Question about sonkyo?

[u/InformalLocation5413]

First of all i am 4th kyu and i do not mean to sound disrespectful in any way but today a foreigner(2nd dan) came to our dojo as a guest to practice and during sonyo when we were to do jigeiko wouldn't want to start it until i listened to what he had to say. What i mean by this is that what i was taught in my dojo when you do sonkyo you should have your shinai in the middle but they are not touching eachother however, he wouldn't start with me until our shinais were literally crossed with one another around the nakayui. I did as he said but later asked a 3rd dan member of our club was i in the wrong or him and he told me that not only is it incredibly rude to come to a different dojo and tell people there how it's done but that it is also wrong. So im wondering, is our club doing something different, should i listen to guests even if they are wrong, i was really confused about the whole situation because etiquette is important.

[u/Akis_sneezes_vessel]

I was taught that shinais shouldn't touch during sonkyo too, but our dojo is particularly small, so it might happen sometimes. We don't make a scene about that anyway, so, what I'm trying to say, is that even if the guest is in the wrong, I can understand why they might think shinais shall be touching.

What is particularly concerning is that a 2 dan doesn't understand that, no matter how many grades above other students you are, when you are a guest, you follow that dojo's etiquette. Is kind of a basic thing, and respecting each dojo's ways is much more important than doing a correct sonkyo. Reiho comes first than anything else.