bjj hero said:
minuialear said:
To be fair, you shouldn't call someone a prick just because (s)he want you to conform to the traditions of a cultural art. That's the point of learning the art (as opposed to self-training yourself to do a bunch of fancy things): not only to learn the moves, but to learn about the culture/history behind it. And yes, handedness was a significant part of Japanese culture (and to some extent still is); read up on it.
Even if this is the case then he explained it like a prick, there are ways to do it. Right handedness has a place in European culture also, going back 50 years or so if you were left handed a school would often try to make you write with your right.
It is discrimination. I would not be diluting his "art" by using my left hand, I would however have more control and better stamina. Lots of things were considered bad in the past but are acceptable now, times change.
There is a stronger cultural significance to which hand you use in Japanese culture (again, read about it). Plus the Japanese are significantly more nationalistic when it comes to their traditions/cultures than most if not all Western nations. Whether or not it's discriminatory is another story, but considering you chose to indulge in another culture's activity, you can't get indignant when the person teaching you that culture won't allow you to change the nature of how things are done in order to make you feel more comfortable about it.
I don't fault you for stopping the training at that point, because if you felt uncomfortable using your right hand you have the right to not participate in the activity, just as you have the right to not like having to do something that is unnatural to you. HOWEVER, you don't get to call someone a prick for telling you to obey the nature of the culture that (s)he is teaching you. Again, the instructor wasn't just teaching you how to fight; no martial art is just about fighting. Martial arts are as much about culture as they are about fighting, and regardless of whether you agree with the cultural requirements or not, you don't call someone a prick for telling you that you have to follow those requirements in a class heavily tied to cultural tradition.
EDIT to add: And I don't get how telling you that Japanese swordsmen weren't left-handed, so you can't use your left hand, is prickish behavior. He told you a cultural fact and then told you to obey the cultural requirement. From what you've stated so far it sounds like he could have sat you down on his lap and told you about all the reasons why the culture requires people to be right-handed, and you still would have argued that you should get to defy that requirement because you don't wanna use your right arm. So besides him letting you do what you wanted, how could he have explained it in a manner that you would have accepted?
