"I'm better than you are!"

[Cirdan]

You handled that well Kennedy. I am suprised he showed up at all. Now we can only hope he has learned something from the experience.

 

[Mr. E]

Now we can only hope he has learned something from the experience.

Probably not. Little people always make excuses and resent those that poke holes in their fantasy world.

My advice is to watch your back. This guy has made a big thing about being bad and bragging about it in front of other people. If he thinks you made him look bad (instead of he himself doing it) he will be looking for a way to make himself look better and get some revenge.

It would not surprise me if he tried to ambush you as part of some "training" drill or something like that.

This guy has put a certain amount of effort into appearing to be big. He has something invested in that. Your very presence now is a threat to that image he as cultivated in all the people around him. If he lives for that image, then you are a threat to something that is the same as his very life. People have killed other people to save face.

He may be a coward and a braggert, but that does not mean that he will not do the worst thing he think he can get away with.

Guess what, now you have to watch your back on so many different levels from this guy for as long as you work and know him. Because now you are the guy that can destroy all he thinks he has worked for. I have known guys whose lineof thinking was that it was easier to kill the guy that threatend the image they tried to present to the world rather than learn and change for the better. You may be working with someone who thinks the same.

Watch your back! He has little to lose in his way of thinking.

 

[MJS]

Bit of an update:​

I asked him if it was the Tae Kwon Do system of Karate that was founded by the tall monk...ok get this his response..."yeah yeah I'm pretty sure that's the one".​

LOL!! That was classic man!!!

So I asked him, "I have a class tomorrow night, why not come show us all some of your stuff?" He kind of hummed and hawed but finally agreed. So I guess we'll see what happens now!

Another priceless moment for you I'm sure!:ultracool At this point I can only imagine the nervous reactions, little bit of sweat starting to form, etc.

The young man in question actually did show up for training (albeit he was 10 minutes late)

I asked him if he would like to come up to the front of the class and assist me. He got this kind of "not-so-sure" look on his face but nodded and came to the front. So first I asked him (and I added since he had so much experience) if he could demonstrate a good horse stance. He kind of hesitated for a second, then told me that the styles that he trained in didn't believe in stances when training.
I then asked if he'd like to demonstrate some of his punches for us. So he got into a very weak looking fighting stance and threw a couple of jabs that would make a blind boxer tear-up.
I asked him to join the rest of the class and said we would do a bit of a warm-up. Within 5 minutes he was drenched with sweat and looked like he was going to vomit.
Then it came time to spar. I told him that I would spar with him (mainly because I have the most amount of control in class and by now had figured he was a phony).
So, we started sparring, I asked him to show me some of his fighting style, I said at first I would only block and wouldn't counter. After about 5 min of him not even being able to get close to me I told him we would switch spots. I'll save you all the grizzly details but needless to say I don't think he blocked one punch or kick that came his way.
At the end of class I had everyone lined up and gave a little 'speech' if you will about how there are a lot of people in the world who like to brag about having martial prowess when 9 times out of 10 they've never even set foot in a martial arts school. One of my students asked me what I would do if such a person came up to me and challenged me. I simply replied ask the gentleman who trained with us today.
Unfortunately my challenger left before I got a chance to talk to him again, I just hope I wasn't too harsh on him.

I'm glad that things worked out for you!! IMHO, you certainly handled the situation in a professional way. You got your points across just enough to make this guy look like a complete fool IFO everyone in your class, but at the same time, there was that touch of being humble about it!! As for being too harsh..not at all.

Out of curiosity...how has he been around you at work since then?

Mike

 

[Kennedy_Shogen_Ryu]

Though I haven't worked with him since, I've had a couple people I work with tell me that he's going around saying that he pretty much taught the whole class, that the workout was a breeze, and he practically had me begging for mercy when we sparred. I just laughed and shrugged it off. I care not, I know what happened, my students know what happened, obviously this guy has an issue with self-esteem, I'm not going to aim to make it any worse. If telling everyone that he whupped me a good one is going to make him feel better...all's to him!
​

 

[tellner]

Mr. E. Has told the absolute unvarnished Truth. Watch your back physically and politically at work.

 

[stone_dragone]

It seems that coming to class only gave him more of a story for those who weren't there. I'd let him go with his story, watch your back and invite anyone else who asks about if he whooped your butt to come to class and draw their own conclusions.

 

[shesulsa]

Probably not. Little people always make excuses and resent those that poke holes in their fantasy world.

My advice is to watch your back. This guy has made a big thing about being bad and bragging about it in front of other people. If he thinks you made him look bad (instead of he himself doing it) he will be looking for a way to make himself look better and get some revenge.

It would not surprise me if he tried to ambush you as part of some "training" drill or something like that.

This guy has put a certain amount of effort into appearing to be big. He has something invested in that. Your very presence now is a threat to that image he as cultivated in all the people around him. If he lives for that image, then you are a threat to something that is the same as his very life. People have killed other people to save face.

He may be a coward and a braggert, but that does not mean that he will not do the worst thing he think he can get away with.

Guess what, now you have to watch your back on so many different levels from this guy for as long as you work and know him. Because now you are the guy that can destroy all he thinks he has worked for. I have known guys whose lineof thinking was that it was easier to kill the guy that threatend the image they tried to present to the world rather than learn and change for the better. You may be working with someone who thinks the same.

Watch your back! He has little to lose in his way of thinking.

I'm so glad I"m not the only one whose mind this crossed.

 

[Fushichou]

I've got a similar story to tell to all this. . .

