Quote:
Tin Tran wrote:
Wait a minute, instead of asking someone else at the seminar to verify the report, you are implicitly attacking the messenger & other attendees?
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What? How am I attacking anyone? If Dan was abusing people on the mat then someone needed to stop things until the matter was resolved. Either Dan needed to to be told that his abuse was unacceptable in that venue or the seminar needed to end right there. At the very least anyone who felt abused needed to remove themselves immediately.
That is not an attack, it is good advise.
I think you probably did the right thing. You weren't comfortable with the Santa Anna seminar and chose not to continue, but I have to say that your descriptions sound like we were at different events. Maybe we were.
The way I see it these guys can't win. Either people are saying that Mike's no good because he didn't demo with people or Dan is stalking around taking cheap shots or any number of aikido instructors need a compliant uke for their stuff to work.
I think we need to grow a little as budoka or take up some other activity. We need some other yardstick to measure value in the martial arts. If people are going to go around challenging teachers or if seminars become venues for random abuse then sooner or later there will be serious consequences. Budo is a serious business.