Heee-yah!!!

[spudtater]

The idea of karate in general, and kata in particular, is to build muscle memory for sequences of actions that would be effective in a fight. Eg. if somebody throws a punch at your face, you can automatically reel off a counterattack sequence: block, elbow-to-ribs, knee-in-stomach, deposit-on-floor.   8^)

This is all very well, but I worry that the next time somebody puts their hands over my eyes to play guess-who, I'm going to react by sweeping my arm around into an elbow-lock and then punching them in the kidneys before I figure out what's happening. This may well be sub-optimal social behaviour.

Comments

[deralte.livejournal.com]

In general, you won't do that if you're among friends and relaxed. Or, in my case, you make sure your friends know to let you know it's them, and you keep yourself as relaxed as possible around them. My friend, havenward loves attacking me and 99.9% of the time we have no trouble. Only once this summer did she catch me while I was distracted and I was half way through a wrist lock before I realized it was her.

It also takes a few years for everything to get *that* ingrained.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Well, at least it was only a wrist lock! Some of the stuff the teacher was doing today looked quite vicious. (Insert your toes where?!)

Actually, I probably don't have to worry that much, since karate classes will accustom you to stopping short on all blows.

[markadm.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Wrist locks, although seemingly simple, are incredibly effective at subduing someone. Pay attention at the beginning and the later stuff is bound to simple once you get there...

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

I was more pointing that wrist locks are one of the less painful ways of subduing somebody, compared to a kidney punch!

[markadm.livejournal.com]

Oh, true... but I meant rather that wrist locks are incredibly useful in maintaining that control. There are only so many times you can do a kidney punch to someone before you render them serious damage.

[deralte.livejournal.com]

Wrist locks are lovely. Easy to apply, easy to maintain, wonderfully effective on nearly everyone, and they rarely leave long lasting damage. They're what I use when someone is silly enough to ask me for a demonstration *eg*

[deralte.livejournal.com]

Eh, he was just giving us a target.

Thing is, you shouldn't be stopping short, you should be making the other person get out of the way and do the move properly. How is anyone going to learn if you're not fully attacking them?

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Yes, any attack that they're supposed to block/dodge should be a full one, but when you've grabbed their shoulders and are kneeing them in the stomach, then you should probably be stopping short.   8^)

[deralte.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you only practice that half the time, the other half you are kneeing a practice pad. There are very few attacks where you always have to practice stopping short (the only one I can think of is kicking someone in the groin).

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Practice pads rock. It's lovely to be able to hit somebody full-force without repercussions. (Repercushions?)

Groin-kicks... *shudder*. I noticed a punch to the groin in one of the teacher's demonstrations, actually. However I also noticed that he kept his hands nice and far away rather than risk actual contact.   8^P   8^)

[deralte.livejournal.com]

I was once practicing groin kicks with a guy, and I never hit him, but once I came exceedingly close, causing him to describe the sensation of his balls receeding... Practically the only thing my sensei won't do to someone he's demonstrating on is kick/punch them in the groin.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Saved by the cremaster!

[deralte.livejournal.com]

Well, that was the first time I'd ever heard of, or realized such a reaction was possible. Now to memorize that name since it's silly.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I did...   8^)

[markadm.livejournal.com]

I worry that the next time somebody puts their hands over my eyes to play guess-who, I'm going to react by sweeping my arm around into an elbow-lock and then punching them in the kidneys before I figure out what's happening

Quite true...but then again, you might remember that they're playing Guess Who before that.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

There is a difference between a threatenning attack and a play fight.

Hopefully by the time you're in automatic response mode with the martial arts you'll also be able to distinguish between a real attack and a game to a sufficient extent that you won't hurt anyone.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

The difference should be clear enough in the amount of force that the other person uses!   8^)

[gominokouhai]

Not now, Cato!

[martling.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a mild case of that after a year with the Shukokai club :-)