Companies Using MMA for Bonding

[Patrick]

From the Glove and Mail:

Unika Hypolite clenches his fist as though he's about to punch his boss in the face.

Instead he charges Damon Lau's midsection, hoists him over his shoulder and slams him to the ground.

He's acting out every downtrodden office drone's fantasy: the boss smackdown. But instead of a pink slip and a police record, Mr. Hypolite gets a high-five and a big grin from Mr. Lau.

[bushido_man96]

That is kind of cool. Team building like this happens quite a bit in MA training, so taking it this far doesn't really suprise me.

[Johnlogic121]

I think that getting together for group activites with people from the workplace is generally a good idea. However, I think that something like a cooperative team sport like bowling might be a better forum for mutual friendliness than martial arts. I used to work as a computer software developer in a company where we discussed the idea of joining a bowling league. However, if we would have done a martial arts program, several of the company's personalities would have probably come into conflict. I don't want to speculate and name names, but I can imagine that most of the engineering team would have tried extra hard to beat up the lead salesman who was the brother of the company's boss... He would always pass on information late and generally goof off all of the time and people despised him. Our big boss also had the kind of personality where he wanted you to play competitive at things like company volleyball during our yearly picnic, but he would really hate you and your coworkers if he was on the team that lost the game. Giving him a sidekick to the head would be a pleasure, but you might hear about it the next day in other ways. Having to let the boss win is a drag. -JL

[bushido_man96]

Having to let the boss win is a drag. -JL

Ah, yes. Kind of like golfing with the boss, eh? However, I think this is done more in team building, and not employee/employer setups.

[Patrick]

That reminds me of the Simpsons comic I read where Homer golfed with Mr. Burns.