Hello all,
...maybe you are going overboard in your own training. If you are good at grappling, great, but if you are making it impossible for other students to TRAIN by being a showoff, maybe you have an attitude problem you need to check yourself.
Iron Ox---I agree with your post in general, but I don't think there's anything in the initial post in the thread to indicate that this student is a showoff. Being good, and knowing it, doesn't mean that you have an attitude problem---but even if there
were such a problem, it couldn't possibly justify the use of a dangerous technique in training as a substitute for a candid chat with the student about the hypothetical problem.
If eye attacks are going to be part of training, then some substitute for an actual damaging strike should be part of the training code. Iain Abernethy, in his book
Bunkai-Jutsu on combat-effective kata bunkai, discusses the streetfight-oriented `sparring' methods he uses in his dojo to get people to learn and automatically implement the rather nasty applications concealed within karate patterns. They go pretty much all out there, but some things are off limits---actual groin strikes, hard blows to the throat, neck twists and eye strike---stuff that can
easily be permanently damaging or, with a bit more force, lethal. IA's method uses a system of light touches to these ultra-vital areas: if you can connect lightly with any of them, that translates into an absolute finish to the fight, simply because a more forceful application in a real physical conflict is going to end it---and maybe your assailant---then and there.
This approach seems to me to make a lot of sense, as a way to maximize the realism of combat without actually permanently damaging, crippling or killing anyone. A very hard `block' which is actually a strike to the upper arm may be very painful, but likely only temporarily incapacitating, and if someone wants training for realistic combat situations, it's probably a price s/he'll be willing to pay. But with eyes, etc., there should be some substitute for actual damage. If this instructor carried out that eye strike deliberately, absolutely nothing can excuse it. And if it was accidental... well, I'd say there's a major technical problem on the instructor's part.