When routine sets in?

I am sure you had one of those days where you train with a partner who does not follow what the sensei is teaching. I met yet such a partner today.

My initial reaction is always that of annoyance; with the fact that you disregard what the sensei is teaching and stick to what you are most familiar or comfortable with. To me I feel is a act of disrespect towards the sensei that is taking the lesson and a breach of etiquette. 

However, I decided to revisit my thoughts on this matter in an attempt to decipher what may be reasons for such behaviour. 

• auto-pilot (Can't… control… limbs…)
• did not pay attention. ( I was too busy wiping the sweat off my face.)
• did not understand what was being shown (Wow you can do sankyo that way? But how?)
• did not agree with what was being shown (No no no, kuzushi is not possible that way)
• uke being excessively resistant (I have to change to something that works!)
• indifference (It is just another sankyo)
• training versus workout (I am just here to break a sweat)

The above are the reasons I have come up so far which may explain why things like this occur during training. As far as I am concerned, if one falls into the third category you could still attempt to perform what was being taught by the sensei. If you tried but face difficulties it will mostly and surely catch the attention of sensei, who would approach and guide you, as it would happen in most cases. But if you do not even try, then it negates the point of having sensei to lead the class and instruct, doesn't it?

As for the fifth category, I have spoken to some of my friends about this situation. This may warrant a separate post altogether because several factors, such as the level of training, the partner you are training with, your mindset towards the methodology of training etc. would come into play. As I am still exploring this issue for I will leave it for now.

Anyway, my partner is a yudansha and what was instructed is clearly very different from what is being normally instructed. That is wonder of training because of how much you can learn from every sensei. Sometimes I am guilty of not paying full attention during demonstration of a technique as my mind would be still on a previous technique or simply spaced out. But everytime I try my best to see what sensei is trying to tell me through his instruction. 

We should, figuratively speaking, empty our cup everytime we come to class. But how often do we do that? Or rather, are we willing to do that?