What would you do if a gun was held to your forehead? I can tell you what I would do. I'd probably shit in my pants. Heh...
We worked on some gun control techniques last Saturday. Good thing it was only a rubber gun or I guess I would have died a few times. Seriously, how many times will one have a gun pointed straight to his/her forehead or temple? I certainly hope it will never happen to me. These techniques are all cute and everything and would certainly be the very last recourse, but I at least got to work on some locks and takedowns.
That's probably the biggest thing I'm seeing in my karate practicing these days, the increasing ability to first deflect a blow, second find myself in a position to grab a wrist on a hand, and third be able to twist that wrist or hand in a way that will lock it, not simply give it a gentle handsake... It's still all at the very beginning of the learning curve, but at least I'm aware that it's there now. I see stuff, can visualize the lock or the takedown...
If you've learn the tiniest thing about me, you should know that any event can be good to teach a lesson. We had another good exemple of that during our lunch break on Saturday. About halfway through our one hour lunch break, a kid came walking down from the upstairs classroom. I figured he was from the beginners bo class as the other class was an advanced traditional one and he was an orange belt (out of white, yellow, orange...). After a few minutes, I see that he's sit down in the dressing room and seems pretty upset. As the good father that I am, I go and ask him if everything's all right. His only reply is "I hate my instructor". I asked him if there's a particular reason why he's feeling that way and he repeats that "I hate my instructor, just hate him". See this kid is maybe 12, but that's some childish behavior, the kind I don't see very often in Andrew anymore. Trying not to be rude, I ask him again and I get him to tell me that he cursed in the class and he says that his instructor told him to go to the dressing room.
Make a long story short, what I later learned is that he indeed cursed, one of the bad ones, in class. Instructor heard him and told he would not accept it and he told him to do 25 pushups. When the kid told him he could not (or would not, I'm unclear on that) the instructor agreed with him that he would do 25 situps instead. Now, when sitting down, the kid cursed again, maybe even directed it toward the instructor, which prompted the sending off. I had a good talk about it with Andrew. While I highly doubt that he would even curse in class as he's a very respectful kid, we also talked about the respect you owe to grown ups in general and to your leaders in the various activities you take a part in. Would that be your soccer coach, your karate instructor, or your teacher at school. You owe these people some respect. It's kinda sad that parents have a hard time teaching that to their kids nowadays...
FM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Respect is going out... no, flying out the window, as we speak.
:(
yeah, sadly it is. Can't do much about the kids of others, but I'll darn make sure my kids are well behaved. :)
FM
yeah, sadly it is. Can't do much about the kids of others, but I'll darn make sure my kids are well behaved. :)
FM
Respect? You can't blame the kids.. our society teaches them not to respect their teachers, parents, or other adults. It's in their songs, t.v. shows, movies, and video games. The only cure to this insanity is in those consciencious parents who teach their children about the value of manners, and politeness. There is a slight chance that the kind of experience that the student you are talking about will help him to start looking at the whole concept of "respect", and perhaps plant a seed in the right direction.
What would I do if a gun was held to my head? Well.. It would be my hope that I would have avoided such dangerous people or places in the first place.
But let's say that things randomly fell into that position. If the attacker is standing there, and saying "Give me your money!" I'd give him the money very quickly. I can always make more money. I'd consider it a good lesson towards not being in that alley at 2 am.
But let's say that the attacker is "off his rocker", and says "Now you die!" Then I would cling to hope that as long as I still breath, I can DO something. I have a loving family waiting for me at home, and they deserve to have me back. Hopefully these thoughts will unfreeze my body from lack of motion, and I would think of the weakest position of my opponent and attack quickly, and as efficiently as I can. I'd assume that my opponent's mind is totally centered on his hand, and weapon, so I'd go for where he is not focused: A swift kick to the side of the knee, a palm heel strike to the nose, or a quick strike to the groin. As soon as he is occupied with the distraction, I'd run. Sure.. I risk being shot.. but now he's aiming for a moving target. I can survive a shot to the arm, shoulder, legs.. whatever. Heck.. I can survive more than one shots to the body.. It's not a pleasant thought though... thank heavens that I avoid these scenes except for watching them in the movies.
What's even more sad is that a lot of parents don't mind if their kids act like that. I learned that first hand when I taught High School.
I think you would like jiu-jitsu. It's very cool, with lots of joint locks, and take-downs. I'd like to add it to my training repetoire after Shodan.
Post a Comment