We put the "co" in "cooperation"

Friday nights are "open mat" nights at our dojo. It's nice to have a more laid-back time to just focus on whatever you want to focus on. I got to work with an experienced student who walked me through 3rd kyu.

I was kind of surprised; I didn't feel as dumb as I thought I would, considering I haven't been around faithfully for about two months or so.

Anyways, going through nights like these remind me of the greatness and beauty of student cooperation. It was an encouraging thing to have a fellow student point out flaws, give advice, and throw in a compliment here and there. Students, after all, make up most of the population in a dojo, and it is wonderful to see them help each other out. I think that in doing so, the help out the instructors in taking a tiny bit of the load off the teaching work. And, ultimately, it helps the student extending the information, because it forces them to really look at their own technique and find out what needs fixing.

Interestingly enough, things turned around and I ended helping another student with some bokken (I. Love. Bokken.) kata. Tonight's class was quite an interesting illustration of a "full circle".

-gHopper