! And it's not condesecension: it's the fact the potential any human being harbours, transcends belts.