Who's teaching Daito-ryu in South Carolina? As far as I know, there isn't anyone legitimate in your state, but I could be wrong. I know there's a Roppkai group in North Carolina under Tom Cohen, but no mainline, Kodokai, or Hakuho-ryu (etc.) anywhere near you to my knowledge... This may, or may not be part of the problem.

The guy who taught this class was a fellow named Jerrard Something-Polish, and he told us right up front that he wasn't an expert in this. He's out of North Carolina, so he might be one of Mr. Cohen's people... I simply don't know, and didn't have time to delve into his history.

He did his techniques well, and had the right information, but like anything you're doing for the first time and which is a little different from what you normally do, it takes some time to get into the flow of them. I just found all the technique went away if the angles changed, but I can take a pretty good nikkyo and sankyo without flinching, so my pain resistance level might have been involved too.

I enjoyed what we did, I just found it a little cumbersome to do exactly right... which it required, if it was going to work. Over the years, I've found a lot of techniques work better when you're in randori than when you're stepping through them because of the dynamic element, and I can see how those would improve with more dynamic movement. I just didn't see how you would ever go through all the steps they had involved in "getting in position" correctly.

All in all, it was still a good class.

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What I noticed was that if there was the least bit of deviance from his exact method of doing the techniques, they didn't work

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That's interesting, because I've found the opposite to be true. I've found that in the DR waza there is more room for variance than with Aikido. Although a technique can certainly be nullified with incorrect body movement (such as any art), I've found that the waza allow a bit more wiggle room.

Wristtwister, if you don't mind, what organization is this teacher from and what is there time in DR?

Chris

Oh, this guy was down to earth and humble. He's the kind of people I like to work with. He told us up front what his level of expertise was, and we worked from there. He wasn't one of the "ubers"... real nice guy.

I'm not criticizing anything here... it may have simply been the choice of techniques he was teaching. As for his organization, etc., I have no idea. He comes down and trains with people in our dojo on Sunday afternoons sometimes. If I find out, I'll drop you a pm.

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I'm not criticizing anything here...

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No, I didn't think you were. I was just interested. A pm would be great.

--Chris