We had reached this point due to a fundamental flaw in his character. Like all bullies, he was accustomed to getting his way, with everyone going along with what he said, and he certainly hadn't expected to meet with the level of assertiveness I had shown a few minutes earlier. He'd not known how to react, and fell back on what he knew - using his size and weight to intimidate anyone who dared to challenge him.
This time, it wasn't going to work. Oh no, sir. Not this time.
The bruises on my forearm would later bear testament to his attempts to shift the offending palm, and to my reluctance to allow that to happen. Despite his bulk, it had stopped his forward momentum, and provided me with a good reference point to deal with any attack he might launch, or to launch one of my own, if doing so became necessary. In truth, those thoughts hadn't been at the forefront of my mind at that moment; a trained response to a threat had been activated.
Maybe his attempts to move the hand were a sign that he understood the danger. It was like the red dot which might alert you to the sniper aiming a high velocity rifle in your direction. He had the advantage in terms of height, weight and even reach, but he'd made the mistake of placing himself within range of my artillery.
"You wouldn't last a minute," he screamed at me - a reminder that his interest in watching boxing and cage fights had given him an unrealistic notion of how long a fight would generally last outside of a sporting arena. He'd been shouting for the past few minutes, which was in marked contrast to the calm, muted responses I'd been giving to his anger. Unfortunately for him, I saw quite clearly where his anger was coming from - it was coming from uncertainty.
Sure, there were points where I was tempted to let him bat my arm away and counter with a punch he wouldn't see, due to his preoccupation with moving the obstacle. If he'd thrown a punch of his own, it would have been quite easy to sense it coming, evade and push him backwards. He was unwise to allow me to gain contact.
"What ya gonna do? Throw your chopsticks at me?" I hadn't needed the reminder of my experience as a martial artist, but his lame attempt at ridicule reminded me that he also knew about it. As he backed away, a little confused and still very angry, he continued to insist things wouldn't have gone my way, had he forced me to fight. I couldn't disagree with that. The last thing I wanted was to fight, so if it had happened, it would already signify a loss of some sort for me.
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I watched a video earlier today that, on the surface, seemed to have nothing to do with martial arts at all. From the comments on the video, no one had noticed something that I had seen. To be honest, it happens quite quickly.
At the 2:27 mark, the young woman in the middle has a panic reaction, and instinctively brings her hands up to guard her face. When her younger associate in the black and white jumper then tries to cling to her, when she's not looking in that direction, she seems to draw back her fist before connecting with a right cross. The young woman in the black and white jumper then falls to the floor. I had to watch it a few times, and then watch it in slow motion, to verify this.
As I follow this group, I actually know who they are. In this context, the fact that they are called Rocket Punch seems to be a tempting of fate. The member who seems to connect her right cross with another member's face is Juri Takahashi - the oldest and only Japanese member of this Korean group. In their latest release, which is being promoted in this video, is the line:
"I wanna hit the world with Rocket Punch." Quite.
In an interview, Juri was asked if she'd ever been involved in any sports. Her reply was that she'd spent a few years learning karate. She then demonstrated this with a perfectly executed high roundhouse. The interview was during a series called Heechul and Shindong's Internet Cafe, if you're interested in finding it.
I've got to admit to having something of a soft spot for Juri. She came to prominence as a member of a Japanese idol group called AKB48, and that was where I first got to know about her. Actually, following her career was how I got to know about Rocket Punch, as did many other fans. Along with two other members of the group, she came to the attention of the Korean audience mostly through her participation on the Produce 48 show (a joint Japanese-Korean venture).
All of that, and the story of how I got into Japanese and Korean pop music, is not the focus of this piece. Our focus is on Juri's martial arts experience. If I had the chance to interview her personally about it, I'd be more than happy, but there are a few reasons why that isn't going to happen, and one reason why it shouldn't happen - I know very little Japanese. I know about karate though, and in Juri's case, we're more than likely talking about Japanese karate, rather than Okinawan karate. I believe she hints at this during her brief interview - "I learned taekwondo... well, not taekwondo... the Japanese one." It's logical that she wouldn't know that the Korean word for karate is... karate.
What we'd call a left or right cross, in western boxing, is quite similar to the reverse punch in Japanese karate. How often is the reverse punch trained in karate? Ideally, often enough that it becomes instinctive - like a panic response, maybe.
The arguments about which martial art is better haven't stopped. If anything, the sport of mixed martial arts has come to prominence as comment streams on the internet have become increasingly polarised on the issue. What I've known for some time is that there is no better or worse martial art, but there is a better or worse martial art for you personally. What's more important is how you train, and how often you train.
The question should always be whether what you learn could become your panic reaction, if trained repeatedly. If it looks overly complicated, the answer is probably "no".
I was trained in Shotokan karate as a child, but for nowhere near as long as I had judo lessons. What I remembered was that judo worked, when I needed it to work, and I rarely used anything I had learned in a karate class. I'm hoping that I never have to use any of this stuff again, but maybe I misjudged karate. Maybe a lot of people have misjudged karate.
Actually, there's something that happened, twice, with two separate opponents. This is something that happened once in a fight where a self-professed martial arts expert was trying his luck against me outside a bar, and once on a mat in a Japanese jujitsu class. Both times, a high roundhouse was fired at me. Both times, I shifted back, just out of range. Both times, I came back into range just in time to kick my opponent in the behind, dropping them forward onto the floor. That was karate. That was my karate.
