Timmy wrote:
Dana no problems following the rule set, never has been. I have been banned but not for breaking the rules. I have enjoyed our dialoge in the past as well.
Laird
OK - that sounds good. I don't know what GEM's final decision will be in this matter but I'd like to ask you to think about one thing before continuing to post.
That is to respect the fact that some people need their training of Uechi-ryu as they know it and being respectful of the fact that others will train differently from you.
This is the one area where, in the past I have seen this come up as something that isn't "respecting the general culture" of these forums. For example on this thread you ended with a tag line "Hope you find what you seek." after writing a post post where you indicated that you didn't think I understood your point.
That "parting shot" if you will, isn't necessary and isn't part of what these forums are about. You may have meant it in a good way - but that's the kind of thing that comes across as very negative.
That may seem like a nitpick but I need to be specific to make my point. Because it is little statements like the one above that got things going down a bad road.
So...
This next bit is going to be a bit long but I hope you'll stick with me and read it and I hope my point comes across clearly.
A church is a place where the vast majority of the members have a somewhat equal partnership between themselves and the institution. They receive the support and fellowship of the community, guidance from the spritual leaders, and a place where they can gather regularly and spend time with their peers and often partake in efforts to make the world a better place for the disadvantaged. In exchange they attend regularly, give money to the church, volunteer their time for church events, promote the church to others, and often will use their church as a day care provider if they have children and pay for special programs and events and even put the church into their will.
However some people need the support of the church. They need the spiritual, social, and emotional support that a church (through its members) can offer and the support these individuals offer in return is thanks.
In many ways a dojo (and thus these forums) fulfill
both those roles in many people's lives. Many who post here come for the fellowship, the comraderie, to pass a little free time together with their peers. They post lots, ask lots of questions, and enjoy a good exchange.
Their training - at whatever level they are capable of - fulfills them. They may not seek out the deep dark truths of violence as that might not be a goal in their training. But their training is no less important.
So the short version of all this is that when you write it is important to be more respectful of what other people are doing in order to maintain a relationship with these forums.
If I happen to be training to find the best place to hold my hands when I start a dojo sparring match - it is disrespectful (and useless) to say that I don't understand real violence. It is respectful to say that you think instead of trying to find one position to hold my hands I could think about trying to focus more on position and movement - and let those two factors decide the arm placement. And then elaborate on how I could try to do that.
Finally - if you want to return to these forums you'll do well to keep in mind what I'm sure you already know -- that forum moderation is an imperfect art undertaken by well-meaning people. Which means it will not be a consistent, mechanized affair that treats everyone exactly the same. It will be a human affair driven by subjective opinion.
And for the record I'd like to continue the positional/groundfighting discussion to so I'm opening up another thread on it.
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