Student striking with far too much power

[Gnarlie]

Hi there, we have a new member of the club, and I am curious toward your suggestions of how I may go about teaching him to control the amount of power he is putting behind his techniques.


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4829909231166

This is a video of when I first sparred with him, on first contact. He and I had never met each other before, and I must couch that my role in this was as the leading instructor for the group. I was not trying to go hard, merely to use deliberate mistakes on my part, and watching out for theirs, as a teaching tool to help them become better. I am in the black, he the white.

How can I help this person with gaining control, so I may allow them to practice in a contact pretext, with others of our group?

I feel more target practice might help.

This comes down only to your interpersonal skills and how much influence you can develop over how he behaves in your training sessions. No amount of physical training is going to change the mindset of someone who (perhaps subconsciously) thinks that they can't achieve power without trying to 'muscle' the movement.

There are some nice demonstrations that can illustrate the point, though. I find this is a great reason for the existence of board breaking, for example. Set up some boards and break them yourself with pure, effortless looking technique. Then have your boy try to muscle through them and fail. It will need to be a big stack for this wot work by the sound of your description.

Alternatively, have him swing a simple horizontal backfist strike at a kidney pad. There's less danger of taking it to the face, and it's great for demonstrating that 'muscling' the technique is a poor relation of good waist-twisted technique.

Keep him banned from sparring and contact work until he can adequately demonstrate that he understands both that a) power does not come from muscle tension and that b) 'muscled' power causes tension and inaccuracies, and is likely to result in him injuring his training partners. He needs to be told in no uncertain terms that the people who he is training with are friends, not enemies, and when friends get hurt due to his poor self-control, they don't want to be his training partners anymore.

Lastly, and hopefully not necessary, it should be fairly easy for you to evade someone with so little experience and control; avoid the incoming and give him too much contact in return every time until he backs off. Make it clear there and then with each strike why you are doing this and that it is deliberate. In my own personal experience, and this happens seldom, people who don't back off in this situation decide to leave and not come back, when they realise that muscle will only get them so far.

 

[DennisBreene]

dennis....like your signature quote in the reddish colour....going to use it for a spiritual journal today with my students....

I'm honored. (bows)

 

[Cyriacus]

There are some nice demonstrations that can illustrate the point, though. I find this is a great reason for the existence of board breaking, for example. Set up some boards and break them yourself with pure, effortless looking technique. Then have your boy try to muscle through them and fail. It will need to be a big stack for this wot work by the sound of your description.

The first time i broke a board, i was half asleep and i asked if i could use it for a try at the end of a class. Note that this was the fifth class id ever done in a striking system. I was allowed to do it however i wanted, so i just propped it up on the ground and wildly swung a hammerfist at it (a strike i hadnt learnt at the time. it just seemed like a good idea in my head). The board broke and i was happy.

Muscle works. That doesnt mean its correct within a certain system.

EDIT: My point in saying that being, this is something ive seen in Boxing Gyms as well. People who use muscle do hit hard. They really do. They also get tired really quickly. But they hit really hard. Hitting hard any other way is usually (usually) something you learn. With some people, its chasing after the power they can muscle out, albeit with the benefits of doing it some other way.

 

[Gnarlie]

The first time i broke a board, i was half asleep and i asked if i could use it for a try at the end of a class. Note that this was the fifth class id ever done in a striking system. I was allowed to do it however i wanted, so i just propped it up on the ground and wildly swung a hammerfist at it (a strike i hadnt learnt at the time. it just seemed like a good idea in my head). The board broke and i was happy.

Muscle works. That doesnt mean its correct within a certain system.

It only works up to a point that's what I mean. Put yourself in the same situation with 5 stacked boards, and it would have been a different story perhaps. Whereas it's fairly straightforward to get through such a stack with proper technique.

I'm a skinny guy, 6ft and 72kg. Because my focus has always been correct technique over muscle, I can and do hit harder than some much bigger guys I meet. They seem to look at it like some mystery.

 

[Cyriacus]

It only works up to a point that's what I mean. Put yourself in the same situation with 5 stacked boards, and it would have been a different story perhaps. Whereas it's fairly straightforward to get through such a stack with proper technique.

