Used aikido today

[theletch1]

Exile hit the situation on the nose. The guy was looking for a place to vent his rage at how his day/week/life had gone. His body language was screaming violence. I chose to take his attention off of the cashier (who was looking decidedly uncomfortable) and put it on me by speaking to the cashier while looking at the aggressor. He got what he was stating he wanted... the pump to work... while not getting what his possible ulterior motive may have demanded... something to vent on. I simply provided a pressure relief valve for the situation. It was a win/win. He got his gas, the cashier got to relax and I only lost a few seconds of my day while gaining a good anecdote to share with you all.

I'm certain most of you have been in this type of situation before and handled it as well or better than I did. Let's hear your stories, folks. Maybe discussing them will help you realize that you are a little better at this MA stuff than you feel sometimes.

 

[Kreth]

Exile hit the situation on the nose. The guy was looking for a place to vent his rage at how his day/week/life had gone. His body language was screaming violence. I chose to take his attention off of the cashier (who was looking decidedly uncomfortable) and put it on me by speaking to the cashier while looking at the aggressor. He got what he was stating he wanted... the pump to work... while not getting what his possible ulterior motive may have demanded... something to vent on. I simply provided a pressure relief valve for the situation. It was a win/win. He got his gas, the cashier got to relax and I only lost a few seconds of my day while gaining a good anecdote to share with you all.

Fail. A real man would've beaten angry guy with the cashier. Problem solved.



:uhyeah:

 

[theletch1]

Fail. A real man would've beaten angry guy with the cashier. Problem solved.



:uhyeah:

:lfao: Damn! I knew I missed an extra class somewhere along the way.

 

[kaizasosei]

Might come in handy having Kreth around in those type of situations.



j

 

[zDom]

If only ALL uses went so well

Here is an old anecdote about the late GM Lee H. Park, well-known as a dangerous grandmaster hapkido practitioner among his peers (folk like Pu Gil Gwan, Dr. He-young Kimm, Bong Yul Shin) in addition to being a grandmaster in TKD and yudo, that has been circulating around our schools for years.

GM Park was among the "old school" Korean masters. When push came to shove, well... let me just tell the story as best as I can remember


One day, GM Park was out enjoying pizza with his students, some of them who were his black belt students.

A group of (drunk?) rednecks walks over and starts giving him trouble — racial slurs, taunts "little chink" or "Chinaman" sort of stuff.

Park's black belts stand to their feet to come to his defense.

"No, no," he said. "I will handle this."

He attempted to defuse the situation, to talk the rednecks down ... but finally agreed to step outside to discuss their objections to him.

"Watch step," he said, politely holding the door as he exited the establishment with them.

A few moments later he walked back in and, on the way back to his table, advised the restaurant's manager: "Oh, please call .. ambulance."

 

[Sukerkin]

It is often the case that defusing a potentially (or already actually) violent situation can take a tightrope walk between calm deferrence and projected assurance whilst under threat.

It is a skill in and of itself reading which approach you need.

I am naturally disposed, after decades of training from my father and from the martial arts, to defer to an aggressor; to attempt to defuse the situation by allowing them to be the 'top dog'. My ego is not damaged by this. After all, fighting is the last resort when all other avenues have failed but I am confident that I can give a good account of myself if I need to (or could in my pre-accident days).

However, sometimes this actually makes things worse as the protagonist is enraged by the lack of resistance. Then you have to be prepared to switch tack and begin to gently 'push back' - by this I don't mean becoming belligerent yourself but rather a projection of that confidence in yourself that your training is meant to instill.

In the end, it is confidence that is the key to it all. Many people, even martial artists, can confuse themselves into showing this as cockiness or veiled threatening behaviour. But what it really is is that centering of zanshin and settling of ki to give an air of lack of fear combined with a non-dismissive acknowledgement of the other persons 'prowess'.

Sometimes this can be helped by others around and sometimes hindered.

I recall very well walking up to a developing confrontation between a very good friend of mine (nice as pie, hard as nails and twice my size) and a couple of thuggy-wanna-be's. I had intended to find out what was going on and try to wind it down as nicely as I could but my friend did not make it easy when, in response to my arrival, he said something to the effect of "Well, you {expletive deleted} are in for it now!" . That obviously fired up the antagonists and I had to work extra hard to smooth that out. I count that as one of my failures tho' as they walked away then but laid in wait for my friend at the end of the night {which was a mistake on their part by the way :lol:}.

 

[Kreth]

I applaud Jeff's actions, it's a good way to deal with the issue. Of course, there's always gonna be those mother****ers that still want to dance. Sucks to be them, right? :idunno:

 

[mook jong man]

Jeff used the highest level of martial arts he redirected the blokes energy with out the bloke even being aware of what had just been done to him .

 

[exile]

Jeff used the highest level of martial arts he redirected the blokes energy with out the bloke even being aware of what had just been done to him .

Exactly—and if that's the essence of any MA, it's Aikido, eh?

 

[YinYang]

Hello Jeff, I see you are still active on Martial Talk. Are you still active at the school? What rank have you been able to obtain since our absence?

Rebecca and myself just started Judo, see:
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70366

Ive also started to study Zen Buddhism and seams like your reaction was one that could be anticipated by a fellow practitioner.

Hope to see you sometime soon,
Andrew (& Becca)