In the middle of a varsity baseball game, down by more than a dozen runs, my coach, a former pro player, told our pitcher, Tommy, to throw the ball at the opposing hurler when he came to bat.
"Hit him in the head!" He said forcefully, leaving no doubt in my team's mind as to his orders.
Tommy slowly returned to the mound, obviously distracted and confused, and in no mood to injure another player, even if the opponent was doing a great job of burying us that day.
Tommy ended up throwing a pitch or two down and inside, and at a low enough velocity so they did not pose any threat to his counterpart.
That incensed our coach, who stalked the dugout like a frustrated tiger, as the scene failed to play out to his specifications.
From that point forward, Tommy was given the worst possible pitching assignments, and when we were losing badly, the coach kept him in the games simply to prolong his misery.
I offer this episode to you because it reminds me of what I've seen in martial arts.
Instructors have whispered "Hit him!" To various students in order to serve their own cravings for a spectacle, or for payback.
This raises a crucial question: Is it ever appropriate for a martial arts instructor to promote injuries, or to cause them directly, himself?
For instance, if student A is pummeling student B and is about to
Inflate grave bodily injury upon B, we'd want an
Instructor or Sensei to step in and separate the two in order to
Reduce the threat.
If A "got a dose of his own medicine" in the process,
We would not weep for him, except his punishment was out of
Proportion and obviously
Undeserved.
But in most other scenarios, it would seem self-defeating for a teacher and especially for the head of the school to injure those that are paying the rent, preventing them from training.
Yet this happens more often than anyone realizes, especially to students that believe they are training in a safe and secure atmosphere. But, why?
Five reasons come to mind, right away:
(1) Boredom. Instructors run the risk of zoning out if they continue to run the same drills, the same way, day in and day out. So, to spice things up, sometimes they let their dojos turn into a scene out of "Fight Club."
(2) To take a student down a notch. If a trainee's ego is showing itself too much, an instructor, or a proxy acting on behalf of an instructor, will humble the offender.
(3) To induce a student to quit. You'd think taking him away for a friendly chat would do the trick more efficiently, but many martial arts types are nonverbal, and surprisingly they avoid VERBAL confrontations.
(4) To prove to themselves and to others that "This stuff really works!" Amazingly, even the most seasoned martial arts students doubted their abilities to defend themselves in a "real fight," so they can not resist the temptation to try a move or two on a conveniently placed, living and breathing crash dummy.
(5) Sadism. Where else, except at Dottie's Domination Dungeon, can you get people to pay you to hit them, to yell at them, to exercise them half to death, and then to bow to you in submission and gratitude?
Martial arts training, by necessity involves using and confronting force. Accidentally, some injuries will follow.
But to promote them, no matter how you rationalize it, is more than stupid.
It's criminal.
source http://bitcoinswiz.com/should-martial-arts-instructors-be-allowed-to-injure-students/
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