We are met on the field of battle...

[chinto]

yes there is a bond, and they are your friends, you are not there to maim or kill or even hurt them. but to teach each other and compete. ... this is not combat, there is not the level of threat or intensity there. But there is comradeship and a shared experience.

I agree sparring ( point sparring especially ) is a game of tag. I would not fight like that in the street at all! but then the goals are different in the extreme!

In the street it is to survive and cripple or kill if necessary to accomplish that survival. in the ring, to win is desirable and good, but, if you brake your friends no one will want to spar with you any more.

 

[ballen0351]

Its funny we were talking about something similar last night at work. We saw there was an open active warrant for a Guy we KNOW will fight. He once told me he likes to go to jail because it gives him time to train to fight cops. Funny thing about him is if you fight him back and hold your own with him he respects you and after a few times he wont fight you anymore. There are a few of us that he knows and allows us to arrest him with out the fight. He says he knows were "for real" and he respects thats.

 

[chinto]

LOL takes all kinds I guess.. But some one should explain to him that ' If You Fight You May Die. ' but then some don't learn. Maybe some of you should take him to a dojo and see if you can get him to train and do things that are constructive instead?.. provably would not work.. but its an idea....

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Good post Bill, I think that feeling is there for all of us even if for some time we dont realise it. It first came to my attention when I had my blue belt grading, which was the first time we sparred as part of our grading. At our club we cant spar someone from our class at grading so once I got to the grading hall they paired me up with this guy and put us in a long line where we would stand together until our names were called. It was a funny feeling standing next to a complete stranger who didnt feel like a stranger because I knew they had been through all the same things I had to be standing there beside me at the same belt level about to spar. Anyway, we got talking and got along really well and realised we had a lot in common and basically chatted away while we waited to be called up. By the time they called our names I felt completely at ease around this guy and we stepped into the ring and he beat the absolute hell out of me, it was brutal. After the spar, he shook my hand, we had a quick chat and sat down. It was my first encounter with the whole 'brotherhood' thing and it almost felt strange to be able to be friendly with someone and then fight violently with them. I loved it, and these days we are both 1st dans and I see him regularly at gradings and we always catch up for a chat. Its great to be able to 'fight' with the boys and then go out for a few beers and some korean food afterwards.

 

[Kacey]

But if you haven't done it - even if you think point-sparring is nothing but a game and doesn't prove anything - you might want to try it. If you feel the way I did when I looked at my opponent over my raised fists, it's a feeling that is worthy of having at least once in your lifetime. It's a team you can always join, no matter how late in life, no matter how you end up doing in competition. Being there and stepping into the ring is transformative, I think.

I remember a story a very senior ITF practitioner shared at a seminar once. He is a RCMP and was in uniform walking through a mall one night. He saw a group of boistrous teen age boys heading towards him and, he said, he was kind of on the look out since they looked like they migt be rowdy and cause trouble. As the group of teens got closer the next thing he knew one of them shouted out loudly: "Charyot! Sabum Nim Gae, Kyung Nae!" They had all formed a couple line, snapped to attention, waited for him to come to attention, too, and then bowed to him. They were all students at a local school and knew who he was. They knew they had a bond with him and wanted to show him they respected him because of that bond.

The purpose of bowing - to the dojang, the mat, an instructor, a partner, an opponent - is to create a bond with the person, place or thing bowed to; when bowing, one shows the holiest part of the body, the crown of the head, to another. The second bow releases the bond - but a part of the bond remains.