I almost broke my nose and it was hilarious.

[Zoltan97]

I've been that bear a time or two. I get annoyed when someone decides to show their might to lower-ranking students for ego's sake, especially when I don't have the authority to call them on it. I'm the nice, quiet guy (okay, maybe not so quiet...), until I'm not. It's normally not something others in the school would even notice. Most students can barely tell when one black belt gives another a double-leg sweep, versus a standard single-leg sweep, much less how hard the throw actually was.

Rawr

 

[Xue Sheng]

 

[Zoltan97]

As the choke sinks in and the darkness creeps in...

 

[Ironbear24]

The poking the bear thing normally doesn't happen often where I train. It happens more with relatives such as cousins and uncles. It's done playfully and normally ends up with one of the tossed to the ground.

The majority of my cousins are all military so they get very cocky and think "civilian martial arts is nothing compared to army training." They get proven wrong a lot.

 

[Zoltan97]

The poking the bear thing normally doesn't happen often where I train. It happens more with relatives such as cousins and uncles. It's done playfully and normally ends up with one of the tossed to the ground.

The majority of my cousins are all military so they get very cocky and think "civilian martial arts is nothing compared to army training." They get proven wrong a lot.

Well of course they would poke the bear with you. You're a panda.

A friend of mine kept bugging me so I threw him with a modified throw (he wasn't wearing a gi and I didn't feel like buying him a new shirt) and he had no idea it was coming, the look on his face was priceless.

It went into the negative price range when I looked down at him, feigned surprise (we were in a hotel room and weren't used to the surroundings) and said "oh, so that's where the couch was!"

 

[Gerry Seymour]

The poking the bear thing normally doesn't happen often where I train. It happens more with relatives such as cousins and uncles. It's done playfully and normally ends up with one of the tossed to the ground.

The majority of my cousins are all military so they get very cocky and think "civilian martial arts is nothing compared to army training." They get proven wrong a lot.

Nobody outside the school ever "pokes the bear" with me. I always make a point of doing small demonstrations in a group when my training first comes up. They're always small joint manipulations (usually fingers) and hurt a lot (to people not used to them), so nobody in that group wants me to do those to them again. They may ask questions, but as soon as I offer to show them something they literally step back. It has worked for me in many groups. No real showing off needed. I usually use a simple demonstration of how to avoid someone crushing your hand in a handshake, then show them how to make the other person let go (something I show in the first class to new students). It's all very small, harmless, and keeps down the bear-poking.

You know, that points out how weird it is that people come back to my classes after the first one. We in MA are not normal.

 

[Zoltan97]

Nobody outside the school ever "pokes the bear" with me. I always make a point of doing small demonstrations in a group when my training first comes up. They're always small joint manipulations (usually fingers) and hurt a lot (to people not used to them), so nobody in that group wants me to do those to them again. They may ask questions, but as soon as I offer to show them something they literally step back. It has worked for me in many groups. No real showing off needed. I usually use a simple demonstration of how to avoid someone crushing your hand in a handshake, then show them how to make the other person let go (something I show in the first class to new students). It's all very small, harmless, and keeps down the bear-poking.

You know, that points out how weird it is that people come back to my classes after the first one. We in MA are not normal.

Are any of us normal?

 

[Ironbear24]

Nobody outside the school ever "pokes the bear" with me. I always make a point of doing small demonstrations in a group when my training first comes up. They're always small joint manipulations (usually fingers) and hurt a lot (to people not used to them), so nobody in that group wants me to do those to them again. They may ask questions, but as soon as I offer to show them something they literally step back. It has worked for me in many groups. No real showing off needed. I usually use a simple demonstration of how to avoid someone crushing your hand in a handshake, then show them how to make the other person let go (something I show in the first class to new students). It's all very small, harmless, and keeps down the bear-poking.

You know, that points out how weird it is that people come back to my classes after the first one. We in MA are not normal.

Are any of us normal?

No. None of us are anything near normal. We are freaks of society. Nobody will willing go to a place where they are going to get bruised/bleed possible break part of their body. Work themselves into vomiting and fainting, and get beat up by many people.

I often look like a battered spouse but I still continue to go back. The complaints I have are usually my own short comings and nothing else. Back on topic though, no normal person would willingly go back to a place after facing all those hardships above.