Meet Me Behind the Playground!!!

I seem to have gotten myself in a bit of trouble.

Nothing much, and certainly nothing I can't handle. It's just annoying.

Let me explain. A new brown belt showed up at my Judo club a little while back and from day one I wasn't a big fan of him. I'd say it was nothing personal but I'm trying to not lie. His demeanor simply grates on me, he's passive aggressive, and comes off as a bully. He seems to feel that his belt should earn him immediate respect, and all below him in rank should do as he says. Fine, I don't necessarily object with that sentiment but I do object to his methods. If you believe that younger belts should mop the mats at the start of class fine, yet it has to be consistent, the message has to come from all the high ranking members and you can't simply hand a kid a mop and expect he's going to know what to do with it. Most young kids have never handled a mop in their life, and forcing them into it certainly won't make them take any pride in the job they are doing and the result is simple, the mats aren't clean. I watched a kid do then entire mat area, the full length of the gymnasium, and NEVER put the mop back in the bucket. It simply doesn't do any good!

Anyway, I digress. This brown belt was running his mouth, saying that in Japan new students would be the ones cleaning the dojo everyday. Which may or may not be true, I neither know nor particularly care as we are not in Japan and I came back at him and said "If were going to emulate Japan their should be more respect and less complaints from the higher ranks." This also may or may not be true, it matters not. He went off on me and said he would get me in randori. Fine, except I had no plans to randori due to my ribs still being sore. So, the end of the class arrives and I take my leave and he has the audacity to not only give me a hard time for leaving, but he calls me names and tells me to not come back on Wednesday. I certainly feel he's out of line yet I'll return Wednesday and most likely have to deal with him then. Oh well. I figure if tossing around a yellow belt makes him feel all that much better let him, no skin off my back.