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Old 11-08-2004, 07:49 AM   #11
gstevens
 
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Dojo: Aikido Of Berkeley
Location: Alameda
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 47
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Freaky! Re: Poll: How often do you verbally correct students senior to yourself who are making mistakes during aikido training?

It seems to me that there are relationships that develop in the Dojo here in the US where there is a little less hierarchy in our daily lives. It is the relationships of respect, and compassion that seem to dictate who says what to whom in our dojo.

I have had sempies ask for my input, and have given it. Generally though unless something is so wrong that I feel uncomfortable as Uke I don't stop the technique to talk about it, unless there is a long pause where the sempie is obviously thinking about what happened. I generally ask first if there was a problem with my Ukemi, and then if they say no, I might add something else like "I didn't really feel guided by the cutting hand", or "it felt like we lost connection after the tenkan"....

Only a couple of times in the last 10 months have I said; "That isn't going to work, if we do that with any more force, or if something goes wrong you are going to break my arm." This seemed to be good feedback as the person, very senior to me, immediately apologized profusely, and then the very next throw changed part of the technique so that there was no pressure on my arm, and it was about 300% more effective, and a lot smoother feeling. We both laughed I as I was flying, he as he was listening to me laugh. It was also a technique that I did not know how to do myself at the time!

Trying to correct your sempie all the time while they are working on a technique would be annoying, and they would probably show you that they were sempie for a reason after the third critique you delivered.....

Generally the better the relationship I have with someone at the Dojo, the easier it is to ask if that was the way it was supposed to happen. Or to ask "Sensie demonstrated the cut from high to low, is this a variation?" or My all time favorite "Was I supposed to land on top of you like this?"

Last edited by gstevens : 11-08-2004 at 07:59 AM.
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