Fair enough. Just so long as you're not being deceived.

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Yesterday I went to my 2nd Goju Karate lesson. Thoughts:


+ Sensei repeatedly reminded people the importance of keeping the groin defended, and would sometimes deliver a groin attack (stopping a few cm of striking the groin) to show if someone's exposed there.
+ Sensei is very much into perfecting stances and basics, but mindful to also demonstrate the practical reasons as to why they need to be done correctly. e.g. if your guard is incorrect, he will show you where you are exposed. Form with function.
+ Sensei has a very commanding presence; it's very typically Japanese (his Sensei was from Japan and Sensei himself has done some training in Japan). As a result, everyone just shuts up and listens and the class runs quite smoothly and efficiently.


/ The hall's floor wasn't as clean as it was last week. It was quite dirty actually. I guess last week I must've just lucked out. I did ask Sensei if I could wear martial arts shoes, but he said no.


- Sensei seems to have little patience for beginners, and especially kids. He seems to get quite easily frustrated with them. He chips people for making any kind of mistake, regardless of the effort people put in. I can understand chipping into a student who's inattentive or just not trying... but he'll also equally chip into a student who's trying his best, but still isn't perfect (because they're still learners!). I think Sensei would be more effective if he metered out his reprimands more sparingly... cos otherwise it just sounds like nagging, which for a lot of the especially younger students, just goes in one ear and out the other as they become desensitised to it.
- While I mentioned the advantage of the Japanese "shut up and listen" style of teaching before, the disadvantage is that it doesn't foster a culture of critical learning. Nobody asks questions during class, and Sensei doesn't give any opportunities for questions or discussions before or after class. It's like there's an unspoken rule that when your class has finished, you have to get out of the Dojo. There's a senior class that follows for coloured belts... so hopefully if I stay with this school long enough to get graded, I can start attended that class and see if that's more conducive to more critical and deeper-enriched learning. But if this Dojo is emulating the Japanese style of teaching, then there's virtually no critical/academic learning at all, even with black belts. It's more like mindless obedience, which is what I experienced when I trained in Japan (there's a book called "Angry White Pyjamas" which documents well what MA training in Japan is like; which the author sometimes describes as sadistic*).

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*Even if you start bleeding from your wounds they still push you to keep training. I doubt that any school in Australia would ever engage in such questionable practises (for fear of legal litigation if nothing else ).