I'm having a bit of an issue and I'd like some perspective on this. Around a month ago a young lady joined our club. She told me she'd "dabbled" in karate when she was a child but had never graded. Therefore, obviously she started from white belt. She seemed to be a pretty average starter, couldn't get the kicks too high, wobbled around a bit, cowared during kumite (!) and generally looked like a complete beginner, which was fine. But then she started slipping up with certain things, she spoke in Japanese and then seemed to clam up when she realised she'd done it. She counted in Japanese without being prompted seemingly without realising she was doing it and she'd occasionally use japanese terms for stances which our brown belts had trouble remembering. I let it go, assuming she was a quick learner but then last week another man joined the club. He seemed to want to put across this macho persona and was quite rough during kumite. I delibrately kept him away from the lower grades. Then during a quick change over when we were running short on time, he and this young woman ended up together. I let it go on and warned them both to exercise control. Anyway he ended up punching her in the face. A few of the other students insisted he'd done it on purpose but he swore it was an accident. I asked her if she wanted to sit out and she insisted on continuing the fight which suprised me as she'd always seemed so placid and scared of kumite. So I let them finish it off and seconds into it, she swept him, spun around and hit across the head with a spinning back kick. It was WAY beyond the ability of a white belt. The guy just crumbled and the whole place fell in silence. I asked her where she'd learnt that and she said she didn't know, she just thought she'd try it but I simply don't believe her. So why would anyone pretend to be so short of knowledge and skill if they're obviously not? Am I being paranoid or is something untoward going on here?
