...Stories like this are meaningful because they illustrate how valuable karate practice can be. Marge's case was extreme; her life was at risk and she had no choice but to resort to the jutsu or technical aspects of karate to protect herself. Thank god she's alright, and I've been given good reason to believe that this episode won't repeat itself for her.
Stan's story was far less dramatic - he was never in any physical danger - but his self-respect was at stake. He was not acquainted at all with the co-worker who took his parking spot and had no idea how confronting him would turn out. Given this uncertainty, Stan was nonetheless resolved to fix this problem and conducted himself admirably.
Both students exemplify the spirit of karate-do: The ability and willingness to take one's training outside the dojo with effective and positive results.
6 comments:
Time now for story:
Some months ago I gave my mom "The Gift of Fear", by Gavin de Becker. She devoured the book and took it's lessons to heart.
Two weeks ago she tells me that she has twice, in as much time, thwarted what could have been an "interview" by an assailant by first recognizing that an "interview" was about to take place and then employing strong verbal commands and body language that she has learned through that book.
She's never taken any martial arts so it was encouraging to hear that she could summon as much "Dont F*** with me!" as she did.
Moral of the story: Don't mess with your mom!
...Gavin also suggested taking some specialized, for real, short self-defense courses, with final ambush-testing down the street unknown to the student. Of course the "assailant"(trainers) wore protective gears, also unknown to the student!
And Gavin didn't think a "safe" dojo environment as friendly competitive sport (in particular the "hold-your-punch" type) would be conducive to overcoming the "fear" factor in real life situations, and one will likely to become paralyzed in situations of assault or ambush, despite years of dojo conditioning (or actually BECAUSE OF such conditioning).
I'm probably an outlier but I think the best training you can undergo in order to be prepared for any situation is to cultivate a calm, clear mind.
hey paul
yeah, gavin does look down on traditional MA training; part of his rationale i can agree with, and part of it i cannot.
the problem with SD-only training is that it is often short term. you learn you to rake a man's face over the course of a week but the attack you face might be 10 years away. how much good is that one week of training a decade from today?
becker was half-right. both long term training and short term courses should be implemented in order to safeguard people's lives.
TSK, I certainly agree with you!
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