Most Embarrassing Martial Art Moments.

[Just4Kicks]

We all have them, wether it be something like falling over when trying to impress that guy/girl with your new technique, or something simple like forgetting your pattern mid grading.

I had mine a few weeks back. I was stretching, nearly at the splits and my instructor came over and pushed me down into them. OW! But splits accomplished. Class continues, I was kicking the pads and generally doing fine.... till I discovered I had ripped a seam in my pants from the crotch to nearly the knee on one of the legs... and had been jumping around and kicking my partner with said tear.

I excused myself, put a pair of panty hose on underneath and kept training however. I did buy a new uniform before the next lesson though.

Anyone else got any stories? Come on, you can tell us...

 

[Hawke]

I was in junior high and a friend was telling my classmates how high I can kick. A student didn't believe him and wanted me to demonstrate.

I kicked as I usually do.

As my legs attempted to kick high, I fell. Apparently my jeans were not as flexible as my legs.

 

[Tames D]

We use to give demo's in places like indoor malls and shopping center parking lots. Always drew pretty good size crowds. One time I was demonstrating butterfly swords and one of them flew out of my hand and over the crowd, luckily missing everyone. I felt like running off and hiding but I still continued and finished my demo like nothing had happened,

.

 

[girlbug2]

About 1 year ago my instructor was demonstrating a new kick to us, so I tried it with my training partner holding the pads and it wasn't working well. The instructor comes over to me and starts to give me some tips on changing my stance, then says I'm too far away for my kick to work. I didn't believe him for some reason, so I proceeded to perform the kick...and fell flat on my butt in front of the whole class.

 

[Tames D]

I excused myself, put a pair of panty hose on underneath and kept training however.

Pantyhose? Wasn't that the embarrassing part?

.
Just messin with ya.

 

[bobquinn]

I was teaching and learning from Lee Lowery in the early eighties and one night while assisting him, he was teaching a throw,me being the yukkie. he stepped on the bottom of my pants and lo and behold the sunshined in. he looked at me and I him and I said it's me, gracefully bowed of the mat and retrieved another pair of pants,returned with a great glow on my face.

 

[Just4Kicks]

Pantyhose? Wasn't that the embarrassing part?

.
Just messin with ya.

Better that then bare thigh. It IS a university club, too many young males running about.

 

[Tames D]

Better that then bare thigh. It IS a university club, too many young males running about.

I totally understand. I was just messin with ya.

 

[ap Oweyn]

Taekwondo. Circa 1985. I was practicing spinning crescent kicks. Managed to stuff one foot up the other dobok leg as I was spinning. One very ugly pirouette later, and I was on the floor with what turned out to be a "chipped bone" in my foot.

Not as dramatic as a flat-out broken foot, so I didn't realize it was broken until after I'd used that same foot to do several rounds on the heavy bag.

I used crutches for a single day and told everyone at school that I'd been injured defending my home against burglars. Some of them actually appeared to believe me.

Embarrassing for all of us, I should think.



Stuart

 

[Milt G.]

Hello,
Good topic...

It was 1988 and I was "performing" in the public portion of my 3rd black (Kenpo) test. My job was to break a brick. (a regular red brick) It was to be my last task of the presentation.

Mind you, I had broken bricks such as this many timed before. Well, at least a dozen times. I am thinking... fairly easy.

You know I hit that brick once... Twice... Finally three times. No break! Talk about embarassing... Oh well. That turned out to be just another, of many, lessons learned in martial art training.
"Pick a cooperative training partner for demonstrations"!

Shortly thereafter I was packing up and when I lifted the brick it "broke" in my hand! That "%#&*+&^#&$#@#"...

I still keep that brick high up in my living room on a shelf to remind me of that day. Good times shared with teachers, friends and family. And especially of lessons learned. Happily, I still have the video, too...

Thank you,
Milt G.

 

[Ironcrane]

A long, long time ago I was getting ready to do a short demo with a pair of broadswords in my Kung Fu class. There was a really attractive girl who came to watch our class. I did think to myself to not pay any attention to her, because as soon as you start showing off for a pretty girl that's when it all goes wrong.

Well, as I was doing some fancy stuff, one of the swords sliped in my hand, causing me to lose a bit of control, and it smacked me in the back of the head. It was the blunt side of the sword, so I wasn't really hurt. After that I learned an important lesson.

If a pretty girl is watching you, weather you mind her or not - you're doomed.

 

[Omar B]

The night before a tournament I'm in crazy hyped up mode for competition. Sparring with my Sensei's son I go up for a spinning back kick and he throws up a side kick aimed at my center mass to arrest my movement. That he did and even more, the spinning stopped and the falling began. I ended up breaking my knee on the dojo floor the night before a tournament! Sucked!

 

[mwd0818]

Two to share:

My 1st Kyu test, right before Black Belt, was a very formal test in which records were kept during the entire test (which is different only because in my system, you never had anything written on tests - it was all physical and simply judged by the instructor). Every mistake, every hesitation was recorded and then shared with you after the test. The idea, keep this list because it is what you need to fix for Black Belt.

The first form taught in the Shaolin Kempo system is very familiar to many Japanese/Korean/Okinawan systems. The "pinan" is an I-form, 8 attackers, low block, punch, low block, punch, low block - 3 punches, low block, punch, etc. . .

Instead of stopping on attacker 8 and bowing out, I kept right on going. Continued to repeat the form twice before bowing out. Most embarrassing part . . . on that paper that recorded EVERYTHING was this:

23rd Kempo - Lower stance - more power in final punch
1 Pinan - WHAT!!!!!?????????????
1 Kata - Kiai with . . .


Second Story:

One of the few open tournaments I competed at I competed in a traditional weapons form division with a 9-section chain whip. I got 3rd place in it, but was approached by the tournament director after the awards were presented . He gave me a small piece of the basketball court floor that I had ripped up during the form along with a reference to the rules about "not damaging" the exhibit hall . . .

 

[Big Don]

The ONE time my Mom came to watch me spar...
I was sparring one of the Black Belts, I shuffled back to avoid a kick, knocking over the water cooler and having 5 gallons of water splash, spray and pour all over before I could get myself off the floor and the bottle out the back door.