I'm a skinny guy, 6ft and 72kg. Because my focus has always been correct technique over muscle, I can and do hit harder than some much bigger guys I meet. They seem to look at it like some mystery.

However, if i were to repeatedly hit the five boards, theyd eventually break
Again, im not saying muscle = >. Just that setting someone up to fail is, obviously, going to set them up to fail. If you gave me five boards, of course i wouldnt have broken them. Board breaking is a skill, and you learn how to do it. Setting someone up to fail is only going to show them that they cant do something. So, i guess youd best hope that their goal in training is the ability to break five boards, or the correlation is only going to be in the eyes of the beholder.

 

[Gnarlie]

However, if i were to repeatedly hit the five boards, theyd eventually break
Again, im not saying muscle = >. Just that setting someone up to fail is, obviously, going to set them up to fail. If you gave me five boards, of course i wouldnt have broken them. Board breaking is a skill, and you learn how to do it. Setting someone up to fail is only going to show them that they cant do something. So, i guess youd best hope that their goal in training is the ability to break five boards, or the correlation is only going to be in the eyes of the beholder.

Yes, it's a skill. A skill requiring transfer of energy to a target. A skill that requires power and accuracy rather than muscular tension to generate concentrated, localised energy. Making it a perfect tool to demonstrate to someone that they are not achieving power or accuracy through their use of muscle / aggression / etc, and all without the need for anyone to take power shots to the face.

The main communication with this guy should probably be verbal anyway, these exercises just support the point that shoving too much oomph behind the technique results in a worse performance overall, if the ultimate aim of adding that oomph is transfer of energy to a the target. It is likely to cause the shot to miss, as happened in the OP, and doesn't necessarily achieve greater energy transfer to the target due to poor connection angle and lack of speed due to tension.

I used to have a guy in my class who couldn't punch or kick anything without pulling his head forward in a sort of pigeon-like movement and shutting his eyes, purely from trying to put too much into the tech. It took a while to get him to see that he was more accurate and powerful with his eyes open and on the target, with about 70% of his initial oomph. Still isn't relaxed technique though. Some people just don't know they are doing it, I think, and communicating the idea that too much effort is counter productive with words alone can be difficult for that reason. That's why I'm suggesting demos - not necessarily setting them up to fail, I mean they can attempt to break first in that example, it doesn't matter. It just causes a certain realisation in my experience - a light bulb goes on when they see someone who they have 60kg on deliver power that they can't.

If the exact idea isn't to your liking, then maybe something else along similar lines to show that relaxed little / skinny blokes with good technique can often deliver a greater amount of energy to a target than a big, aggressive and tense bear of a man. It gets way more worrying for us skinnies when the big guys are relaxed and understand how to use that weight and size to generate relaxed and accurate power.

 

[sfs982000]

I tried viewing the video you posted but was unable to. I would agree that not having that student spar is a good idea until he learns some control and focus. There is a classmate of mine that is very similar when he spars, we jokingly refer to him as the bull in the china shop. Tons of power but needs to learn more control and focusing. When working combination drills as a general rule of thumb we start off slowly and work up to full speed and contact, same thing with sparring, the first couple of matches are at about half speed to warm up and then we will ramp things up. In my opinion it works well for us and it might be something you might want to try with him.

 

[RTKDCMB]

I think that if you have to return the favor, so to speak, and physically injure the man to get your message across, it is already a lost cause. If he doesn't respond to verbal coaching with a real attempt to restrain his behaviour, you are only inviting further opportunities for someone to get seriously injured.

You don't have to seriously injure the student to get your point across just enough to let him know how much you are actually holding back. You should always have good control and should never do it in anger.

 

[Riffix]

I remember one of my first kickboxing lessons, sparring at the end we weren't allowed to strike the head until we learned control,

unfortunately for me I got paired up with the British aka light middleweight champ who was 16 at the time, started off light but we both got a little carried away, him being much much more experience and used to fighting in adult competition threw a right past my guard and to this day every time I stretch my arms out my ribs crack all the way down the middle, serves as a good reminder!


