The 3 little Pigs problem for DDK players

There is a certain problem that is almost unique to Go (or at least rare) that I like to use the analogy of the Three little Pigs nursery Rhyme to describe.

Most will know it, but the basic storyline involves three pigs who each purchase and build a house made of straw, wood and stone respectively. A Wolf then comes along and huffs and puffs and blows down the house of the first two Pigs (straw and wood) before failing with the third. The Wolf then tries various shenanigans before losing his temper and entering the chimney only to get boiled alive and eaten... The moral of the story being that if you cut corners and take the easy option then you are asking for trouble.

So what has that got to do with Go? (admittedly 'losing temper and over committing causing a disastrous fail is common enough in game, or even being greedy for what someone else has got) but the relation to me lies in the skill set a DDK needs versus a skill set other players need.

Firstly I have noticed repeatedly that some decent teachers when giving lectures follow the - look at the board and say, ' this invasion here would work, or perhaps here leaving space for later'. The DDK nods sagely plays said invasion and dies horribly.

The second is the even more common 'in response to this play a shoulder tap or one space jump'. Again the DDK does this and still dies horribly.

In fairy tale land the DDK player has a house made of straw, the SDK made of wood and the Dan player has house made of stone (continuing the analogy a Professional Go player has a house with fortifications and a standing army).

When teaching, the Dan player (and sometimes SDK), give advice that is entirely appropriate to having a a house made of stone but the DDK isn't in a house made of stone it's one of straw and the opposing Wolf just blows and the house falls over. The DDK needs simple instruction that enables them to protect their straw house and to start to reinforce it into a stronger material but rarely finds it. Almost all the books, lectures, lessons tend to be of the 'here is how to protect your stone house and to attack an opposing stone house' which are usually counterproductive to the DDK whose house is being blown over by someone standing there doing something Dan opponents don't do as it wont work..against other Dan players.

The problem is worse because a lot of the insanity DDKs have to deal with SDKs and Dan players never have to because the mad moves are never played against them as the SDKs and Dans know the weakness so will not play that way but the DDK bumps into these moves all the time and even though they may be 'bad' moves it doesn't matter as the DDK's house will fall repeatedly over. Now granted given enough time and games the DDK will learn eventually to beat the crazy but until then can be discouraged or at least improves at a slower pace than they could be.

A lot of Go games for DDK can devolve into (admittedly much 'touching' and 'contact' actually occurs but you get the gist)

If this was a Go Game the SDK or Dan would headbutt the person doing stupid moves and end the game. The DDK doesn't know how to handle it and fails and no SDK or Dan player teaches how to avoid the stupid as they don't meet it and what they 'see' the DDK does not 'see'. So, oh they did this just do 'A' is very situational and post loss.

There are some honourable mentions out there of teachers who attempt to explain the how and why in a way DDKs can often grasp and (to me) this usually involves showing variations that include variations a Dan player would never use. 

You see some insinuations of this in discussions of Joseki. There is a lot of advice along the lines of "don't just play Joseki, you need to know WHY it is Joseki and WHY these are the best moves and that way you can punish when people play away from the Joseki". Very good advice but then the Joeski line is shown and nothing else so DDKs often mimic or when they try to play a Joseki the opponent plays away and they don't have that knowledge so cannot 'punish'.

I am currently experimenting with several of the online basic casters to see if anyone can get me out of my own straw house and into a wooden one so will report on how it goes.

Anyway there we are. As a DDK do you see the same problems or am I talking out of my rear??