View Single Post
Old 07-05-2010, 05:29 AM   #12
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
United_States
Offline
Re: Life Question - Harming Another Human Being

Quote:
Michael McNamara wrote: View Post
Something happened yesterday that made me take pause. There was a new student in our Aikido class who mostly takes Krav Maga at the same dojo. While we were paired up, we practiced kotegaeshi, and when his turn came up, he did the move, but added a rather rough end pin where he lifted me back up with a painful arm bend, which was not how we were supposed to execute. That didn't bother me much, but while he had me he said "If you want to kill someone, then do this." which was a mock hit to the thorax.
I'm going to go way, way out on a limb and venture a guess that this new student thought that physically and verbally demonstrating his pre-existing knowledge would gain him respect. What do you think? Safe bet?

It's an extremely common thing for adult beginners -- at anything -- to try to demonstrate that they're not really a beginner (although they are), or if they can't even begin to do that, to establish that they're skilled/important/experienced at something else that people should respect (e.g., they'll trot out their professional credentials, or start talking about how widely they've traveled, or begin lecturing you about philosophy). It's silly and obnoxious behavior, but almost all of us do it to some degree.
  Reply With Quote