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Old 12-06-2004, 03:54 AM   #39
K Lynch
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5
United Kingdom
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Re: Funny things during class

I can't remember who said it, but I agree.. these kind of incidents just -make- the class/seminar. Stops any of us from taking ourselves too seriously!

There's loads I like, but off the top of my head.. (names withheld to protect the innocent)
We were at our yearly Weapons Camp, a good mix of people. In the fairly expansive camping area at Savernake Forest. So here we are watching Sensei demonstrate some of the finer points of kumi-jo, when along comes this sage piece of advice, "It's not the distance that's important.. it's the timing and the distance." Crickets literally chirped as the whole class sought a way to say, 'Uh.. sensei.. you what?!' in an appropriately dignified martial arts reply. At which point he realised what he'd just said, chuckled, and moved swiftly onward in that patented, 'I never made a mistake anyway..' dan grade fashion.

Secondly, on a course just recently, one of the senseis was using counter-techniques in groups as a method of highlighting the possible weaknesses of a given technique. In this case, it was an iriminage-off-iriminage counter which two dan grades were doing nice and patiently and slowly for the benefit of all us baffled lower grades. Now there was a bit of a height difference between the two, and at the crucial point the shorter one went for the counter... and completely missed. Couldn't get the other to move. So in a classic aikido fashion, decided to make something up. Pretty much bundles himself at the taller man... looks like WWF grappling in hakamas. By which point, the entire group is trying desperately not to snicker. (Out of interest, the end result was a reasonable, if not pretty, sacrifice throw.. Guess you had to have been there!)

Karen
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