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Jude (they/them)'s avatar

I used to frequently get involved in mosh pits when I was a teen! Then one day I was involved in a massive, several hundred person crush at a music festival that left me with a lifelong shoulder injury and a delayed-reaction hatred of crowds that intensifies each year.

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Nick Herman's avatar

Yeah, it's a mosh pit where everyone wants to F you up ={}

I still have damage to part of my wrist I feel from an earlier injury, from my nidan test, and that initial injury being caused mostly a partner who was acting dumb..being kicked is not too pleasant. I don't mind being hit, it's a good way to practice--actually, since then I've had some time to think about it, and I think part of the problem is this is that in Kokikai at least, we go from 0 to 100 with these tests, as randori is not something people typically practice in their dojos. I've heard various explanations for this, and none of them really makes sense to me. In my first dojo, in which I had a teacher operating at a very high level who had practiced under his teacher in Japan for 7 years, Mochizuku, one of the top direct students of Ueshiba, randori at a more low grade level was regularly built into practice. This is a much more intelligent way to do things, in my opinion. It's like doing lower grade aerobic hikes before you lead up to backpacking (which everyone agrees is a good idea) vs having only jogged in a flat park then going backpacking. Whether a mosh pit or a dojo, I think the ultimate point is to practice as long and hard as we can..in a way that is most sustainable for people.

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