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Old 10-17-2002, 10:38 AM   #33
G DiPierro
Location: Ohio
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 365
United_States
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Quote:
anonymous coward wrote:
he's been hurt more often than anyone else training with him. *he's been one of the people in the hospital, more than once*.
This section makes the situation completely different. It's no longer just a case of someone injuring other people, but it's a reciprocal situation, perhaps with this other person getting the worst of it. The question I have to ask is why is this person getting injured so much? You mentioned one case where he threw himself into what I assume was some sort of breakfall and hurt himself. Granted, that's a little unusual, but OTOH I usually find it more difficult to do some kinds of ukemi without a nage, partly because they are rarely practiced that way.

What about the other situations? How is this person getting hurt? Is it as nage or uke? With beginners or advanced people? One obvious conclusion would be that your advanced students are treating him just like he is treating other people. Giving him a taste of his own medicine. If that's the situation then you need to take a look at what's going on with your own students. Using some sort of enforcement strategy is not out of line in a martial arts dojo, but, if that's what they are doing, it clearly has not been effective in this case and they are going to have to try something else.

Another possibility is that this person could be causing his own injuries, though I'm not exactly sure how this could happen. Is he resisting? While this does invite injury, it is not that hard to choose to not to injure someone in this situation. Or perhaps he is attacking more intensely than his ukemi skills would suggest is proper, and he can't handle the technique he is getting. In our dojo there are some older, less experienced guys who like to attack hard and fast to see if this stuff really works. I'm happy to oblige them, but they often have a difficult time with the ensuing ukemi, even when I impart no power of my own to the throw. But I would never put them in a situation where they could be seriously injured, and I try not to let them put themselves in such a situation either.

The only other possibility that I can think of is that he is attacking so hard that others cannot defend themselves without injuring him. If this is the case, then I would try to find out what is motivating this person to this kind of practice. How does he feel about his own injuries? Does he think they are just a normal part of practice? Does he blame his practice partners for them? Is he at all upset about the situation? I would also try to talk to the teacher or senior students from this person's old dojo. I would assume that they know this person better than you do and therefore might be able to advise you about what's going on and how to handle it.

Last edited by G DiPierro : 10-17-2002 at 10:41 AM.
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