One Time, One Time Only (Dangerous - Potentially Deadly)

I count my blessing every single day of my life. One time, long ago in the dojo I ran, I did something stupid, really stupid. If it had gone bad I would be writing my blog from a state penitentiary. At that time I was mostly teaching a more sport oriented method with smatterings of talk about self-defense and I was challenged by a newly awarded sho-dan.

Before I continue I must speak to the reason I am coming out with this little tidbit of experience. I have since learned a lot more about violence and self-defense. I was teaching how to deal with more or less aggressive monkey dance stuff but since those days I have heard more and more about SD and violence with many speaking of it while thinking their current practice was meeting those needs.

I participated in a dojo locally for about a year around the start of this century. I was invited to participate in a black belt test, sho-dan, the very first for this dojo. I accepted even if deep down I was hesitant. The person testing worked out in my presence for that year so I had a good idea as to his abilities and proficiency.

Back to my historical story before I continue with the present one. The young sho-dan kept pushing the limits in kumite which normally is ok with me as it keeps me frosty. He kept mouthing off as to his prowess if he got attacked on the street. I kept saying that sho-dan was more a beginner rank and he had a ways to go to make Isshinryu work on the streets for self-defense. In the school yard scuffle or monkey dance if you will he would do ok but in a real attack by a adversary who had intentions of doing real harm, not even close.

He asked me to go for it to test his metal but I resisted. Today, I was not qualified to do that but you can guess where I am going with this anyway. He said it one more time and then I must have made the mental switch cause I let loose with one thing and he was on the ground in pain, unable to breath and totally mentally out of action. I walked around him telling him what I would be doing to him on the ground like this if I were a real live criminal intent on doing things bad to him.

It took him fifteen minutes to gain some breath and semblance of ability to get up and move around. This even tho I know he was practicing and using, as best as he could, sanchin ability or what we refereed to in the seventies "muscle and breath control."

Back to the present. The young fledgling Ik-kyu was coming up to his bunkai and kata presentation. He made up bunkai on the fly and did a mediocre kata. There were many things missing because as I suspected the basics and fundamentals were quickly glossed over in the beginning and rarely practiced and taught as time progressed. Then it came time for kumite.

I was not going to do anything other than observe and provide some input but a senior visitor wanted me to spar, if you will, with the young novice. My only mistake that evening was to acquiesce. I told him quietly to go slow and easy. We had never kumite together in the year I was present and during that year I had never observed him sparring with anyone, ever, and I attended all dojo sessions the entire time - no absences, not one that year.

I won't go into any descriptions as to what occurred but I held back a good deal and in the end he had a broken finger to deal with and other sprains, etc. The next day I was asked by a few dojo members why I was so hard on him when in reality I was really going as easy on him as possible. I never once took it to the reality, if you want to call it that, I did with my student of long ago.

The moral of this story is you have to really know what self-defense is and what it entails then find a way to safely train to handle as best as a training system is able to "get ready" and "to give yourself permission" to act accordingly. My early student should have had the mental mind-set to ignore the pain and go for it until I called a halt for safety. It is my fault I failed to take him there long before black belt levels.

As to the current person, I should have taken it to a point so that he would understand that what he practiced is a good thing philosophical and physically as to health and fitness but not to let him think he had the ability to defend himself on the street.

I failed in both cases and offer no excuses. I expect now in situations similar to these I would handle things a lot different but with a bit more restraint and control. After all isn't that part of a good Sensei?

My luck was always the Marine side along with my Sensei who took me to the limits and had the experience on the street as well as in combat, i.e. Viet Nam, which he wanted me to understand as a Marine with potential of going to combat. A smidgeon of street savvy and experience, very limited compared to many other professionals, and this training is what carried me but what I am seeing, hearing and experiencing in the last decade gives me pause regarding self-defense.

Ok, enough of the soap box crap.