In my lifetime I have had the pleasure of learning from a variety of different master teachers of their specific mastered craft. For the last couple of years I have been learning to trade stocks from a master stock trader named Oliver Velez. One day, I receive from him an email with a list of one liner jokes that he made about novice traders. The point of this was to bring to the light many of the habits that many of us "baby traders" have fallen into. I found many of his analogies amusing, but I found that I was guilty of practically all of them. So, I will make similar analogies based on my aikido experience- but keep in mind- I've been guilty of all of it.
point 1:
Novices always say that in 10 years they will understand the technique- and are still saying that 10 years later.
point 2:
Novices love higherarchy, tests, and black belts. It's like the fuzzy "hands off" version of joining the army. Sorry, no money for college :(
Point 3:
Novices love the martial arts fantasy. They imagine themselves fighting Mr T in Rocky 5, and then get really annoyed when a weaker person points out an opening in their technique.
Point 4:
Novices base the effectiveness of their technique on the shape they can bend their partner into, even if they have to make a human pretzel out of themselves to do it.
Point 5:
Novice heavy people think that their technique works because often times they are bigger than their partner. Novice not-so-heavy people have trouble with their technique because they are emulating the movements made by the fat guy teaching the class, and think that it will have the same effect on their bigger partner.
Point 6:
Novices like to write a lot about aikido
Point 7:
I never want to dance with novice martial artists.
Point 8:
No mantras.
Point 9:
There is no end to the internal mental dialogue of a novice martial artist. There is no discussion you can have with yourself that will save your life.
Point 10:
A novice martial artist always thinks he or she can take a hit and keep performing their technique.
And one more thing- Novices have no response for the gorilla attack.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important things that I have learned from Henry is that I can't sit around telling myself that I will get this in 20 years. He showed me that if you know the right thing, there is a way to always get the right answer. I have had many other teachers preach that this is not possible. I have even heard people say to forget about O'sensei because you will never be able to do it. If I adopt that common belief, I might as well quit now.
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