Complaining

I'm feeling extremely frustrated today.

At the moment, participation at the dojo seems to be declining. A lot of the people I have tended to practice with are just not showing up on a regular basis. And those that do look for every excuse to 'take a rest.' So my time on the mat feels wasted and uninspired. I want to take it up a level and they want sit around and chat. I stood there this morning while some guy interviewed me about my coffee preferences. All I could think was, "Damn it. I did not get up at 5:00 am to talk to you about coffee."

I am tired of having to coax and cajole people into some form of practice.

But the real issue today is yonkyo. I feel like I'm starting to understand it better. I've thought about it a lot. But whenever I practice it here I hit a snag. They want to treat yonkyo as a pain compliance technique and will not listen to the notion that pain has nothing to do with it. I think I prove my point every time and every time they flat out refuse to hear me.

They dig for that pressure point as hard as they can. Yes, it is painful. But I do not fall down because my wrist hurts. I do not stay down because my wrist hurts. Inevitably, some udansha gets involved to show my error. One person likes to take me down with ikkyo and then, when it is finished, add on a yonkyo grip. Pointless. I'm down because of ikkyo not yonkyo. That's the usual situation.

Today, the instructor tried to correct me. He applied his yonkyo and his yonkyo did not work. I guess I typically cooperate. I can't explain myself in Vietnamese and I have no wish to argue with anyone let alone the instructor. But today he applied yonkyo and told me to stand so that he could prove that I couldn't. I could. No problem. I did so repeatedly much to his chagrin. Finally, I just went along with the charade so as not to cause embarrassment to anyone. But I was so frustrated. I swear no one here has any understanding of practice. They have no ability to reflect or assess and they repeat the same unproven method over and over. There is no one that I practice with right now that qualifies as a competent uke. They give half-hearted, disinterested attacks with no follow through or commitment and then fling themselves to the ground because they think they are supposed to. Or else, knowing the technique being practiced, they attempt to dig in or otherwise thwart the technique before nage can he even initiate. Ridiculous. Whenever someone does that to me, stiffening up like a piece of statuary and refusing to be budged, I just want to punch them in the face or kick them in the nads to let them know how effective that tactic is.

I probably sound like a jerk right now. I certainly don't pretend to have all the answers. But I know when I am standing in a pile of crap and right now I am standing in a pile of crap and I want to wipe my feet. There is an apparently new dojo around the corner from the consulate and I intend to check it out today. There has to be somewhere better for me to train in this city.