lbb

It depends on why they're doing what they're doing. When they're taking ukemi and they start wriggling around or turning the wrong way, it's often an honest mistake. The correct moves of ukemi are counterintuitive to a lot of us (I'll count myself in that number), and when a technique is being applied to a newbie, they often move in exactly the wrong way even though they're trying to go with the technique (they are giving it up, they're just giving up the wrong thing). There's a difference between a newbie like this, and one who is just being a smartass and trying to show you that they know a thing or two.

Likewise, when a newbie is being nage, a lot of them rush for reasons that aren't necessarily malicious or even careless -- they're just not capable of slowing down. My sensei always tells them, "Don't be in such a rush to get to the end of the movie, you gotta bake the cake before you can eat it," and so on, and they nod their heads, and clearly it makes intellectual sense...but they can't let go of the end of the technique and their need to get there. Then you have people who always do these jackrabbit starts, especially noticeable when doing kihon. I was working last night with a woman who does this, who's been training for a couple of years and who I've been telling, "Whoa, slow down" for a couple of years. I'm starting to think the issue in her case is that she wants to make a big opening (which is often called for, but not always), to get good kuzushi, and she believes on some level that she can't get those things unless she moves very fast. Maybe the best solution in that case is to get the newbie to really watch Sensei or sempai who have good form, and to show them how "things happening quickly" and "fast movement" are two different things.