View Single Post
Old 03-18-2012, 08:01 AM   #38
dapidmini
Dojo: Surabaya Aikido Dojo
Location: surabaya
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 98
Indonesia
Offline
Re: It's getting annoying..

Quote:
Eva Röben wrote: View Post
Dear David,

1) The teacher of the dojo I join in Turkey virtually started from scratch. He founded the university dojo at Istanbul Technical University when he was shodan, and since the dojo was new, and the only one at the university, all students were beginners. ... there are four or five classes per DAY, for small kids, advanced kids, tanto/ bokken, beginner adults, advanced adults, you name it. It cost him some years, and a lot of time, but finally it worked. So, there are no good ukes => you start producing them, and some day you'll have them.
hats off to the Teacher in Turkey. I admire his perseverance and spirit of spreading Aikido. and 5 classes per DAY? now that's what I call full time job. I don't think I'm as great a teacher as he is.

Quote:
Eva Röben wrote: View Post
2) ...so there is always someone advanced to train with.

...I see it as a compliment, but also as a responsibility, and actually I even enjoy it. We have two classes where most students are beginners, and two classes where most students are advanced. I go to all of them, and I think it is interesting to work with beginners
unfortunately, most of the "old" students only comes 1-2 times a week while I come to almost every class (6 classes a week). so in most of the classes, we almost always get overwhelmed because the new students to old students ratio is about 4-5 : 1

Quote:
Eva Röben wrote: View Post
And in case its getting bored, there are always seminars.
unfortunately, in my country there are very few seminars. and most of the time it's in another province, so I can't take part in it because I have to go to work.

Quote:
Michael Hackett wrote: View Post
I don't speak to Mr. Santana's character. I am simply observing that his attitude towards training with beginners is quite likely obvious to them and counter-productive to their training and to the well-being of the dojo. In my opinion it would be better to not take on the role of training them, or change his attitude towards them. It is difficult enough to start training in this art without the added burden of feeling unwelcome and a trial to be borne. His annoyance is one issue, and his personal need for more substantial training is another. They are two different things, and he can accomplish his personal goals in other ways, without demonstrating the negative behavior of being annoyed.
it's not that I hate teaching, I just want to train hard as well. when I'm teaching, I only focus on teaching. I still think being asked to teach is an honor and responsibility. it's just that at the end of a week, I thought to myself "what have I been spending all those hours of my life for?".

I'm perfectly ready and willing to give back to my Kohai, but it doesn't mean that I have to spend every night just to give to everyone and getting nothing for myself, right?

Quote:
Katherine Derbyshire wrote: View Post
This is an excellent point... Their ukemi isn't very good. But you're doing a lot of the teaching. So why aren't you teaching them better ukemi?

Katherine
believe me, I've been teaching a lot more ukemi than how I was taught in my previous dojo. but most of them either too stiff or can't or don't have the intention to focus on training and watch the details that are being pointed out by the instructor and follow them
  Reply With Quote