Its time again to tell the old tale (been 2 years I think)...
The Lesson of the Chair:
The Weapons Continuum (a student asked me recently to repeat this old story, because newer people have not read it)
Back in the mid- 1990's I did some seminars in a classical martial arts school in the southeast. The local host loved the diverse, modern material I showed and always contacted the schools in his parent organization coaxing them to attend. Finally after the fourth visit, his “head guy” committed to attend and the local host told me the morning before the seminar,
“Hock, the head guy Joe __________ is coming this weekend. He owns a whole string of these schools all over the southeast and if you impress him, he will start having you in to teach these chains.”
“Good.” I said.
“Well, he wants to see how good you are.” The host said.
“Yeah.” I nodded my head. Such a review was obvious.
“I mean,” the host continued,” He wants to see how good you are. In like…he wants to spar with you. If you spar real well, he will probably start having you in.”
“Spar? Well…ok. I can do that.” I shrugged my shoulders. I had been sparring since the early 1970's, and adequate at it, but certainly no champion. Sparring is hardly a reflection on “how good” my hand, stick, knife, gun combat reality, survival courses are. And, I had purposely spent years weaning myself away from the sport, tennis-match, give-and-take, back-and-forth, "sportee-ness" of kickboxing/sparring to end fights more realistically and quickly. Apples and oranges. This school, this chain, like so manyof the karate and tae kwon do schools today had developed simply into kickboxing and kata academies.
The head guy arrived and was just a super guy. We talked for a bit and then he said to the local host,
“Did you tell him?”
“Yeah,” said the host.
“Good!” the head guy said and turned to me with a friendly smile, “Well, get your stuff.” And he proceeded to the wall where his bag of gear rested. He zipped it open and started in applying shin guards. Next, out came his boxing gloves and mouthpiece. (By the way, this whole thing was no big Hollywood-like, fight challenge, but very casual and friendly, like old workout buddies going to do some sparring.)
I walked to the other wall. In martial arts schools all over the world one thing you always see is the white or green, cheap, plastic chair. For fifty bucks you can buy about 15 of them and seat a whole group of parents. I grabbed the chair and started back to the middle of the mat holding it like a lion tamer.
Still on one knee the head guy looked over at me quizzically.
“This,” I explained, “is my stuff. My gear. When a fight starts I grab the first good weapon I can and fight with it. If I loose the chair, then I am down to hand-to-hand fighting, unless I can get a hold of something else. This is what and how I teach.”
The guy grinned, shook his head and immediately took off his gear off and stuffed it back in the bag. I was prepared to dance around a bit with him after I made this point about the chair. No big deal. But instead, he zipped up his loaded bag. The event attendees showed up and we started the seminar. The head guy had a great time and we got along marvelously for two solid days. At the end he shook my hand and said he learned a lot. But, I was never invited back to this school, or any others in the chain again. Perhaps the message of the chair was shocking? Too much? I don't know.
The chair was just an improvised weapon, what we must reflexively snatch when any fight starts. There are martial arts through the history of time that have actually specialized in the rendering of everyday items into weapons of destruction. This type of training is still afforded to many espionage and special operations agents of today.
The modern warrior, the urban and suburban survivor battles inside a continuum of weapons and their ranges, loosely listed here:
Missiles
Biological weapons
Sniper rifles
Long guns
Anti-tank weaponry / RPGs
Grenade and grenade launchers
Pistols
Short range sprays
Sticks
Knives
Improvised weapons
Hand
Word
History recalls that soldiers in their trenches preparing for battle have lined up their weapons, their ammo and at times even stacked rocks to chunk on the edge of their foxhole when all else is expended! When all is else has been propelled and the enemy closes in, the knife stabs into the fight. Knife gone, then it's the hands. Dead last. Hand to hand fighting is at the bottom of the list (and kick boxing is just a slice of that slice in the weapon's continuum.) The last resort. The worst-case scenario.When you don't even have a rock left to throw!
There is a military and police distinction between heavily-armed and lightly-armed. Few of us will fire missiles from silos, platforms and planes. Few will ever shoot sniper rifles, RPGs and LAWS rockets. For unarmed citizens, even lightly armed cops and guards under strict use of force rules, the improvised weapon is a tricky ace up the sleeve of survival. Improvised weapons of all types surround you. Practice identifying them in your common travels. An improvised tool can be used for three things, to throw, to use as a shield or to batter with in combat.
When is a chair not a chair? In the hands of a lion tamer fending off and controlling the enraged beast.
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Topic: Lesson of the Chair: reduex (Read 618 times)