Later in the day he was sparring with the instructor, instructor went for a high kick, he went low punch and every guy in the room flinched and the instructor hit the deck, that part of the story not so relevant but might make u feel better about getting hit in the face lol.

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

 

[Cyriacus]

I remember one of my first kickboxing lessons, sparring at the end we weren't allowed to strike the head until we learned control,

unfortunately for me I got paired up with the British aka light middleweight champ who was 16 at the time, started off light but we both got a little carried away, him being much much more experience and used to fighting in adult competition threw a right past my guard and to this day every time I stretch my arms out my ribs crack all the way down the middle, serves as a good reminder!


Later in the day he was sparring with the instructor, instructor went for a high kick, he went low punch and every guy in the room flinched and the instructor hit the deck, that part of the story not so relevant but might make u feel better about getting hit in the face lol.

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

Apparently that means the instructor was holding back, and should retaliate by not holding back in future, because obviously the champ wasnt holding back either. *shrugs*

 

[Zenjael]

A lot of really condusive replies, and I'd like to thank yall for that.

In the drill it was just one-two cross punches to the target when the incident occurred. The video was moreso a demonstration of how hard he can go, but I realize in hindsight it doesnt exactly convey that too well.

It was with target pads, he was not allowed to strike me and did. I have since spoken to him, and allowed him to reintegrate once I feel more comfortable with his ability of control. Last week we allowed him to do 5 on 5's, but not spar.

I only believe you need to send a physical message when you actually feel endangered. I was very against knocking my own students out until I spoke with one of the best teachers I had, and he spoke to me how when he went 1 on 1 with his master, sooner or later Master Lee would feel the need to knock him out. I enjoy it when a student pushes me to that point, but I do not enjoy having to react in such manner. In this case, be deciding to initiate a further physical confrontation would only be to my detriment, especially if it was a whooping. And what happens if he is just one of those people who are born fighters and won? Not likely- but the risk is there, and not worth it in non-profit setting where there is real liability for escalation or lawsuit.

 

[K-man]

I only believe you need to send a physical message when you actually feel endangered. I was very against knocking my own students out until I spoke with one of the best teachers I had, and he spoke to me how when he went 1 on 1 with his master, sooner or later Master Lee would feel the need to knock him out. I enjoy it when a student pushes me to that point, but I do not enjoy having to react in such manner. In this case, be deciding to initiate a further physical confrontation would only be to my detriment, especially if it was a whooping. And what happens if he is just one of those people who are born fighters and won? Not likely- but the risk is there, and not worth it in non-profit setting where there is real liability for escalation or lawsuit.

I think that if you were to hit one of your students, hard enough to knock him out, you are risking a law suit. You might have got away with beating up students back in the 60s and 70s but doing that now is not a sensible thing to do. Get him to train responsibly or get rid of him, simple arithmetic!
:asian:

 

[Zenjael]

Naturally, but I mean it moreso in the spirit of what a teacher is willing to go to lengths toward, in training their students. Do we let them dangle and weather the waters, or cut the rope and let them drown? This could be the case with this person eventually.

Understand I have never knocked out a student of my own, but when teaching techniques that deliberatelly strike pressure and vital points, and we are practicing heavy contact to those areas (for more advanced practitioners) the threat of being hurt myself is very real. I am training these people to be either as good as myself, or better, and sometimes I have actually had to defend myself where otherwise I would have ended up hospitalized.

I have read once that as you become more experienced, every trip to the training hall becomes more and more dangerous, until each training session is a serious question of life or death. I don't believe in taking it to that extreme, but I do in the spirit of that ethos.

But I'll tell you what; one time my leading student and I were sparring. It devolved to the ground, and while I was playing around, he and I continued to escalate (I call it anteing it up) when suddenly he threw his arms around my neck and applied a submission hold, intended to put me unconscious. His reasoning was that he felt endangered after he drew blood from me, and I made the statement, 'now lets have fun'. I had no ill intentions and would not have deviated in how we were practicing. It's blood, who cares. But unfortunantely his fear caused him to suddenly go into survival mode, and I found myself with a very strong set of arms around my neck, attempting to choke me out.