When I was in college, I started training with a Kempo club, and really fit well with that school and it worked well for me. I'd trained in a smattering of various arts over the years, but it was one of the first times I'd been able to stick with a school for some time. I was really learning and improving as a martial artist.

Within my circle of friends was a guy who wasn't much of a friend of mine, but he was a friend of a lot of friends. This guy was a pathological liar and had lots of stories, but whenever I would mention in passing that I had to leave to go to the dojo, or I had a belt test coming up, or anything else about martial arts he had to brag about how great he was.

He talked about how he studied Shotokan Karate for years and how he was so great and so powerful and how Shotokan was the most "brutal" style of martial arts. I asked him what belt he'd earned, he said he didn't believe in belts and his instructor never awarded them because they are meaningless (which I can't fault an instructor like that really, but it sounded like a cover for only having a low rank or no rank).

He kept challenging me to spar and see how great he was, but I kept declining him, telling him martial arts aren't about proving who is the best. I asked him to come to my dojo, but he said he didn't like the philosophy espoused by it and that he said it was "too pacifistic" for his tastes (I'd previously idly mentioned the philosophical elements of the school's teachings in explaining why I don't duel).

Eventually, our mutual acquaintances got tired of his bragging and arranged for a bit of a chance to see if he had any skill in there or was all talk. You see, my martial arts training had included weapon training, jo, hanbo, bo, bokken ect. He claimed he was a master of all those weapons as well. Some of our friends had bought some heavily padded weapons and as a party game had arranged for a friendly padded swordfighting tournament at a Christmas party, but the brackets were rigged to make sure it would be me vs. him. I wasn't crazy about it, but to settle it I went along with this.

So, he was being all the braggart about his greatness and wanting to make a bet on how he would win the whole tournament. The rules were that the first person to three successful strikes with the padded weapons would be declared the winner.

He couldn't touch me, seeing him actually try to fight, he was stumbling around, uncoordinated, trying to compensate for lack of skill with muscle, but he had a lot more fat than muscle. I hit him twice with shots that would have been pretty much instant kills if they were real swords, he didn't touch me.

I took a moment to even say where the hole in his defense was and how he was letting his guard down, which only enraged him to run at me flailing wildly, letting me roll to the side, spring up and stab him in the back as he ran past me.

He was defeated, fair and square, in front of everybody he knew. He claimed I cheated, that I wasn't fighting fair, but the "refs" we'd decided on said it was fair, all the spectators shouted out to him it was fair, and he lost.

He stormed out, angry, and didn't come around for quite a while. He still makes up all kinds of stories about being really good at things for really dubious reasons (examples, he loves to dispense medical advice on the grounds he was a pre-med student for one year as an undergrad before dropping out and he claims he's a master thief because he says his mom was a catburglar for the mafia and taught him everything she knew). However, he keeps his mouth shut about pretending to have martial arts skills, everybody has noticed that about him.

 

[Eric7_27]

I can't imagine why people would want to test you. Before I took Martial Arts I think I had an over exaggerated idea of someone who took some art. Like most people you see movies with Jackie Chan and Jet Lee etc., and think anyone who's a blackbelt can beat up 10 guys at once. I don't see why someone who doesn't know much would try and provoke someone who's a big martial artist. Maybe they really doubt their abilities.

 

[Steel Tiger]

I can't imagine why people would want to test you. Before I took Martial Arts I think I had an over exaggerated idea of someone who took some art. Like most people you see movies with Jackie Chan and Jet Lee etc., and think anyone who's a blackbelt can beat up 10 guys at once. I don't see why someone who doesn't know much would try and provoke someone who's a big martial artist. Maybe they really doubt their abilities.

That is the essential element of this sought of thing. There is a basic lack of self belief and confidence. I think it is the same motivation that turns some people into bullies. What's more the bigger the target the better. So, from a physical point of view, a long haul martial artist is a perfect target for people like this.

It doesn't really matter what kind of expertise you have, this kind of person will be better. If you're a linguist, they know a dozen languages, if your an historian, they read more obscure books than you.

I had a friend like this (I guess most of us have) and he tended to get mocked for his ludicrous statements. Didn't stop him though. You just sort of drift away from people like that.

 

[MJS]

Though I haven't worked with him since, I've had a couple people I work with tell me that he's going around saying that he pretty much taught the whole class, that the workout was a breeze, and he practically had me begging for mercy when we sparred. I just laughed and shrugged it off. I care not, I know what happened, my students know what happened, obviously this guy has an issue with self-esteem, I'm not going to aim to make it any worse. If telling everyone that he whupped me a good one is going to make him feel better...all's to him!​

Amazing! This guy obviously has some issues.

 

[Kennedy_Shogen_Ryu]

I will admit this whole incident has taught me a lesson, that maybe I knew but had forgotten about.
You can talk a good game, you can have the best training in the world. You may have the ability to take out 2,5 maybe even 10 people at once. You may look good in the eyes of everyone around you. But if you can't look inside yourself and find happiness, then really, what do you have?
Seems simple I know, but it's a great lesson in my opinion!
​

 

[IcemanSK]

Yes I've had people tell me many times how much better they are at a lot of things I've studied & they either haven't ever or haven't in a long time. It's very annoying, but that's really all it is. Some folks wanna feel superior to someone when they really are feeling insecure about themselves. "Proving yourself" to them is no better a good idea than proving to a 6 year old child that you are stronger than they are because they dared you. It makes YOU look really silly.

It sounds like you handled yourself well in the situation you described.