Thursday night’s workout was, as
We had determined ahead of time that chances were good that Sensei Brewer and Sensei Hartman were not going to be there, so we formulated a lesson plan. McCabe-san and Garls-san had some ideas, and I was content to train so I opted to take warmups. Dukes showed up a few minutes before class started and we made him privvy to the details, and it was determined that he could take second class so most people would get a chance to do something.
The plan was devised, Team Nidan was to ride again. Or so we thought.
Ten minutes into warmups, Oedewaldt showed up. Sensing that he would likely try to hijack the class before the plans got into place, I ended up modifying my warmups by working in the theme that Garls-san and McCabe were going after: moving backwards which would then lead into so sparring drills. I had them do dorsal rises and tricep pushups in the spirit of doing things backwards.
I handed off class with “and now McCabe-san is going to give us some backwards basics.” Surprisingly, Oedewaldt allowed this to proceed and McCabe-san and Garls-san lead the first class with Much Success.
In between classes, I mentioned to Dukes that if he wanted to take second class he should probably go claim it or else Oedewaldt would. Dukes goes to Oedewaldt and said “I was thinking we could do some sparring.” At this point, I knew what was going to happen. Oedewaldt replied, “I was thinking about doing some kata.” This annoyed me, so I clarified the situation by mentioning “no, I think Dukes-san was wanting to teach sparring.” Oedewaldt’s reply was “well, we would do both.”
At this point, I divorced myself from the situation and sparred with McCabe-san.
The second class we started doing the Macomb Special block attack drill. After about 20 minutes of the same drill, Oedewaldt decided to “up the ante” by having us step in and block with a lunging attack attached. Kuras had us do this in Macomb, but I never understood why so I wanted to ask what we were supposed to do if someone came over the top with a punch. This had happened to me by both Sarah-san and Garls-san, so I assumed it was a common trend.
He danced around my question by saying something along the lines of “they’re supposed to wait until you block to counterattack.” I knew that, but it wasn’t happening in practice, so I wanted to know how to handle it. I pressed the question, and this was starting to grate on me a little. Class ended shortly thereafter, and there was much grumbling between the nidans regarding the proceedings.
After class, Dukes-san and I were so worked up about this that we thought about calling Oedewaldt and discussing it. I really didn’t want it to seem like a gang-up, so we elected to call Sensei Hartman instead and work it out that way. He recommended that we talk about it with Sensei, which will probably be a good course of action.
I took the opportunity to mention this discussion with Oedewaldt after he tackled me on Friday morning via chat. He replied that he was under the impression that his extra six months of rank meant he had “final say in what was done.” Yes, that’s true. I come to find out on Friday (after a long chat session with Odie) that he took exception to my questioning, stating that I was trying to “undermine his authority” and “derail the class he wanted to teach.” I was trying to get a question answered. Was it a little pointed? Yeah. But I still had a legitimate question. I’m not trying to be insubordinate here, but all the other ranking nidans are at least open to discussion when it comes to letting someone else take point now and again. That’s all I really wanted.
I am always concerned when dealing with stuff like this. I don’t want to seem whiney or like an instigator here, but this is a problem that has been simmering for quite some time and I’m not the only one that feels this way. I just want everyone to have an equal share of teaching time and for Oedewaldt not to think that he can shit on his peers and expect us to respect him. I don’t think he’s a bad guy, he’s just got a weird sense of entitlement here and what appears to be blatent disregard for the wishes of others. That’s not what being sempai is about.
For an example of being a good sempai, look to Garls-san. He’s getting more into teaching now, but he’s always willing to listen to other peoples ideas and let them carry them out from time to time. I respect him because he cares about what other people think and doesn’t talk down to us. I just wish we could make that the standard.
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