Thursday, May 14, 2009

Situations We Aren't Prepared For

It was pointed out to me that I didn't make a post this week other than links to my previous ones. Well when making my Posts to Ponder section I reread a lot of old stories. This one stood out more than the others. I still think about that guy today and what happened to him. Take a second to read the link and the responses. I only had two students show up this Tuesday and they were starting to play around, so I took a moment to relate that story and how situations like that can happen. I wanted to relay that story so that they're aware that there are situations that can come up that your training just doesn't cover, since we train in SELF defense. After relaying the story one of them asked "so..what do we do if that happens?" and all I could say is "I teach Aikido so you can protect yourself. I can't tell you how to use your training for anything else." I talked about how some responses were along the lines of "I'd jump in" and others were "what good would it do me to jump in and get hurt too" and that they were all correct. I think it really gave them something to think about and the rest of the class was a lot more productive. I'd really like anyone reading this post to comment on here how they would react to that situation today. Anyone who's already replied before, do you still feel the same way? Would you do anything differently now?

1 comment:

Sarah Jane said...

I can say exactly what I'd do, other than that it wouldn't have been "nothing." Personally, I think I would feel some level of obligation to help someone that was in over his head like that. Depending on the situation, that reaction might be to physically try to break up a fight, but more likely it would be to call the cops or go outside and try to verbally break up the situation.

As far as a knowledge of martial arts or any kind of physical defense obligating you to get involved, I really don't think that's the case. I think your obligation, if any, is on a purely human level. A knowledge of martial arts only makes you more prepared to deal with the situation if it were to turn on you.