"I could beat you up because..."

[wanderingjoe72]

I was hanging out last Saturday at my daughter's Tae Kwon Do studio as normal. She is an 11 year old first degree black belt.

Well, the owners of the place are a nice married couple. The husband is a 6th degree master and his wife is a 3rd degree. Well, a possibly drunk fellow wanders in to ask about prices. He was an older man and had a bit of a stumble to him. The wife is talking to him about pricing and classes and asks who would be attending classes, whether it would be himself or perhaps grandkids.

He stopped her there and said that wasn't really important and then proceeded to tell her he could beat her up because he likes Bruce Lee. All of the other parents stop and look over when he said this and we all watched as he repeated this a few more times. In his mind being a fan of Bruce Lee gives you more skill than a trained martial artist.

I almost wished he would have tried to demonstrate his skill just to watch him get knocked into submission and then taken into police custody.

Funny thing is, there were a few of the parents with black belts and a hand full of kids that could have easily laid the guy out.

Booze is yummy and it has it's place and that is definitely not in a Tae Kwon Do school on a Saturday morning.

[Chanlin]

Way off topic: I so want lessons, maybe not martial arts but I've always liked fencing and other martial styles. I just can't afford the lessons

Somewhat on topic: This reminds me of a story of some guys in Hong Kong (I think) who jumped what looked like some unsuspecting old guys in an attempt to rob them and proceeded to get their asses handed to them as it turns out old guy one was a Master in Tae Kwan Do and the other a Master in Karate. Ironically they were both returning from having recently judged a local competition.

[Mike Taylor]

Gotta love drunks...

Fortunately, my encounters with them always revolved around making money off of them.

"So, you want a six inch Cold Cut on white bread, right?"

*"Yesh..."

"Double Meat?"

*"Yeah!"

"Double Cheese?"

*"Hell yeah! Add some bacon, too!"

"How about some extra veggies?"

*"Gimme summa them peppers, too."

"You want that as a combo with chips and a drink?"

*"Yeah..."

Meanwhile, a little piddly $2 sandwich has now ballooned up to a $10 order. Drunk buys it, and as soon as he gets out the door he opens the sandwich and spills the whole fucking thing all over the sidewalk. By this point, we are closed and he staggers off into the night while the boss and I laugh ourselves silly.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Way off topic: I so want lessons, maybe not martial arts but I've always liked fencing and other martial styles. I just can't afford the lessons

Find your local SCA and fight/fence with them. Lessons are free. You can use loaner gear till you decide you want to continue it. If you're interested, I'll help you find them.

I used to date a guy who would, out of the blue, say things like, "You know, I could probably hit you so fast you'd never see it coming."

Cool. I'd think you were a lot less of a fucking raving lunatic woman-abuser-in-training if you'd just said you didn't want to date me anymore, but okay. Point taken. Same end result. Whatever.

Then he had the nerve to get miffed when I quit dating him. Some guys, I swear. I couldn't make this stuff up.

[crazylegs]

Find your local SCA and fight/fence with them.

Quick question, whats SCA?

[dreams305]

It's kinda like Ren Faire meets Fight Club.

[XCashier]

Quick question, whats SCA?

The Society for Creative Anachronism

Well, a possibly drunk fellow wanders in to ask about prices. He was an older man and had a bit of a stumble to him. The wife is talking to him about pricing and classes and asks who would be attending classes, whether it would be himself or perhaps grandkids.
He stopped her there and said that wasn't really important and then proceeded to tell her he could beat her up because he likes Bruce Lee.

Well, I strongly doubt Bruce Lee would approve of him initiating an unprovoked attack on a woman. Besides, it's awfully stupid to pick a fight in a martial arts studio.

[Sliceanddice]

I was the scary one in my aikido classes, i told one guy who treated me a little babish (cause im short and sweet) about it, he laughed until i offered him the number of the ex marine cop who would ask me nicely each morning not to throw him in to the mirror or the Aikido master who i almost sent to the hospital when i almost broke a rip. He treats me better now.
I want to get back to its fun.

[Sharsarannon]

Way off topic: I so want lessons, maybe not martial arts but I've always liked fencing and other martial styles. I just can't afford the lessons

There are planty of legit places to learn many great Asian martial arts through community programs that are low-cost, SCA is great for historical rapier, and for their Sport "combat" in armor http://www.sca.org/ , and if you want to learn something like say real historical use of a Sword, ("Broadsword" longsword, greatsword, knightly sword, whatever) try these guys: http://www.thearma.org/

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It's kinda like Ren Faire meets Fight Club.

Oh, excellent! I'm gonna steal this!

[ArenaBoy]

Ah, claiming to be tough because one is interested in Bruce Lee does not mean that you are a student of his. I own a few of his books and they are the closest that I'll ever get to fighting like him and all it really means was that I bought some training supplements (Not that kind). But man those books helped me big time in sparring. I was about 95% close to getting my junior black belt but then my Sensei ups and disappears on me and my fellow students. As of late though, I'm starting to train again just because.

Tried fencing but I found it too restricted whereas with kendo I had some freedom. Only thing I didn't like about kendo is that being hit by bamboo hurts like hell.

Random fact about Bruce: When he did the Green Hornet, he was asked by the cameramen to slow his movements down in fight scenes. Also, Enter the Dragon = Great movie.

[Chanlin]

OT: Again, thanks all for the possible advice. Its one of those things I've always been interested in trying out, but since I'm not sure how much I will like/ be able to commit I could never see spending money on it. I had tried checking out the SCA some time back and it never really crossed my mind again. RK is graciously looking into some people she might know in my area for me (thanks again) So I'd rather not hijack this thread with too much more about it.

[InsanityInc]

Kinda reminds me of that video clip of the twit who decided to pick a fight with his old lady right across the street from a dojo. The sensei came out, broke it up, and then when the guy tried to attack him, laid the twit out. Twit stood back up, tried again. Same result. Ended up his old lady and the driver of the taxi they had been in helped him to the car and got him out of there. *snicker* he wasn't walking too good for some reason.

[MystyGlyttyr]

DUMMY.

I like to think that I could hold my own against the vast majority of trained martial artists, just out of sheer will and ability to absorb punishment. But once you start getting into levels of more than one black belt or a level that's just numbers that keep getting bigger, nuh-uh. If I HAVE to attack one of those, it's going to be with a very big, very sharp knife, or preferably a gun from about fifteen feet away.

Off Topic...I once worked a match with a 10-year-old Tae Kwon Do student who was with his class in front of a store doing fundraising. I talked to the instructor and told her I was a pro wrestler and could take the abuse, and so we had a quick exhibition match right there on the sidewalk between me and the most adorable little green belt. I put him in a couple holds, then he kicked the tar out of me. *snickers* God, that was fun. Do martial arts schools hire tackling dummies?

[Geek King]

Tried fencing but I found it too restricted whereas with kendo I had some freedom. Only thing I didn't like about kendo is that being hit by bamboo hurts like hell.

It's supposed to hurt. It encourages you not to get hit.

Do martial arts schools hire tackling dummies?

Answer: Yes! However, they refer to them as 'white belts' or possibly 'new students.'