NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/martial/16349

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-01 | 4.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!cayman!mary
From: [e-mail] (Mary Malmros)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Thai kickboxing
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 1 Jan 93 19:59:51 GMT
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Organization: Cayman Systems Inc., Cambridge, MA
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In-reply-to: [e-mail]'s message of 1 Jan 93 07:54:16 GMT


In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bill Cavanaugh) writes:

   In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mary Malmros) writes:
   >
   >In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bob Sarver) writes:
   >
   >   Much of what I found out about taekwondo was that it was impractical in
   >   street defense, because so much of it depended on flamboyant kicking.
   >   Imagine doing that on a gravel surface with three beers under your belt
   >                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   >   (the most common situation where you might have to defend yourself to
   >   begin with).
   >
   >Not for some of us.
   >
   >Please, if you're going to get inebriated and belligerent, don't blame
   >a martial art because it doesn't bail you out.

   I think (hope) what Bob was referring to was the likelyhood that he would
   be attacked in a place and situation where the attacker had been drinking.
   Since most of us only find ourselves in such places if >we're< drinking,
   and since those kinds of altercations usually happen later in the night,
   it's a good bet that the defender is not completely sober...

I'm sure that's what he was referring to as well.  My point was that
drinking messes you up, to a greater or lesser degree.  If you drink,
to be on the safe side, you should assume that it will have some negative
effect on just about anything you do.  It will, in general, assist you in
being loud, obnoxious, belligerent, and stupid, but that's about it.

Going out and getting drunk, especially in a rowdy bar or nasty part of
town, is a little like bungee jumping.  You're engaging in a risky
behavior that's completely optional.  Nobody is making you do it.  Some
people decide they want to do it anyway, for the rush or the thrill or
the exquisite experience of puking against the side of someone's Camaro
afterwards.  So you use some kind of failsafe...but you want to make
sure that your failsafe was designed with that sort of risky behavior
in mind.  You don't take the nifty bungee-cord-chain that your older
brother showed you how to build as an improvised cargo net and jump off
a bridge with it, and you don't take the jumping wheel kick that your
sabumnim taught you and try to take out an assailant in a parking lot
when you're three sheets to the wind.  That's not the use they were
intended for, and it's not why they were taught to you.  If you insist
in trying to use them in an inappropriate situation, you shouldn't
blame them for not working.

Personally, I don't have a lot of respect for people who expect a
martial art to save them from the consequences of their own stupidity
(and I am not saying that Bob falls into that category, at all).  I
have respect for people who are forced to live or travel in risky
areas, who do their best to avoid problems rather than court them
or create them, and who defend themselves to the best of their ability
when they must.  I think that any martial art can offer a lot to someone
like that.  The techniques are tools: they have no intrinsic value,
and are useful only when chosen with care and used appropriately.

--
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 Mary Malmros     | Cayman Systems Inc, 26 Landsdowne St, Cambridge, MA 02139
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