# Got a Cato-wannabe?



## girlbug2 (Jul 1, 2008)

An assistant instructor at my school, "Pete", was telling us about this one guy at his work who knows he practices martial arts and decides that it's his job to test him now and then with a surprise "attack". Lately when Pete was sitting in a wheeled chair on a tile floor at his desk the coworker came up from behind and got him in a bear hug. Pete said he never fights back "for real" because he'd do the guy some real damage and it's just not worth it. So Pete just puts up with it tolerantly and tells the coworker what he would have done if the "attack" were real and leaves it at that. But the guy obviously needs some convincing that this martial arts stuff really works because he keeps trying, maybe to show Pete up or something.

Pete did add to us, however, that we _should_ develop our reactions instinctively and that anybody who surprise attacks us is, in effect, asking for it.

What's your opinion on that?

Do you have a "Cato" wannabe to put up with? How do you deal?


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## Empty Hands (Jul 1, 2008)

Sounds like it is time to unleash a full strength Captured Twigs...

What an idiot.  Someone needs to break his nose for him to teach him some manners.


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## Andy Moynihan (Jul 1, 2008)

Well, none of my coworkers know I train, but I have occasionally had words with a paerticular 17-year old who doesn't yet know how the world works and will try to act tough, not so much in a "bully" way but in an I'm-still-a-tadpole-testing-the-waters-around-people-to-find-where-in-the-chain-i-can-squeeze-in kinda way.

Just little stuff. I never threaten him outright because I don't see a need and we otherwise get along fine:

Scene 1:

Him( after I ask what happens if we don't get a job done by time X):  (Cocky smile) "My foot has an appointment with your ***".

Me: (Smiling right back): "You can try that out and see what happens."

Him(Gauging reaction and still keeping the smile on): Oh c'mon, have a little humor".

Scene 2:

Him(noticing my haircut and dog tags): "So you're like GI Joe, huh?"

Me: "Yeah, I'm in both the State Guard and the Civil Air Patrol".

Him: "So you could probably kick my ***, huh?"

Me: (as if we were discussing nothing more than sports or cars): "Yep". 

Scene 3:

(he pulls up in the fork truck and we were talking about the job and exchanging jokes) 

Him: (cocky smile) "Don't make me slap you all over the warehouse"

Me(just as laid back and smiley): "Come on down(off the truck)"

Him(laughing): "I'm good right here".


Those are stretched out over maybe a year, so it ain't a huge thing.

Nothing over the top, but I say just enough back so he knows not to attempt to take it further into bullying/mean stages is all.

But with younger men( and some older ones who never grow up) sometimes it has to be done, though.


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## CoryKS (Jul 1, 2008)

My opinion is that he hasn't actually managed to surprise "Pete" yet.  He'll know when he has.  He probably won't like it.


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## girlbug2 (Jul 1, 2008)

CoryKS said:


> My opinion is that he hasn't actually managed to surprise "Pete" yet. He'll know when he has. He probably won't like it.


 
Yeah, that's kinda what I get from Pete's unspoken message.


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## mook jong man (Jul 2, 2008)

I hate idiots like that and its one of the reasons when i start at a job i never tell any one that i did wing chun. 
Their attitude towards you changes , half the people think your some sort of maniac , and the other half think your Jacky Chan and your forever fending off fake attacks. 
The times that i did respond to their attacks they were a bit shocked because any body who has chi sau training knows that your arms have a mind of their own. 
All of this always seemed to happen just at the moment when the foreman of the factory was walking past so it looked like i was the one messing around. 
You rarely meet anybody that is truly interested in what you do, so from past experience i prefer not to tell them.


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## Guro Harold (Jul 2, 2008)

girlbug2 said:


> An assistant instructor at my school, "Pete", was telling us about this one guy at his work who knows he practices martial arts and decides that it's his job to test him now and then with a surprise "attack". Lately when Pete was sitting in a wheeled chair on a tile floor at his desk the coworker came up from behind and got him in a bear hug. Pete said he never fights back "for real" because he'd do the guy some real damage and it's just not worth it. So Pete just puts up with it tolerantly and tells the coworker what he would have done if the "attack" were real and leaves it at that. But the guy obviously needs some convincing that this martial arts stuff really works because he keeps trying, maybe to show Pete up or something.
> 
> Pete did add to us, however, that we _should_ develop our reactions instinctively and that anybody who surprise attacks us is, in effect, asking for it.
> 
> ...


Let HR Judo chop his .


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## tellner (Jul 2, 2008)

I've been in similar situations. In one it was an 18 year old who had gone through his adolscent growth spurt and was carrying around more testosterone than he knew what to do with. 

After the "Yeah, well I bet I could kick your ***" I smiled warmly and said "You probably could". Without looking down I held his eye, reached down and, mmmm, grasped the root of the problem. Not hard. Just enough to get his complete attention. He understood what I wanted to tell him and required no further explanation.

In a one like the bear hug I said "Yes darling, oh yes. But please kiss me and tell me you love me." You have never seen an S.O.B. jump away from a clinch so quickly in your entire life :wink2:


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## girlbug2 (Jul 2, 2008)

tellner said:


> .
> 
> In a one like the bear hug I said "Yes darling, oh yes. But please kiss me and tell me you love me." You have never seen an S.O.B. jump away from a clinch so quickly in your entire life :wink2:


 
LOL I like that!


