"I didn't expect to get punched in the face."

OP
Ironbear24

Ironbear24

Senior Master
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
2,103
Reaction score
482
I don't know why we have driving instructors now, they could just show people the steering wheel, brake, accelerator, gear stick etc ( yeah I know you lot in the US drive automatics lol ) and let them go off driving on their own! Or riding instructors, just show people the horse and away they go! What could go wrong?

Way to split hairs.
 

JowGaWolf

Sr. Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
14,037
Reaction score
5,960
This is important. Forget a fist to the face, I remember the first day I took a rattan Kali stick to the head. I was the new guy. No one laughed instead they showed concern. So I shook it off and kept training. If anyone would have left I would have said "this is a school!? I call ********" because a martial art school is a team, each person making the other stronger. Teams don't do well when you laugh at the failure of the FNG.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
Did you cry? Lol
 

Juany118

Senior Master
Joined
May 22, 2016
Messages
3,107
Reaction score
1,053
Did you cry? Lol

No but I grabbed my head, cursed like a son of a ***** and then eventually said "yeah...that was stupid" lol

Btw Autocorrect on my phone sucks replace "left" with "laughed". We are going to get hurt, accidents happen, laughing about accidents and legit mistakes is simply bad form though.
 

Mattattack

Yellow Belt
Joined
Oct 31, 2016
Messages
57
Reaction score
35
Yeah, getting hit with a Kali stick is a sharper kind of pain than getting punched. I got cracked in the right thumb with one a couple weeks ago and I still feel it (good thing I'm a leftie!)

Chest-Guards.jpg


I used to think this looked like excessive protection. Now I know better.
 

Tez3

Sr. Grandmaster
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
27,608
Reaction score
4,901
Location
England
Showing/teaching are not the same thing, I get that, I meant it as teaching though.

You get it NOW, after it's been pointed out but your friend wasn't taught, not in the very first lesson, he was shown then you laughed at him and get snotty because he didn't come back. Most of us wouldn't come back either, poor instruction and bad reactions from students of whom more might be expected.
 

Gerry Seymour

MT Moderator
Staff member
Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2012
Messages
30,026
Reaction score
10,594
Location
Hendersonville, NC
Yeah, getting hit with a Kali stick is a sharper kind of pain than getting punched. I got cracked in the right thumb with one a couple weeks ago and I still feel it (good thing I'm a leftie!)

Chest-Guards.jpg


I used to think this looked like excessive protection. Now I know better.
Yeah, I took some private lessons in FMA for a while. I remember doing some fairly fast (for me) 2-man double-stick work with my instructor, and he missed slightly, cracking me on the hand. Damned fine disarm, that was.
 

Gerry Seymour

MT Moderator
Staff member
Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2012
Messages
30,026
Reaction score
10,594
Location
Hendersonville, NC
You get it NOW, after it's been pointed out but your friend wasn't taught, not in the very first lesson, he was shown then you laughed at him and get snotty because he didn't come back. Most of us wouldn't come back either, poor instruction and bad reactions from students of whom more might be expected.
I'll even go so far as to say the hit was something he'd probably have gotten over pretty quickly. That kind of stuff can happen. But the response to his comment probably led him to believe that's what he could expect the next class, and the next, and the next...
 

Tez3

Sr. Grandmaster
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
27,608
Reaction score
4,901
Location
England
I'll even go so far as to say the hit was something he'd probably have gotten over pretty quickly. That kind of stuff can happen. But the response to his comment probably led him to believe that's what he could expect the next class, and the next, and the next...

Agreed, there's a lot of things that happen in a martial arts class that could elicit laughter from the ignorant. Falling over when doing a front kick is quite common among beginners and can easily happen to the more experienced. It's mortifying when you do it first time but if everyone around you is cool, just tells you it happens to everyone and doesn't laugh at you then there's no problem.
Making people feel small even if they did do something silly or said something you think is silly is not a nice way to behave either in or out of martial arts.
 

Gerry Seymour

MT Moderator
Staff member
Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2012
Messages
30,026
Reaction score
10,594
Location
Hendersonville, NC
Agreed, there's a lot of things that happen in a martial arts class that could elicit laughter from the ignorant. Falling over when doing a front kick is quite common among beginners and can easily happen to the more experienced. It's mortifying when you do it first time but if everyone around you is cool, just tells you it happens to everyone and doesn't laugh at you then there's no problem.
Making people feel small even if they did do something silly or said something you think is silly is not a nice way to behave either in or out of martial arts.
Agreed. We laugh a LOT at mistakes in my classes (far less formal than the schools I trained at), but we all laugh at them - including the person making them.
 

jks9199

Administrator
Staff member
Lifetime Supporting Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
23,506
Reaction score
3,850
Location
Northern VA
Nobody laughed at his failing to block. The thing that was laughed about was his statement about it. It would be like me saying I walked into a kitchen and was shocked to see food there.
But, I bet if you ask him, that wasn't his perception. There's a quote about communication I like: You may think you know what I meant, but what you heard wasn't what I said. Applies here, too, I'm pretty confident. You were laughing at his words -- but his pride had been wounded, and he'd been hit (in this day and age, possibly for the first time in his life!). You weren't laughing with him, you weren't laughing at his words -- you were laughing at HIM.
 

JowGaWolf

Sr. Grandmaster
MT Mentor
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
14,037
Reaction score
5,960
Agreed. We laugh a LOT at mistakes in my classes (far less formal than the schools I trained at), but we all laugh at them - including the person making them.
We do a quite a bit of laughing in our school but it's the type of laugh that someone would give to let you know that everything is already and that what happened wasn't a big deal. It's a short laugh that usually ends with a smile and some words of reassurance. I think the only time we don't laugh is when someone gets seriously hurt and when we see that someone is having a really difficult time with something.

With kids I personally go to the length of me intentionally acting as if I have a similar difficulty as the child to really drive in the value of determination and the lesson of "If I work hard enough I can get better." Not sure if they ever notice my improved performance the following class, but for that moment they are able to turn inward and focus on getting better and pushing through, instead of focusing on the fact that they didn't get something right or that something is difficult.

I practice in a less formal school as well and laughing at and with people isn't bad. For our school it's how and when someone laughs that is monitored. I guess you can say that we laugh more like family members laugh at each other. Now that I've said that I don't think we laugh at another student until they reach a certain level of comfort with us. That relationship has to be there so that the laughing isn't misunderstood.
 

Tez3

Sr. Grandmaster
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
27,608
Reaction score
4,901
Location
England
The first time a new student loses their balance, falls over or mistimes something and it doesn't work they are mortified, how everyone deals with it is important, a smile, a bit of 'hey we all do that' and the student is smiling, the next time they laugh and everyone laughs with them because we have all done it. Students should feel they can make mistakes, mess up techniques and no one judges them or laughs at them, we've all been in their situation after all. It may have taken quite a bit of screwing up courage to come through the doors for some people and they should be encouraged to stay, we aren't all macho warriors to whom martial arts come naturally, most of us have to work at it.
 

Transk53

The Dark Often Prevails
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2013
Messages
4,220
Reaction score
836
Location
England 43 Anno Domini
Thinking about this, obviously I am prone to falling over, but to be honest, no one ever actually laughed at me. It was like "you alright mate" Come to the conclusion that this thread has lost me. Maybe getting back up was a subconscious mark to others, with the message don't worry about it, me and them. Anyway, some of it was funny as hell :D
 
Top