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Old 08-29-2000, 09:44 AM   #10
guest1234
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 915
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Quote:
Chuck Clark wrote:
This sounds kind of harsh, but...


At some point the teacher has an obligation to tell the person that they should not spend any more of the teacher's or dojo mates practice time on their problem.


i think the attitude towards ukemi (both falling and uke's relationship to nage) is set by the existing tone and attitude of the sensei and the dojo. in my first one, it was really important; sensei stressed it during his demonstrations. the sempai stressed it during regular and beginners classes. it was stressed in the forms you signed when you joined. it was tested. and if you couldn't demonstate the level of ukemi required of the kyu in question (medical excuses aside), you didn't test/advance. period. my last dojo it really wasn't an issue, since we were very small, and i was often the only whitebelt around. My current one is currently changing it's attitude, with a re-emphasis at least on the falling part, and somewhat on the rest (good in the long run, i think). i kind of feel sorry for some of the more senior kyus now having to learn to fall---for some reason it seems harder for some of them than the beginners (perhaps because they've had a longer time to think about it, with the new beginners now it's just accepted that they WILL fall, like my first dojo). so i think instructors that do not address the problem early, but let the person keep training and advancing them, not only does the individual a diservice, but the dojo as a whole, both for the decreased quality of training their partners get, and for the tone it sets.
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