What did I do? Out of instinct, and luckily many years of Hapikido training, I grabbed him by the hair and threw him over my shoulder. Many in Hapkido have the hip torque to easily throw people with just that alone, so even seated it is possible to lift the person and throw them.

Well, he landed somewhat hard, and had the breath knocked out of him until he regained a sense of control, or composure. At most he was stunned. I do not believe I acted wrongly, not past what needed to be done to get him off me. In my book, if I lose consciousness it is risking death, and I will not allow it. He crossed a boundary extending sparring and shadow boxing to being a very real and dangerous thing, and sometimes our students will do that.

Perhaps it is risking a lawsuit. But then again, I do not risk such things with people I believe are likely to do such things. Call it honor, or friendship, or loyalty, but certainly with this student in question, we have faith in each other we won't do lasting harm. We are real training partners, even if I have many years more experience than he.

But if the fear of lawsuits stays our hand, and keeps those who wish to learn from us from growing, than we are handicapping our arts as well, in the end. I can't do that, and I do follow the tradition if a student gets uppity, endangers my life, I will defend myself. I will avoid hurting them. But I do have a right to self-defense, and use what I am teaching.

 

[Xue Sheng]

How old are you?

Because based on what I just read you sound awfully impressed with yourself and it sound more like the arrogance of youth and the martial fantasy of a young person trying to impress the old guys than actual experience.

I've been at this a long time and I have been thrown, knocked down, punched,kicked and broken bones training. I have also injured a few training and although we always knew it was part of training, I never felt it was something to brag about. I have had to use this stuff in real life as well and I do not brag about that either. I'm old school MA and I cannot speak for the others here but you are not impressing me at all with this.

Take it for what it is worth, but that is how I feel.

 

[aaradia]

I have read once that as you become more experienced, every trip to the training hall becomes more and more dangerous, until each training session is a serious question of life or death. I don't believe in taking it to that extreme, but I do in the spirit of that ethos.

.

I completely disagree. The more advanced you become, the more control you should have. I never worry about injury from the really advanced students, beccause they have great control.

Seriously? Every "training session becomes a matter of life or death"? Do you REALLY think most people today want to risk dying every time they train MA? Do you really think schools would be allowed to exist if people were dying? Isn't that just a tad melodramatic?:jediduel:

 

[Josealb]

I dont get this obsession with danger either. Not coming from a dojo, just a park, the budget for training is just yourself and some quality friends. No pads, gloves, helmet etc...and we have gone at it pretty damn hard at times, full power, only with the common sense to not use cheap shots like groin, eye gauges, hair pulling, shirt grabbing or headbutts. The most thats happened was a bloody lip, a sore rib, and only once, a little scare with a kidney shot. =D

Other than that, nothing. The more skill you have the more control. I just chuckle a bit whenever i hear someone saying that with skill techniques are too deadly to test, etc. I dont get it.

 

[K-man]

Understand I have never knocked out a student of my own, but when teaching techniques that deliberatelly strike pressure and vital points, and we are practicing heavy contact to those areas (for more advanced practitioners) the threat of being hurt myself is very real. I am training these people to be either as good as myself, or better, and sometimes I have actually had to defend myself where otherwise I would have ended up hospitalized.

Mmm! Striking heavy contact to vital points sounds strange to me. If you are indeed striking those points hard and not severely hurting people then I suspect your vital points aren't too 'vital'. Even attempting to hit vital points hard in training is, to me, irresponsible. You defending yourself to prevent being hospitalised sounds fanciful at best.

I have read once that as you become more experienced, every trip to the training hall becomes more and more dangerous, until each training session is a serious question of life or death. I don't believe in taking it to that extreme, but I do in the spirit of that ethos.

I'm sorry but that is garbage. I have trained with many of this country's top martial artists and a number from overseas. I have never considered my training dangerous. Even the toughest sparring sessions in days gone by were nothing like 'life or death'.

But I'll tell you what; one time my leading student and I were sparring. It devolved to the ground, and while I was playing around, he and I continued to escalate (I call it anteing it up) when suddenly he threw his arms around my neck and applied a submission hold, intended to put me unconscious. His reasoning was that he felt endangered after he drew blood from me, and I made the statement, 'now lets have fun'. I had no ill intentions and would not have deviated in how we were practicing. It's blood, who cares. But unfortunantely his fear caused him to suddenly go into survival mode, and I found myself with a very strong set of arms around my neck, attempting to choke me out.

