So today I tested for my blue belt in Seidokaikan. It was a huge test, we rented out the Judo and Kendo halls at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium for the day, and people testing for every belt from yellow to black came from all over Kansai. Needless to say, there was an exorbitant testing fee. At least we appear to have gotten something for it. That's not the story.
I was in a testing group composed of the 32 current yellow belts testing for blue and the 20 or so blue belts testing for green. We did the fighting in groups of ten pairs, and it was hard/full contact, but not the same level of viciousness as a tournament since we were still looking to show an instructor who was overseeing us that we had solid strikes and defenses.
After finishing my match, I watched the blue belts, who had three matches each. One guy who looked to be in his 30s was pretty short, so he ended up being paired with a high school girl who had good technique, but a typical Japanese school girl build, so he could push her around pretty easily. He was really getting into it, maybe a bit too much, and toward the end of their match he managed to get a hand around behind her shoulder and pull her down into a knee to the face.
The girl was a little shakey but got up and bowed out of the match since time had run out while she was down. Then the 5th dan leading the testing group spent a minute talking to the guy about why you shouldn't be a dick during the test. The pairs were rotated after that, but instead of getting to spar the guy he was going to rotate to, one of the instructors made a substitution, this time of another high school girl. She was probably 3 inches taller and about 20 pounds heavier than the last girl, and most of the extra weight appeared to be across the shoulders. She looked like her nose had been broken at least once in the past. She was also a blue belt testing for green, so the ranks at least were equal.
Our new high school girl spent the next three minutes working this guy over. It was amazing. She danced back from his kicks and dove in with solid four, five, six, punch combinations that ended with a tremendous left round kick to the liver area every time. He scored some hits on her, but she didn't even seem to notice. He tried grabbing her for a similar pull and knee and found himself on his back immediately. I'm guessing she cross-trains Judo. At the end of the match, the head instructor who had given the guy a talking to after he kneed the first girl declared that our hero and the new high school girl had a good match. Everyone should see a match like that. So let's have another three minutes with everyone watching. The second match was a worthy sequel.
At the end of the test when we were lined up to receive our promotions, our hero was one of the dozen or so whose names weren't called. I think it was the first time I've seen someone fail a MA belt test, which should tell you something about the quality of instruction I've witnessed in the past.
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So my question is, is sending in an enforcer like this a dick move, or is this kind of blatant attitude correction the kind of growth experience people are supposed to get in the martial arts? If a guy is a pretty OK fighter for his rank but he's still a dick, does he deserve the belt anyway, or should being a good sportsman be part of the qualifications? If a club loses a hard-charging jerk, does the utility of having a tough partner available outweigh the liability of having someone who can't attenuate his game based on his partner's size and strength or ability? I know in an ideal world we'd all get to spar people of the same height and weight class who are just a little better than we are so that we push ourselves, but in reality sometimes you have to step it down a notch for the sake of the club.
Maybe what I'm really asking is, if I ever have to spar this very scary high school girl, who will send flowers to my hospital room?
I was in a testing group composed of the 32 current yellow belts testing for blue and the 20 or so blue belts testing for green. We did the fighting in groups of ten pairs, and it was hard/full contact, but not the same level of viciousness as a tournament since we were still looking to show an instructor who was overseeing us that we had solid strikes and defenses.
After finishing my match, I watched the blue belts, who had three matches each. One guy who looked to be in his 30s was pretty short, so he ended up being paired with a high school girl who had good technique, but a typical Japanese school girl build, so he could push her around pretty easily. He was really getting into it, maybe a bit too much, and toward the end of their match he managed to get a hand around behind her shoulder and pull her down into a knee to the face.
The girl was a little shakey but got up and bowed out of the match since time had run out while she was down. Then the 5th dan leading the testing group spent a minute talking to the guy about why you shouldn't be a dick during the test. The pairs were rotated after that, but instead of getting to spar the guy he was going to rotate to, one of the instructors made a substitution, this time of another high school girl. She was probably 3 inches taller and about 20 pounds heavier than the last girl, and most of the extra weight appeared to be across the shoulders. She looked like her nose had been broken at least once in the past. She was also a blue belt testing for green, so the ranks at least were equal.
Our new high school girl spent the next three minutes working this guy over. It was amazing. She danced back from his kicks and dove in with solid four, five, six, punch combinations that ended with a tremendous left round kick to the liver area every time. He scored some hits on her, but she didn't even seem to notice. He tried grabbing her for a similar pull and knee and found himself on his back immediately. I'm guessing she cross-trains Judo. At the end of the match, the head instructor who had given the guy a talking to after he kneed the first girl declared that our hero and the new high school girl had a good match. Everyone should see a match like that. So let's have another three minutes with everyone watching. The second match was a worthy sequel.
At the end of the test when we were lined up to receive our promotions, our hero was one of the dozen or so whose names weren't called. I think it was the first time I've seen someone fail a MA belt test, which should tell you something about the quality of instruction I've witnessed in the past.
-------------------------------
So my question is, is sending in an enforcer like this a dick move, or is this kind of blatant attitude correction the kind of growth experience people are supposed to get in the martial arts? If a guy is a pretty OK fighter for his rank but he's still a dick, does he deserve the belt anyway, or should being a good sportsman be part of the qualifications? If a club loses a hard-charging jerk, does the utility of having a tough partner available outweigh the liability of having someone who can't attenuate his game based on his partner's size and strength or ability? I know in an ideal world we'd all get to spar people of the same height and weight class who are just a little better than we are so that we push ourselves, but in reality sometimes you have to step it down a notch for the sake of the club.
Maybe what I'm really asking is, if I ever have to spar this very scary high school girl, who will send flowers to my hospital room?
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