on September 15, 2009 12:10 AM
You know you've drawn a bad partner when he says "I want to bite you!"
I'd say the chances are probably high that I'll run into him again given the smallish group of people in the area who are into self-defense, pistol training and competition.
I think said partner is probably a decent guy outside of a martial arts context, but that kind of physical contact can get the dander up.
But, the thing of it is, and what caused me to blog about it, is that sparring is sparring. It's not competition, and it's not fighting. I'd rather "lose" every sparring match and learn something than "win" and not learn anything. (I'm not even "into" martial arts in the first place.)
When I was doing the "billy goat" training with Hsoi, which is literally a head to head thing as the name implies, I wasn't trying to win. I wasn't trying to lose either, but I wanted to learn, and I did learn. I learned about leverage, keeping my hips square, footwork, balance, etc. I do a lot of leg work in the gym, so I felt like if I really wanted to I could dominate things, but I kept the pressure appropriate for the context, and I'm sure he learned too.
Due to height difference, the "biter" (I don't know his name) suggested the four of us change partners, and we did.
Southnarc would show us a move, but I couldn't even practice it because he was instantly fighting it. Yeah, it's good not to just be a practice dummy, but you have to learn the basic move first.
At one point after Southnarc showed us a move where you grab the back of the neck of your opponent. At his first opportunity my new partner yanked down on the back of my head (not neck) with full force bringing my chin into my chest. It didn't feel too good and I couldn't breathe. My neck is sore and I'm sure that is a big reason. (Since he didn't do it right, it didn't work either, I stayed up and pushed him off.)
Well needless to say, that changed the tone of things for me. He kept going hard and he landed on the ground a few times. I am bigger and stronger than he is to start with, and when he tried too hard he was unbalanced. Newsflash: when you are unbalanced, you fall.
At one point he fell right underneath me and I gave him 3 quick, light taps to his kidney. I was trying to let him know what a real opponent could have done, but I think it just made him mad and he lunged for my knees. I fell on top of him and was spinning around for mount (and like I said, I don't do MMA so I'm not sure where that came from, maybe TV) when Southnarc called "break!"
A couple of skirmishes after that is when he said he wanted to bite me. (WTF?) I asked for clarification and he repeated that he wanted to bite me. I told him not to with an implied "or else!"
I think not being able to beat me was really frustrating him, and again that's not the reason we spar, and furthermore the reason he was having such a hard time with me is because he was being a knucklehead.
Thankfully we took a 10 minute break soon after that and Hsoi had apparently been dealing with the same kind of thing from his partner and was quick to suggest we go back to the previous arrangement.
The funny thing is those two continued doing that stuff, and I saw "biter" fall several more times. I guess those two are just super competitive types, which is fine for them I guess but it was kind of a distraction from what was otherwise some very good instruction.
Update:
I got an email from Jay. He says what he said was "I am tempted to bite you", that he meant it as a joke, he points out I should have said something (which I should have), and it's not fair to call him "biter".
I appreciate him contacting me, and am not going to hold a grudge. It's contact training, stuff happens.
I'd go back and delete this just for the sake of putting it away for good, but that always bothers me when other people do it.
I'd say the chances are probably high that I'll run into him again given the smallish group of people in the area who are into self-defense, pistol training and competition.
I think said partner is probably a decent guy outside of a martial arts context, but that kind of physical contact can get the dander up.
But, the thing of it is, and what caused me to blog about it, is that sparring is sparring. It's not competition, and it's not fighting. I'd rather "lose" every sparring match and learn something than "win" and not learn anything. (I'm not even "into" martial arts in the first place.)
When I was doing the "billy goat" training with Hsoi, which is literally a head to head thing as the name implies, I wasn't trying to win. I wasn't trying to lose either, but I wanted to learn, and I did learn. I learned about leverage, keeping my hips square, footwork, balance, etc. I do a lot of leg work in the gym, so I felt like if I really wanted to I could dominate things, but I kept the pressure appropriate for the context, and I'm sure he learned too.
Due to height difference, the "biter" (I don't know his name) suggested the four of us change partners, and we did.
Southnarc would show us a move, but I couldn't even practice it because he was instantly fighting it. Yeah, it's good not to just be a practice dummy, but you have to learn the basic move first.
At one point after Southnarc showed us a move where you grab the back of the neck of your opponent. At his first opportunity my new partner yanked down on the back of my head (not neck) with full force bringing my chin into my chest. It didn't feel too good and I couldn't breathe. My neck is sore and I'm sure that is a big reason. (Since he didn't do it right, it didn't work either, I stayed up and pushed him off.)
Well needless to say, that changed the tone of things for me. He kept going hard and he landed on the ground a few times. I am bigger and stronger than he is to start with, and when he tried too hard he was unbalanced. Newsflash: when you are unbalanced, you fall.
At one point he fell right underneath me and I gave him 3 quick, light taps to his kidney. I was trying to let him know what a real opponent could have done, but I think it just made him mad and he lunged for my knees. I fell on top of him and was spinning around for mount (and like I said, I don't do MMA so I'm not sure where that came from, maybe TV) when Southnarc called "break!"
A couple of skirmishes after that is when he said he wanted to bite me. (WTF?) I asked for clarification and he repeated that he wanted to bite me. I told him not to with an implied "or else!"
I think not being able to beat me was really frustrating him, and again that's not the reason we spar, and furthermore the reason he was having such a hard time with me is because he was being a knucklehead.
Thankfully we took a 10 minute break soon after that and Hsoi had apparently been dealing with the same kind of thing from his partner and was quick to suggest we go back to the previous arrangement.
The funny thing is those two continued doing that stuff, and I saw "biter" fall several more times. I guess those two are just super competitive types, which is fine for them I guess but it was kind of a distraction from what was otherwise some very good instruction.
Update:
I got an email from Jay. He says what he said was "I am tempted to bite you", that he meant it as a joke, he points out I should have said something (which I should have), and it's not fair to call him "biter".
I appreciate him contacting me, and am not going to hold a grudge. It's contact training, stuff happens.
I'd go back and delete this just for the sake of putting it away for good, but that always bothers me when other people do it.
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