I may have mentioned this before. Onetime a MA instructor asked me to punch him in front of his students. I knew he was going to use me as his demo dummy to impress his students. I'm not going to let that happen.
If I throw a
- slow, weak punch, and freeze my punch in the thin air, I will make myself a fool.
- fast, powerful, controlled punch, and stop my punch 1/2 inch in front of my opponent's face, my opponent may not appreciate my kindness. He may throw a punch and knock me out.
- punch with full speed, full force, and knock him down, I may over do it.
- fake punch and then kick his groin, I may not be honest.
What should I do? The "striking art" just doesn't give me many options to choose from.
It would depend on the context. Was the instructor someone with a huge ego and only just wanting to make himself look good or was he just trying to demonstrate a defense? Were you in that school for a long time or were you there for only a short time? I have been in my art for long time and I am quite often the one the branch instructors demonstrate on, there is never any doubt as to what kind of punch to throw. One time when I was briefly doing Hapkido and the instructor was using me to demonstrate on, he threw me to the ground, both my legs were in the air, and he attempted to stomp on my groin (I knew he was going to stop just short) and I instinctively closed my legs and, well, my legs are slightly longer than his legs so you gan guess what happened.