G'day one and all I have enjoyed a long time interest in the Martial arts. My first "style" was shotokan when I was ..... well it was so long ago i have to guess. About 12. The school I attended was in a gym and we had about 4 regular students. We had gradings every 6 months and both gradings I had I "jumped" a belt which was great. This was because many times that I went I was the only student! Oh if only I had my time again!!! At gradings we would have a man from Japan come out and assess us. There were two schools, one near me, the other (from memory) 2 hours away. The other school was very popular (not much competition... it was a small country town). Anyhow I recall that at gradings I was far superior to my fellow students. I had to pull my punches during .... geeze I can't recall the term for it.... where one person throws a known punch and the other blocks it.... anyhow I had to pull my punches which shocked me no end. My forms were spot on as well. Looking back I wish I had my time again. 12 and enjoying private lessons. Not bad. Not bad at all. Anyhow I had better things to do like watch Transformers and hang out with my mates. I do recall that my instructor came around my house a number of times to speak to my parents and encourage my attendence. My mother used to train with him until she met my father. Only just found that out this week! It was a number of years before I rejoined the MA community. I joined a club that my mate was a member of for a few months. I had seen him defend himself at school so was keen to learn the same. A few months later I gave it away. I learnt bocing for a couple of months boxing but my trainer was the uncle of a girl I had been seeing. Being young I stuffed up the relationship with the young lady and couldn't face the 'uncle' so gave it away. I flirted with a couple of different styles until I found the one I liked. I am not sure if it is a fair dinkum style (as in world wide bla bla bla) but it was IMHO awsome. Learnt a lot. Gave it away because I linked up with a lovely lady there who was a copper and we found other activities more enjoyable. At the same time I had been hitting the weights quite a bit as well as eating right so I had put on a few decent kilo's. Hell I looked impressive. LOL I was stuck in a menial career that I hated. Paid poorly and had no respect. So I became a bouncer. I've got some decent stories but I'm sure that there are plenty of better ones from other people so I won't bore you. Boy did I learn a lot. I am proud to say that I have never hit a man in anger (then again I have yet to meet John hoWARd or Bush or Saddam or Osama). Anyhow one thing sticks in my mind. That of a punch flying towards my blind side (you CAN see them coming if you train hard... honest). What was my reaction? with years of kung-fu under my belt, hours of blood sweat and a couple of tears? Did I pull out "jinxes paw" "rising tiger hidden dragon punch"? Nope I used the classic boxers cover. The one you see in every boxing match. Saved my butt I can tell you. Boy was that a night to remember. More than a couple of people were put into hospital that night and my mates were in that number. What did I do that fight apart from cover up? One hammer fist which dropped the main antagonist and a hell of a lot of "break it up" "stop it" "go home" "he's not worth it" bla bla bla. In other words I stopped a very bad situation from getting far worse (I restrained one bouncer from getting his pistol it was that bad). Whilst bouncing I found a new instructor. His belt/rank is "master student". He doesn't teach a "style". He is a true warrior with years of bouncing experience, he has sought out "masters" and studied various styles. He knows what works and adjusts his tuition to his students. I got more confidence from ONE lesson from him than I got from all my previous tuition. Yeah he is that good. He teaches the non-bs style. Anyhow that was a long time ago. The last time I was in an altercation I copped a punch which came from no-where. Being in a foreign country, with no mates nearby (literally on the other side of the globe), with no idea what I was up against I did and very intoxicated O dod what I thought and still think was the right thing to do. I legged it. I think that I put some olympic atheletes to shame. I'd love to hear your views on this as my "work-mates" reckon I was a coward. (sported a lovely black eye) As I have limited time due to study so I plan to devote some serious time to boxing. All the times things have gotten nasty I was ALWAYS in punching range. BANG BANG BANG and a take-down (simple-always works one) fight over. Love your opinions on this one as well. Anyhow I have talked your ears off enough Hope you never have to use your training and that you walk the path of peace. Remember the warrior chooses the life of peace. Others have no choice.
He who runs the fastest, lives to fight another day. Welcome to the mad mad MAP World. Do enjoy your stay.
welcome to MAP GCS15 you do have a story!! but anyway if we never have to use our training why do we have to train
