[preachadaq]

Need some advice here.

I have a teacher that teaches a group of students (not a sensei yet—a dan away) who seems to have told me to not come back to the club.

Now, I know he technically has the ability to do this, but he did this because he was upset about something I said to him. First, let me explain the club: not a dojo, takes place in a basketball court at a local university. Very laid back, friendly atmosphere. People arrive late, leave early, occasionally he brings beer into the room after practice—this is rare, though. Just trying to point out this isn’t a “serious business” Kendo set up.

What I called him on:

First, he goes absolutely berserk when anybody from outside the club comes to watch/practice with us. We have an eight-degree dan coming, and I’m not arguing that this isn’t a big deal. However, the past practice he dedicated the entire time to teach us etiquette, making the comment, “I’m very stressed. He’ll look at you guys, and judge my teaching.” He then, the next day, sent out a long email point by point telling us what we need to do—such as bowing when entering/leaving the room, noting wearing T-shirts that show, removing a small red string from a shinai—yes, things that we shouldn’t be doing, but he has rarely, and often never complains about—and then a lot of things that are very foreign to us, such as responding, “Hai!” to everything, etc, etc.

The reality is we’ve either never been taught etiquette, or it isn’t enforced. I pointed out he’s being fake here by fussing at us and trying to fix all this in forty-eight hours to prove to the sensei he’s a good teacher, because if that’s the case he really hasn’t taught us well, and that maybe he shouldn’t have ran the risk of inviting the sensei if he was so stressed about how we’d come across. It seems like a logical argument.

His response was a complete rebuttal—that he has said these things, but didn’t want to be “hardass” or get in arguments with beginners, so he didn’t press the etiquette—and that if I didn’t think he was a good teacher, he wasn’t worth my time and I need to find another sport and not bother coming anymore.

Now, I’m a student with bogu that’s been in Kendo off and on throughout two years, due to an injury and conflicts with a class. I’m also the last student of the university he’s using a room from, so I think it’s kind of silly for him to pull that, because it’s unlikely they are going to have the room much longer, unless another student joins. Regardless, I’m willing to not return, but did I overstep my line by pointing this out to him? I was mature in my emails, and expressed at the end after his comment that I, “Didn’t think he was an inadequate teacher, just that if you want something to be done right, you teach it and enforce it to be right from the first day, and don’t fix it forty eight hours.”

Well, that’s it, then. I’m not going to swallow how I feel about his failure to teach etiquette, and his silliness whenever new people come, but am willing to put myself up to judgment if I was out of place calling him on it.

And if this incites anger, please address it respectfully. Thanks!