Point one: The majority of Bujinkan instructors in Adelaide are martial artists, but not teachers. I learn better from a teacher; I learn (martial arts) best from someone who is both.
Point two: I started Bujinkan training having done no martial art of any kind, ever. I was unprepared for the brain repatterning it would cause. And I got no support whatsoever after the teacher I was learning the most from ceased taking classes. I needed minimal support; instead, I felt abandoned. Prevailing attitude amongst the non-teacher instructors here is that it is the students' fault for not being dedicated if an instructor has no students. I really would have liked, at the time I stopped going to classes, for the instructors to show in any way shape or form that they were happy I was there. I disagree with them that continuing to teach the class shows that they're happy to have students.
Point three: I still don't have it through their (the instructors, not the teachers) heads that if I ask a question (for example) about where my feet should be to make a technique work, I don't want to know where my hands should be, even if the instructor thinks that is the most important part of the technique. As a beginner, I didn't know enough about my body and how it worked to figure out for myself what my body positioning should be; my body could be positioned in many different spots with my hands in the same position. I needed to know about body mechanics before I could get to the level of understanding at which they were answering the questions they thought I ought to be asking instead of the questions I actually was. I knew what I didn't have the faintest clue about, and I knew I needed to ask. I would have liked to have had the courtesy of the person I was asking listening to me as well as themselves.
Point four: The guy teaching in the video I linked to is 6'6". The majority of students I trained with are also over a foot taller than me (albeit not by as much as Ed). No matter how often I asked "how do you modify the technique to get it to work if you're as short as me?" he wouldn't remember that I was asking for a reason. Example: a throw where you use the attacker's arm as a lever and your shoulder as the fulcrum. The person I was practicing the technique with was 6'4" and I'm 5'2". I can walk under his arm without touching it if the arm is held out straight. Ergo, ask for help modifying the technique, as I didn't have enough experience to know how. Ed demonstrated how to do the technique on this person who was shorter than he was. I asked my question again. He demonstrated again. I got my training partner to hold his arm out, demonstrated why it wouldn't work for me the way he was demonstrating, and asked my question again. Then I got an answer. If I went to class today, I would still be the shortest by close to a foot.
Point five: As the only female-bodied person in the class, I had to fumble out for myself how to modify techniques to work with my non-male-bodied physique. The teachers have other females in the class, and will willingly help when necessary. The instructors do not, and in fact view (or give the impression that they do) this as coddling. One spectacular failure of technique/body type mismatch occurred in a (mostly female) class where my fellow female students found that if you had large breasts, you needed a lot of upper body strength to do the technique as described (we were doing counters to being grabbed from behind that day, the idea in this particular technique was to break the hold over the arms and move it upwards). The instructor had never considered that this might be an issue... We went on to a different technique, and never did learn any counter to that particular hold which would work if you had Epic Boobs (not including pain-causing techniques which may cause a hold to loosen).
Point six: Testosterone poisoning. Boring and stupid and widespread. And encouraged by default, because the climate of the class and the mindset of the students is Not Their Problem.
Point one: The majority of Bujinkan instructors in Adelaide are martial artists, but not teachers. I learn better from a teacher; I learn (martial arts) best from someone who is both.
Point two: I started Bujinkan training having done no martial art of any kind, ever. I was unprepared for the brain repatterning it would cause. And I got no support whatsoever after the teacher I was learning the most from ceased taking classes. I needed minimal support; instead, I felt abandoned. Prevailing attitude amongst the non-teacher instructors here is that it is the students' fault for not being dedicated if an instructor has no students. I really would have liked, at the time I stopped going to classes, for the instructors to show in any way shape or form that they were happy I was there. I disagree with them that continuing to teach the class shows that they're happy to have students.
Point three: I still don't have it through their (the instructors, not the teachers) heads that if I ask a question (for example) about where my feet should be to make a technique work, I don't want to know where my hands should be, even if the instructor thinks that is the most important part of the technique. As a beginner, I didn't know enough about my body and how it worked to figure out for myself what my body positioning should be; my body could be positioned in many different spots with my hands in the same position. I needed to know about body mechanics before I could get to the level of understanding at which they were answering the questions they thought I ought to be asking instead of the questions I actually was. I knew what I didn't have the faintest clue about, and I knew I needed to ask. I would have liked to have had the courtesy of the person I was asking listening to me as well as themselves.
Point four: The guy teaching in the video I linked to is 6'6". The majority of students I trained with are also over a foot taller than me (albeit not by as much as Ed). No matter how often I asked "how do you modify the technique to get it to work if you're as short as me?" he wouldn't remember that I was asking for a reason. Example: a throw where you use the attacker's arm as a lever and your shoulder as the fulcrum. The person I was practicing the technique with was 6'4" and I'm 5'2". I can walk under his arm without touching it if the arm is held out straight. Ergo, ask for help modifying the technique, as I didn't have enough experience to know how. Ed demonstrated how to do the technique on this person who was shorter than he was. I asked my question again. He demonstrated again. I got my training partner to hold his arm out, demonstrated why it wouldn't work for me the way he was demonstrating, and asked my question again. Then I got an answer. If I went to class today, I would still be the shortest by close to a foot.
Point five: As the only female-bodied person in the class, I had to fumble out for myself how to modify techniques to work with my non-male-bodied physique. The teachers have other females in the class, and will willingly help when necessary. The instructors do not, and in fact view (or give the impression that they do) this as coddling. One spectacular failure of technique/body type mismatch occurred in a (mostly female) class where my fellow female students found that if you had large breasts, you needed a lot of upper body strength to do the technique as described (we were doing counters to being grabbed from behind that day, the idea in this particular technique was to break the hold over the arms and move it upwards). The instructor had never considered that this might be an issue... We went on to a different technique, and never did learn any counter to that particular hold which would work if you had Epic Boobs (not including pain-causing techniques which may cause a hold to loosen).
Point six: Testosterone poisoning. Boring and stupid and widespread. And encouraged by default, because the climate of the class and the mindset of the students is Not Their Problem.
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