Hello all.

So this question has been bugging me for the last semester and I figure I will ask it here. (Please note the Sensei have been asked this question and are aware of the problem. It helps to get feedback from outsiders, hence this post.)

So we got a new student...call him..."Robert". Robert is an returning to college student (late 20s or early 30s) getting his degree in...."physics". He has a bit (read, a lot) of trouble socializing and doesn't really talk even if asked a direct question. If he does talk it's so quiet I can barely make it out. (Yes, he does go with us on club functions and we've even had him over to our house. So no, we are not ignoring him.)

He's also the stiffest person I've ever met as nage and uke.

We can't get him to learn any of the Japanese either. We are a ki society split off style, so we do a lot of the japanesey stuff and you can't really communication without it.

We can't get him to attack. Its been 4 months and honestly I would be more afraid of a kingergardener with a spork than this guy. For a punch, he kind of makes a fist and thrusts out his arm...ending up a solid foot and half away from the nage if they stand still.

Basically...Robert is picking and choosing what to learn. I'm old enough at the club to be the one who runs class w/o a Sensei and I can't get him to really listen. (Which is odd for me.) He's said point blank that he doesn't see the point in testing, learning the japanese or the 'crazy' ukemi at various times. Each time, I've (and the other older students as well) have tried to correct him and explain why we learn those things.

All white belts get a grace period of course. We don't attack as hard and slow things down for them to get them up to speed. But this guy is soooo far out of the grace period.

I'm asking because he's become a real pain to work with. Sensei comes by to try and help you without your technique and spends half of the time explaining to...Robert how he attacked wrong. (And of course that you need to learn to deal with that.) The odd thing is, Sensei has even begun shifting how much he says things to Robert about his ukemi. It's less "you need to adjust to the attack" and more "uke needs to attack somewhat like this or we wouldn't do this technique".

Odd thing is Robert comes to every class. Few people do that, so he obviously likes it. But between the communication issue and the ukemi issue it's hard to get to him.

Frankly my attempt at an optimistic view (thinking about all the practice I'm getting with a stubborn, freshman style uke) is dying fast. Especially since he's started complaining that the techniques are hurting him.

Oh. I forgot to mention. He's really stiff and just stands there. So for a good bit, only the Sensei and senior students could do anything to him most of the time. Now, as we've gotten better at dealing with him, all that resisting is catching up.

And that's about it.

Chow-
Aikichem Student