New Student Walking In, Striking Too Hard, Follow Up Question

[Stargazer]

As a student, I'm curious what the appropriate response should be when a new student walks in and is clearly either using too much force or out of control?

I've had this happen once and chose not to dignify it. I thought the instructor would step in and correct the new student. This happened later, but the new student was emboldened and began roughing up other students in the meantime.

Should a long-standing student ignore it, report it, or fight back? Or is this the teacher's domain? What is the teacher's duty here?

 

[GaryR]

Report it first. The teacher can't do anything if they are not aware of it. They should let the new student know it is not acceptable to exceed the standard of force set in the session.

The teacher has a duty to keep the training environment safe.

Protect yourself, and give the appropriate physical and/or verbal feedback to the new student as required.

 

[jks9199]

It depends on what level you are in the class. A senior student (mid to high green, or brown belts in my club) would be expected to be able to handle it, and to steer the new student to a more appropriate level of force. You do that in different ways, such as matching their force, or simply not letting anything land until they "play by the rules." A less senior student should probably make a comment ("Yo, dude... this is a LIGHT contact exercise") then get a senior student or the instructor to help if they aren't coming on track. Generally, I rotate partners enough that the guy going too hard will wind up with a senior student and get corrected -- or I'll step in and correct it myself.

The instructor's job is to control everything -- but he or she may not be everywhere at once. (It only can sometimes seem that way!) Personally, I generally don't put new students in exercises that aren't pretty structured until I know their level of control, and know that they won't cause this sort of problem.

 

[Drasken]

This happened in my Aikido dojo actually. Hitting too hard there was not too bad, but he would use brute strength to try and throw. He just didn't get the concept of Aikido. So we reported him before he was able to hurt anyone by snapping a joint or something.
The teacher gently explained things to him. And he argued. The teacher gently reminded him again later that class and the guy gives attitude. Sensei then asked him to leave the dojo. Guy attacks sensei and is tossed around like a ragdoll for 5 minutes before crawling off the mat and stumbling to his car.

I say report it and a good teacher will take it from there.

 

[sfs982000]

The instructor should explain things clearly from the get go as far as the amount of contact, rules for sparring in thier school. If the student doesn't respect those rules it should be reported to the instructor for he or she to deal with.

 

[jthomas1600]

I think it can be handled a 100 ways depending on the situation but I agree the first thing is to report it to the instructor. We had a situation at our gym last week with a not so new guy. I'm 46 he's like 16/17. He's a generally good kid, but he got me in a position where he had control (in his triangle) and pummeled me pretty good leaving both my eyes marked up. This was especially unfortunate because in almost every aspect of sparring I have the advantage over him but never exploit it and in fact had mounted him in this sparring match and purposefully abandoned it. So I mentioned it to the instructor in passing and the next night he paired me up with the kid right off the bat. This time I maintained dominant position the whole time and roughed him up a little bit. The whole time we were sparring I was talking to him...telling him what he had done the night before was not acceptable and that we all worked together to improve our skills. At the end of the round he thanked me and apologized for the night before explaining that he had been under a lot of stress. It won't always work out like this...every situation is unique.

 

[Stargazer]

Thank you for the cool stories and replies. I've seen this happen twice.

My first experience was as a relatively beginner student and a more experienced student (by about 2-3 years), walked in. It was pretty clear new student was angling for a teacher position and began correcting the teacher and disrespecting the dojo in general. During a touch only sparring session, new student full on kicked me nearly taking out a rib. It was clearly intentional. The teacher did not see it and I tried not to dignify it. I called the teacher after class ended and was pretty upset. Teacher gave a slap on the wrist. Long story short the new student is now a teacher and many people have left (myself included). New student is generally disliked and as a purely business decision should have been booted but was appeased.

Second experience was at another school. Twenty something Abercrombie model- looking guy walks in like he owns the place. He was a brown belt. Tries to top dog a 50-something law enforcement officer (the young guy didn't know this) and black belt. The young guy was doing these fancy spiral kicks and showboating letting a few kicks slip. Well the older guy looks at the teacher, teacher nods, and he kicked the guy in the armpit. No one was hurt but the message was loud and clear. The young guy never came back.

Left me wondering if I should have fought back more as a beginner or view it as a poor call by my initial teacher.

 

[WaterGal]

Stargazer - sounds like a bad call by your old teacher to me. A student who comes in and tries to undermine the teacher and disrespect the place and hurt other students is a serious problem. Your teacher should've seen that, and taken some action. Definitely not made him a teacher!

 

[Aiki Lee]

Many people aren’t aware they are going too rough for theexercise or too fast. Remind him thatyou are doing a training exercise and you are attempting to learn something (orhone something) and you need him to slow down or lighten up.
When I was 14 and studying karate I was very large for myage. During kumite, I often hit too hard as I was accustomed to sparring withmy brothers, and if you have brothers you know that things go a bit rougherwhen you train together.
Anyway, I was not aware that I was angering a senior blackbelt with whom I was sparring. I thought the grimace on his face was his “serious”face not his “you’re pissing me off face”. He asked, “Do you want to go hard?”In my head, what I thought he meant was “Hey, you’re pretty good. If you want,we can turn it up.” I did not realize he was warning me. So I said “yes”.
He kicked me across the room and bruised me pretty bad. Hesaid, “Next time, lighten up” and walked off. I had no idea why he couldn’thave just said, you are hitting too hard for this exercise, you need to easeup. Instead his ego became offended and he beat me because I was not aware thatI was being too rough.
So, always tell the person when they are going too roughbecause they might not know. Explain what the purpose of the exercise is andwhat you are comfortable doing.
If they do know and they don’t care, find a new partner andinform the instructor. Sadly sometimes you have to clobber someone. I hatedoing it, but sometimes you have to.