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bgigas
10th February 2003, 19:31
I've been training in taijutsu for about 3 years now, and although I still plan on being a "beginner" for many more years to come, at what stage do you stop thinking of yourself as a beginner. Specifically, what skills do you (instructors) look for in your students that would make you say, "They're no longer just a beginner anymore."?

thanks,

Tamdhu
10th February 2003, 19:54
I think one of the biggest things that separates the experienced from the beginners is the ability to be a conscientious and creative uke, giving attacks with aggressive dynamics but at a speed slow enough that the tori can explore the movements safely.

Also being a good tori. A good tori matches the *rhythm* of the uke's attack, and can exercise control at the most crucial points of a technique for the safety of the uke. A 'bad' tori takes 'advantage' of the uke's slow attack to rush in an apply a pre-concieved series of techniques with little or no regard to the actual flow of the attack. This in turn encourages the uke to give unrealistic 'attacks' for fear of injury by the tori, leading to a cycle of noisy but unproductive training.

Another thing would be ukemi. You can't train in the advanced techniques without being able to explore them safely.

These are things that take a long time to learn, and seriously separate the beginning student from the advanced, even if that beginner can do a more kick-ass ganseki nage or whatever.

kimq
10th February 2003, 21:34
You don't.

Amphinon
10th February 2003, 21:52
Ditto!

bgigas
11th February 2003, 03:40
I appreciate all the answers. I totally understand that there will always be much to learn, but my question is more on the lines of "What do you [the intructor] look for in your students to differentiate them between "beginner/not-so-beginner?".
:D

thanks again

william northcote
19th February 2003, 00:26
You never stop being a beginner. Even your instructor is learning.

The feel, the flow, the way you progress through your training should always be like the first day you go to the dojo.

If you stop learning and say "I know all" then you stop learning and become stale. Even the soke does not have all the answers, but he is Grandmaster.

When you go for white belt to black, your learning, but once you black belt you learn again. It is a never ending process. It's like the circle, it never begins but it never ends. Charles Fort once said "To measure a circle, one must begin somewhere".

So keep training. You may get classed as a senior, but in the Bujinkan or any other kan, you are only a beginner.:)