Somewhere between arrogance and fear . . .

Creating conflict is as easy as looking at someone, ignoring him/her, invading personal space. Reacting to conflict is almost as easy. One’s role in a conflict (a natural consequence of human interaction) falls within the sphere between being afraid of the conflict and relishing the chance to put someone in his place. Responding is not so easy because it requires training. On the mat we train in the paradox of being strong (by relaxing our fear) and supple (by relinquishing arrogance) so that we can sense uke’s attack and redirect it. We explore our own tendencies toward fear and/or arrogance and train our bodies to respond with strength and suppleness so that our reactions do not get us into more trouble or cause us to do things we will regret.