I'm so pleased to see such intelligent contributions to a thread, on a topic that has been widely discussed before. The recent entries have found ways to add to the debate without going around in circles. Excellent.
Just a thought. If you wanted to invite other clubs to gather for a training session, how would you go about including randori training? You would need it to be productive, enjoyable and safe. So you'd need to be quite clear about what type of behaviour was to be expected. Rules, if you like. In order to keep it well supervised, it might be necessary to restrict the number of participants at any one time, perhaps a court, with a margin of safety to prevent accidents. To make it useful for spectators as well as participants, there is a role for seniors to point out those techniques that have been successful and those that were negated by the partner's defence. Judges, if you like. In this way, the people sitting around can at least learn to exercise their observation skills and come to an understanding of what they might try to achieve when their turn comes. For that to be a good learning experience, it needs to be clear just which moments were judged to be close to the ideal. If every encounter is allowed to go without structured analysis, then how is anything learned? If there is no demonstration of the right way, then how is anyone to know it from the wrong way. If there is no winning move, then there is no point in moving.
Did that make any sense at all?
I haven't done randori for decades. I was useless at it when I did it. I don't think it was ever going to be my strongest point. I hated "competition" in most forms of endeavour, but... I think avoiding competition is like learning to type in time to music, but never learning how to make a sentence.
David Noble
Shorinji Kempo (1983 - 1988)
I'll think of a proper sig when I get a minute...
For now, I'm just waiting for the smack of the Bo against a hard wooden floor....