The Disadvantages of Having a Friendly Dojo
Mar. 31, 2011 By: Filed in: Teaching & Leadership
The title for this post may seem odd, but there actually are some disadvantages to having warm, friendly, welcoming students at the dojo. Now I don’t want to come across like I’m complaining. I’m not. I love my students and look forward to seeing them every time I go to the dojo. I love to see everyone coming out for social nights. It gives me great pleasure to see everyone greeting each other with happy familiarity as they arrive at the dojo. And I’m sure new students who come to the dojo to try classes appreciate when people extend their hands in friendship, warmly introducing themselves to make them feel welcome.
There are, however, times when this jovial, friendliness can interfere with the actual learning process on the mats. I am hoping that a few of my students will read this post and keep this in mind when they’re training so that our dojo’s instructors won’t have to “discipline” students for their good intentions. So here are my requests:
1. No small talk during class. Limit conversation to necessary questions and concerns related to what you’re immediately working on. Personal conversations are distracting and take away valuable training time. Save these for before or after class.
2. Don’t “teach”. We appreciate your intention to help your partner if they’re struggling, but teaching is best left to the instructors who know what elements each student needs to focus on. Giving feedback about what move comes next, whether your balance is broken, or anything that might be a safety concern is fine, but let the instructor take care of technical assistance. You may do more harm than good otherwise.
3. Be alert and attentive. Because all the students at our dojo are friendly with each other, it sometimes makes the training atmosphere a little more casual than I’d like. While I don’t wish to run an uber-formal dojo, there are some aspects of the traditional dojo that I wish were practiced more consistently. When the Sensei calls the class to order, immediately stop what you’re doing (if it is safe to do so) and come together as quickly as possible. By not wasting any time, you ultimately get more training time while you’re on the mats.
Again, I consider myself lucky to have such great students, but there is always room for improvement no matter what your dojo situation is. These are but small requests but will serve to make everyone’s training time better if everyone complies with them.
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If it's a problem of discipline then you should talk to your students about it, as with everything there are advantages and disadvantages to each type of dojo or gym. In macho places the obvious dangers are fostering blind agression that will carry over into someone's day to day behaviour and greatly increased risk of injury. Even traditional dojo's aren't all that: a friend of mine used to train for years in a traditional Japanese dojo (koryu jujutsu & ninpo), he even became part of the dojo's leadership team teaching kids twice a week. One day he was accused of stealing (an object was missing and apparantly someone thought it was him) and his sensei sent everyone a mail saying he was banned from the dojo and no longer part of the team… Later on it became clear he had nothing to do with it but the sensei didn't even bother to check properly before taking such drastic action. He basically was humiliated before everyone and his sensei didn't even apologise publicily (in a private conversation he did admit it was wrong of him) since in traditional systems the teacher is some sort of demi-god worthy of great respect and apologizing is apparantly seen as weakness and an insult to the dignity of the style. My friend was pretty mad and he quit a style he had been practicing for years (he was well on his way to black belt) all because of the way a traditional dojo operates. I would have done the same if it was me: there's nothing worse than being falsly accused and it's quite impossible to feel even a shred of respect for someone who's not man enough to apologise when he's wrong.
Zara
PS: I do have trouble with lower ranks trying to teach too; the intention is probably good but the result is usually that later on you have to correct the mistake and it takes longer to unlearn mistakes than it does learning techniques the right way. Hell, if I'm not sure about a technique (especially the way someone else is performing it) I usually ask sensei to take a look to make sure what I'm teaching is correct.
Zara, I do talk to the students when it happens, but it still happens randomly from time to time. I can live with having to do that occasionally when I consider the alternatives like the ones you mentioned. Just awful.
We have the same issues at our dojo! I try to set a good example, though. Class is a time to be serious. And our sensei reminds us to socialize after class. We all like each other too much sometimes!
One of the big problems I get with the friendlier students occurs mainly with the low rank teenage boys. They LOVE to theorize on a move they are working on, usually saying things like “Well, what if this…” or “But if I did this, the move wouldn’t work.” They tend to play around with it before they even understand the basic concepts that the technique is conveying. I refer to this as the violence fantasy, because much of their logic in these flights of fancy is drawn from what they see in movies or from horsing around with their buddies. Usually, I have to either reiterate the importance of first learning the technique and being a good uke or, in some extreme cases, apply the technique with my own proficiency (gently applying the atemi where I might have only feigned it before) to demonstrate its effectiveness. We tend to forget what we see and hear much faster than what we physically FEEL.
It’s kind of funny, really, that any of my low ranking students who have ever actually been in a violent altercation NEVER, EVER do this.
We only have one student under the age of 19. He does do this from time to time but usually the adults he works with don’t indulge him. I could see how a bigger group of teens might be prone to doing this sort of thing though.