what happened at are academy today

[Jiffy]

I'm with Patrick on this one. You handled it well, so it's time to move on.

There will always be people that want to believe they are the best. Let them. As long as you know the truth, why do you have to prove it to them??

[bushido_man96]

Miyamoto Musashi wrote in his book of five rings that a true warrior does not need the approval of others to know that he is strong. By his brasingly doing that shows that he isn't very mature about it. Don't feel bad that you didn't accept his callenge cause that would have just put you down to his level. Only fighting when its necessary is not cowardace; but the true way of the martial arts.

This is true, but did Musashi ever meet a challenge that he didn't accept?

It sounds like the situation was handled well. If your assistant would have fought him, depending on how things worked out, a lawsuit could have ensued.

One thing I would have done is asked him where he trained at. If he can't give a name of the school, or won't, that is where I would say, oooookaaay.....

In the end, it just depends on how each person handles these situations. As for me, I am sorry to say that it would probably depend on the mood I was in. You know, if you are just having one of those days.....

[Neo Dragon]

This is true, but did Musashi ever meet a challenge that he didn't accept?

Well actually no; but there were a few times latter in his life when he wanted to back down; but the opponent wouldn't let him. I recall when, it was either the emperors son or cousin, (I can't remember, its been awhile since I heard the story) challenged him and he refused; but the guy made him fight so Musashi only broke one of his legs instead of killing him. Sure he never lost a match; but there were some that he really didn't want to fight and would have avoided if he could have.

[IcemanSK]

I think it's a common thing that many MA schools experience. Some folks think its cool to "challenge the instructor" of a school. I'm sure that guy went & told his buddies that the fight happened, that it was really him against 5 people, & he did very well.

I trained in a kickboxing gym in a really rough neighborhood. Guys would come in sometimes to want to prove themselves. They'd always pick out the smallest guy to want to spar. That guy was 140 lbs, but also had a 65-1 kickboxing record. More than 1 big, heavy, slow & out of shape tough guy was awakened by his buddies shortly after he climbed in the ring.

I think your assistant instructor handled it well.

[bushido_man96]

This is true, but did Musashi ever meet a challenge that he didn't accept?

Well actually no; but there were a few times latter in his life when he wanted to back down; but the opponent wouldn't let him. I recall when, it was either the emperors son or cousin, (I can't remember, its been awhile since I heard the story) challenged him and he refused; but the guy made him fight so Musashi only broke one of his legs instead of killing him. Sure he never lost a match; but there were some that he really didn't want to fight and would have avoided if he could have.

Cool. I didn't know that. However, he did lose one challenge, to Jo master. I'll look at home tomorrow and get the name.

[mantis.style]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that the assistant didn't do the correct thing. First of all, he should have given straight forward answers instead of giving what could've been things that would get particular bad reaction from the visitor. It sounds too much like he was doing this on purpose.

The correct thing to do would've been to ask the visitor to come back when the instructor is there so that he can answer any questions he might have.

[whitematt]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that the assistant didn't do the correct thing. First of all, he should have given straight forward answers instead of giving what could've been things that would get particular bad reaction from the visitor. It sounds too much like he was doing this on purpose.

The correct thing to do would've been to ask the visitor to come back when the instructor is there so that he can answer any questions he might have.

The original poster said "philosophical" answers, not evasive. And if the school teaches from a philosophical approach, then he answered the questions appropriately for their style.

The fact that a physical confrontation did not occur over this tells me that it was handled well.

[mantis.style]

It's not about whether not he was being evasive or not. It's more like how the answers would seem to an agressive visitor. The last thing you want to do to a kid who wants "to have a go" is give psuedo philosophical answers that don't answer his questions. Great, no fight took place but I still think it wasn't the best way to deal with things. End of the day, the vistitor didn't get any information and to him, he probably felt as if he was being ignored, not taken seriously and treated with a little bit of disprespect, hence the display after getting those answers to his questions.

It was a simple question: do you spar?

why wasn't a simple yes/no answer available?

[jaymac]

It is natural for anyone to want to defend something they honor, but not fighting this individual was a smart choice. You were right in assuming that he could have been under the influence of some drug. I work in an ER and cannot believe the strength of some individuals who come in high on drugs. Sometimes it takes several large officers to hold one small man down. The assistant instructor handled it professionally and no one got hurt.

[masterintraining]

actually i found out some new information about the perticular kid. this was his 3RD!!! time coming to my sifu or are academy. 1st time: my sifu had closed up and was leaving out the backway, like he normaly dose, and the kid came up to him in the back parking lot ( which happens to be very wide) and the same kid whent up to him saying he knows kung-fu to and all this and CHALLENGED MY SIFU TO SPARR. my sifu told him to go away because he dose not play with children and the boy left.

2nd: a mother and her 6year old son came to are academy for practice like they normaly do. and he came and was standing in the doorway blocking them from entering, so my sifu opended the door and made him move out of the way, and he again started talking about what he new, so my sifu asked him who was his master and he named another sifu whom my sifu nows very well, so my sifu told him to get some respect and live, so the boy did. I talked to the son of the sifu that this kid supposedly trains under, because i go to school with him and he said he thinks that he knows who he is once i discribed him, and told me that he could not fight anyway and just goes around asking for challenges to act like he is good. he gave me his name. and then gave me the number of his dads sifu so that my sifu could possibly talk to him about this kid.

but my sifu has also told me that he has had enough of this coming around doing this, and that next time he dose this my sifu is going to like the door and let me fight him( notice i said fight not sparr ) or he might do it depending own the scenario like they would do when he trained.

so now that every1 is aware of this kid inclouding his sifu, and i am training extra hard, and we all no he will come back so now... we wait.