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A couple weeks ago I started dating a girl. Her father teaches a martial art combination of TKD and FMA. He was exited about meeting me and showing me his dojo.
The first day I go over there he shows me his dojo. He's gotta pretty sweet setup and he starts parading around the mats swinging his kali sticks and showing me some cool stick fighting stuff.
He asks me what martial arts I'm into. I tell him I'm a grappler with a kempo background. Immediatly he wants to spar with me.
I laugh and say I will but I know I'm not going to stand up and trade kicks and punches, I'm going to take it to the ground. My friends laugh and so does he and he says he dosen't care I can do whatever I think I can.
I'm worried beacuse this dude is in shape but he's like 49 years old. But I want to test my skills so we go at it.
He thows a few kicks and I backpeddel. He's throwing with power and we have no protective gear whatsoever. I decide it needs to go down...now...or he's gunna kick me hard. So I slip in real fast and get behind him and take him backwards over my leg. We hit the ground and he palm strikes me in the chin, I take that arm and armbar him. He rolls out and slips into my gaurd. We roll around for a bit and then he says he's tired and goes inside.
I talked to my girlfriend about the whole thing and she says her dad is mad at me. She says he thinks I took the whole thing to seriously and I hurt his foot somehow. And that he says I'm not a martial artist, I'm a street fighter. I tried to explian that I've delved into the philosphies of JKD and have found that for me, grappling is what I do best and that it's a martial art, it's just differnt from TKD. That I take whatever techniques that work for me from all the martial arts I encounter and mold them into my own personal art.
She tells me again that I'm not a martial artist and that I'm not a good fighter. She tells me I'm mean and I spar dirty.
Flabergasted I respond with, if I'm not a good martial artist, how did I beat your dad whos been doing this for 20 some years. She says I "cheated". I laugh and say that taking it to the ground is not cheating, it's just another aspect of physical combat. I ask her, "If you think your dad is such a great martial artist why dosen't he do any ground fighting." She says, "He dosen't need to learn it." "Why?" "Because TKD is all anyone needs to defend themselves" I laugh "How come I took your dad down then?"
"Because you cheated"
We've been debating this for weeks now. I need someway to convince her that 1. groundfighting is NOT cheating. and 2. Learning all the aspects of combat, mental and physical is the only way to truly become a complete martial artist.
Any thoughts about this event or advice for me? She won't let this go so I can't just not talk about it, I need to resolve it.
The first day I go over there he shows me his dojo. He's gotta pretty sweet setup and he starts parading around the mats swinging his kali sticks and showing me some cool stick fighting stuff.
He asks me what martial arts I'm into. I tell him I'm a grappler with a kempo background. Immediatly he wants to spar with me.
I laugh and say I will but I know I'm not going to stand up and trade kicks and punches, I'm going to take it to the ground. My friends laugh and so does he and he says he dosen't care I can do whatever I think I can.
I'm worried beacuse this dude is in shape but he's like 49 years old. But I want to test my skills so we go at it.
He thows a few kicks and I backpeddel. He's throwing with power and we have no protective gear whatsoever. I decide it needs to go down...now...or he's gunna kick me hard. So I slip in real fast and get behind him and take him backwards over my leg. We hit the ground and he palm strikes me in the chin, I take that arm and armbar him. He rolls out and slips into my gaurd. We roll around for a bit and then he says he's tired and goes inside.
I talked to my girlfriend about the whole thing and she says her dad is mad at me. She says he thinks I took the whole thing to seriously and I hurt his foot somehow. And that he says I'm not a martial artist, I'm a street fighter. I tried to explian that I've delved into the philosphies of JKD and have found that for me, grappling is what I do best and that it's a martial art, it's just differnt from TKD. That I take whatever techniques that work for me from all the martial arts I encounter and mold them into my own personal art.
She tells me again that I'm not a martial artist and that I'm not a good fighter. She tells me I'm mean and I spar dirty.
Flabergasted I respond with, if I'm not a good martial artist, how did I beat your dad whos been doing this for 20 some years. She says I "cheated". I laugh and say that taking it to the ground is not cheating, it's just another aspect of physical combat. I ask her, "If you think your dad is such a great martial artist why dosen't he do any ground fighting." She says, "He dosen't need to learn it." "Why?" "Because TKD is all anyone needs to defend themselves" I laugh "How come I took your dad down then?"
"Because you cheated"
We've been debating this for weeks now. I need someway to convince her that 1. groundfighting is NOT cheating. and 2. Learning all the aspects of combat, mental and physical is the only way to truly become a complete martial artist.
Any thoughts about this event or advice for me? She won't let this go so I can't just not talk about it, I need to resolve it.
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