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Old 10-23-2011, 02:49 PM   #5
Mario Tobias
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 261
Philippines
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Re: Being overly complaisant as Uke

Hi Dave,

You will encounter this always. The important thing is that you distinguish the overly compliant ukes and understand the underlying reasons. I think there are several factors contributing to this IMHO.

1. Ego and conflict avoidance. Everybody hates to admit they make mistakes. This applies to both nage and uke. Some nages have a "my technique is always correct, and yours is always wrong, therefore my techniques always work" or "know it all" attitude. Ukes can sense this with a nage and become too compliant to avoid conflict otherwise they get reprimanded or get a telling by nage.

2. Uke being uncomfortable because of an injury. Some techniques even done incorrectly to an injured part can be excruciatingly painful. Uke throws himself to relieve the pain or avoid risk of further, more serious injury.

3. Too much pain being inflicted by nage when he does the techniques. Some nages crank it up too much that uke throws himself ahead of the actual throw to save himself.

4. Not really understanding the role of uke. This is where the teacher makes the difference. It is the senseis role to set clear expectations of what ukes role should be and refresh the message regularly during practices. The tricky thing is that the role between nage and uke is mostly nonverbal communication and has some degree of cooperation to make the most out of the training sessions and understanding of techniques. The force coming from both uke and nage should be "just enough". The part about nonverbal communication, level of cooperation and use of right force are as important and equally difficult as the understanding of the techniques themselves.

5. Bad habits or different goals. Different people come to practice for different reasons eg exercise, socializing, lifestyle choice or martial arts application....People with reasons other than seeking martial arts effectiveness would progress differently imho.
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