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## exile (Jul 2, 2008)

tellner said:


> In a one like the bear hug I said "Yes darling, oh yes. But please kiss me and tell me you love me." You have never seen an S.O.B. jump away from a clinch so quickly in your entire life :wink2:



:lol:


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## Kacey (Jul 2, 2008)

A friend of mine's husband used to try to sneak up and startle me, "to see you react", he said.  So one day as he was trying it, I pick my foot up just as he was going to goose me... my foot was about 1" from his groin, as I pointed out that they weren't planning to have any more kids.  He's never tried it since.


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## lightning (Jul 4, 2008)

I can relate to this kind of situation,it happened in our monthly picnic and there was a member from another group that was trying to poke everyone from behind with a stick and everyone was really annoyed to what he was doing and we even warned him to stop,but to no avail, he kept doing it,as if testing everyone's reaction,until he poked one guy and viola! he was lying flat on the ground and didn't know what happened,sad for him it was a friend of mine who is an Aikidoka master and the special guest performer for that said picnic.


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## tellner (Jul 4, 2008)

Kacey said:


> So one day as he was trying it, I pick my foot up just as he was going to goose me... my foot was about 1" from his groin, as I pointed out that they weren't planning to have any more kids.  He's never tried it since.



You're nicer than many of us would have been...


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## ArmorOfGod (Jul 4, 2008)

tellner said:


> In a one like the bear hug I said "Yes darling, oh yes. But please kiss me and tell me you love me." You have never seen an S.O.B. jump away from a clinch so quickly in your entire life :wink2:


 
LOL
I loved that!
That is what I was thinking when I started reading this thread.
That is classic.

AoG


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## ArmorOfGod (Jul 4, 2008)

Back to the thread,
I hate to say this, and some of you may frown at me, but it may be a good idea to invite him to workout at the local park right after work and school his wanna-be butt.
I am not talking about hurting him badly, but knock him down a peg or two.  Make sure it stays light-hearted during the workout/sparring, but make sure he realizes that you are better trained than him.
The other thing you have to consider is if you retaliate physically at work, you are automatically fired for "horse play."  Even when I was a union representative, our power to protect the worker dissolved if there was "horse play" or physical roughhousing on the job site.
If the threats are verbal, I would do as above and make fake passes (jokingly) or just agree with them every time and say he could beat your butt.  I did that every time when I worked at one place and for some reason it made people wary of what I could do.  They stopped picking on me and started asking me to work out with them on the company baseball field. I ended up meeting a lot of nice people because of that.

AoG


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## Kacey (Jul 4, 2008)

tellner said:


> You're nicer than many of us would have been...



His wife is one of my best friends - I didn't want _her_ to suffer for _his_ idiocy.


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## Drac (Jul 5, 2008)

girlbug2 said:


> Do you have a "Cato" wannabe to put up with? How do you deal?


 
Do you mean Kato as in Bruce Lee's role in the Green Hornet????


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## jks9199 (Jul 5, 2008)

Drac said:


> Do you mean Kato as in Bruce Lee's role in the Green Hornet????


I think it's Cato as in Inspector Clouseau's houseboy/butler in the Pink Panther movies...


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## Jade Tigress (Jul 5, 2008)

Drac said:


> Do you mean Kato as in Bruce Lee's role in the Green Hornet????


 
Kato from The Pink Panther movies. The scenes are hilarious.

I haven't known any "human" Katos, but I had a cat I named Kato for the reason that he would attack out of the blue. Walk up the stairs, the cat's lying there quietly, then all of sudden BAM, he jumps up and attacks your legs. You're sitting there petting him nicely, then all of a sudden BAM, he attacks your arm. It got to the point where, like Inspector Clouseau, you'd walk in the house and try to be aware of the cat's whereabouts, preparing yourself for the unexpected attack. He was a good cat, but definitely a Kato personality.


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## tshadowchaser (Jul 5, 2008)

Living in a small community everyone pretty much know everyone or if they dont their neighbor dose, so most people know who studies the arts and who dose not.  When I lived in the city it was not that way and I usually did not tell people at work that I studied. Even not telling people sometimes dose not work, because over time 
we develop reactions and do small things that give us away if people watch closely.

I once worked with a young man that was always bragging about one thing or another, we can call him STU (for stupid). His tales where fantastic and unbelievable and usually harmless. We had another coworker (Ken) that did study Kenpo and we all knew it because he would leave work and go directly to the school to study. Well Stu was egging  Ken on one day throwing punches and kicking at Ken till Ken simply said  you should be careful you might hurt yourself. You never know what some peoples reaction might be. Ken left the room with a smile on his face and winked at me as he went out the door. Later in the day I had the opportunity to have dinner with Ken and asked what the wink was for. He replied that he had known for some time that I studied because of some of the reactions he had seen and the way I moved and walked into rooms.  

I guess I never realized that my self-defense mechanisms kicked in without my paying much attention, so I learned to watch my reactions a little more.

As for STU yes he eventually tried his stuff on me but that is a different story  LOL


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## Drac (Jul 5, 2008)

jks9199 said:


> I think it's Cato as in Inspector Clouseau's houseboy/butler in the Pink Panther movies...


 
Almost forgot about that one..


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