Tonight’s class was an interesting one. I got there right at the end of the first class due to a long lasting haircut appointment at my sister’s place. When I arrived,
I took a post right near the mirrors so I could unobtrusively watch the finish of the class. Alan-san was nearest to me and it was quite apparent that slow was not in his vocabulary. Eventually the lines rotated around and my Dad ended up across from him. Alan-san continued to spar in his hard, low-kick style, and to my Dad’s credit he was mostly just blocking Alan’s attacks. A few times Alan-san connected with a bit of a low kick and my Dad knocked a few of his punches back into his own face using rising blocks.
This made Alan have the glassy-eyed scary look that he usually gets when contact is made, and Dad may have stuck a kick into his midsection as well. Dad was moving slowly, but he has a lot of mass so his attacks tend to hit solidly when they hit. Alan started flailing around a little, and Sensei Hartman yelled “yame!” and things continued a bit.
Alan backed off after about four punches and a couple of kicks and my Dad said something to the effect of “this is slow sparring, you don’t have to go so hard. If you keep it up I’ll match you and I’ll probably take your spleen with me.” At this point a grievous lack of judgment was made on Alan’s part by saying “Bring it on.” My Dad replied with “you don’t want that,” and Alan said “BRING IT ON.”
Alan stepped toward my Dad and stuck his arm out to push my Dad and then tried to throw a slow punch. Dad brushed it off and did an open palmed strike aimed at Alan’s ear, which hit slightly low. This made Alan step back, and he still said “bring it on”. At this time Dad just stepped back, not wanting to totally destroy Alan, but he had the “END OF LIFE LOADING INTO CHAMBER” look on his face I’ve only seen twice in my life.
Alan started to drift toward my Dad again, at this point I stepped in and shoved Alan and my Dad apart from each other and told them that was enough. The lines rotated again, and I took Alan-san aside and told him that under no circumstances was he to show disrespect like that to an upper rank or try to goad people into fights and if there was any doubt about the situation I would be happy to resolve it myself. Secretly, I was about ready to put a side kick shaped hole in Alan-san if he made any more aggressive action toward my Dad. I’m glad it went the way it did and no lasting violence was required to resolve the situation adequately.
After class, Sensei Hartman spoke with both my Dad and Alan-san separately. He let my Dad know that he was not in the wrong and that situation. I don’t know the full breadth of what he told Alan-san, but I do know that Alan-san apparently thought that any contact when sparring counted as a battery, at which point it was his duty to defend himself. Logic like this is very dangerous in the dojo, IMHO. Also considering the fact that Alan-san was punching very fast and hard and kicking toward the groin in most cases, even before anything escalated.
I know I certainly don’t like it when things like this happen in the dojo.
The second class was marked by some giddyup basics, thanks to the hit of adrenaline that I got from the situation earlier I was bending spacetime around my techniques. We got to do some sparring of our own, where each of the black belts got to hammer on the purple belts for awhile. Dobbleaire-san and I were slow sparring at the same time that Hickman and Kraft were squaring off, and I caught Dobbleaire coming in with a side thrust kick. He has a tendency toward drifting what he feels is out of range and relaxing, and sometimes that relaxation carries with him into his approach for the next technique. I hit him in the ribs as he was tensing, which forced the air out of his lungs and he doubled over for a few minutes. It wasn’t even that fast of a kick, but it was solid when combined with his moving forward. He recovered well, and we started sparring again.
It was at this moment I noticed Kraft do a back kick that caught Hickman square in the ribcage. Luckily, it was on the opposite side from where he broke his ribs, but it hit so flush with his flailing lunge punch that the air was forcibly expelled from his lungs. He doubled over and started making the sound of a dying cat. He continued this strange death croak for about three minutes and then he started to get his air back.
Sensei Hartman went on to correct both purple belts for the respective causes of their accidents. Both Kraft and I felt bad for putting the boot on them, but things like this happen from time to time when your opponents are putting a lot into their sparring.
In short, everyone lived and peace was restored to the Republic. I don’t know what Alan-san’s fate is, but I do know that I’m not the only one that views him as potentially dangerous.
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