What did I do? Out of instinct, and luckily many years of Hapikido training, I grabbed him by the hair and threw him over my shoulder. Many in Hapkido have the hip torque to easily throw people with just that alone, so even seated it is possible to lift the person and throw them.

Sounds to me like both of you were lacking control. What happened to tapping out?

Well, he landed somewhat hard, and had the breath knocked out of him until he regained a sense of control, or composure. At most he was stunned. I do not believe I acted wrongly, not past what needed to be done to get him off me. In my book, if I lose consciousness it is risking death, and I will not allow it. He crossed a boundary extending sparring and shadow boxing to being a very real and dangerous thing, and sometimes our students will do that.

Then I would think again! If "sometimes you students will do that", I would be reassessing your training programme.

Perhaps it is risking a lawsuit. But then again, I do not risk such things with people I believe are likely to do such things. Call it honor, or friendship, or loyalty, but certainly with this student in question, we have faith in each other we won't do lasting harm. We are real training partners, even if I have many years more experience than he.

If you badly injure even your best friend it is very likely he will have to sue you to get the insurance money to live the rest of his life without income. What is lasting harm? Is it ok to just dislocate his shoulder or can we break his leg. I mean those injuries are not 'lasting'.

But if the fear of lawsuits stays our hand, and keeps those who wish to learn from us from growing, than we are handicapping our arts as well, in the end. I can't do that, and I do follow the tradition if a student gets uppity, endangers my life, I will defend myself. I will avoid hurting them. But I do have a right to self-defense, and use what I am teaching.

If your training venue has the values you talk of here, then you deserve to be sued for every injury that occurs. I have never read such nonsense. You do not have the right to use self defence against a student. It sounds to me that you have no place teaching at all!

 

[Aiki Lee]

I agree with what the others have already said, but hereis my take as well.

Naturally, but I mean it moreso inthe spirit of what a teacher is willing to go to lengths toward, in trainingtheir students. Do we let them dangle and weather the waters, or cut the ropeand let them drown? This could be the case with this person eventually.

I’m actually not really sure what you are talking abouthere.

Understand I have never knocked out a student of my own,but when teaching techniques that deliberatelly strike pressure and vitalpoints, and we are practicing heavy contact to those areas (for more advancedpractitioners) the threat of being hurt myself is very real. I am trainingthese people to be either as good as myself, or better, and sometimes I haveactually had to defend myself where otherwise I would have ended uphospitalized.

I am going to go and say there actually should be somedegree of danger in martial arts training, but nothing that would actuallyforce you to defend yourself against someone during a training exercise. Thatdoesn’t make sense. Martial arts are about control.

I have read once that as you become more experienced,every trip to the training hall becomes more and more dangerous, until eachtraining session is a serious question of life or death. I don't believe intaking it to that extreme, but I do in the spirit of that ethos.

That depends on what you mean by dangerous. We do thingsin my dojo that I would consider dangerous, which is why you have to reach acertain level of skill. Even then, it is still a highly controlled environment.You need to be able to evoke the feeling of being in danger without actuallycrossing the line into actual dangerous territory. It is a fine line.

But I'll tell you what; one time my leading student andI were sparring. It devolved to the ground, and while I was playing around, heand I continued to escalate (I call it anteing it up) when suddenly he threwhis arms around my neck and applied a submission hold, intended to put meunconscious. His reasoning was that he felt endangered after he drew blood fromme, and I made the statement, 'now lets have fun'. I had no ill intentions andwould not have deviated in how we were practicing. It's blood, who cares. Butunfortunantely his fear caused him to suddenly go into survival mode, and Ifound myself with a very strong set of arms around my neck, attempting to chokeme out.

This shows a serious lack of control and some major ego.Why didn’t you tap out? Did you need to prove something? It sounds like someonecould have very much gotten hurt. If my training partners and I acted this waymy teacher would be furious. You should both slow down from my perspective.

What did I do? Out of instinct, and luckily many yearsof Hapikido training, I grabbed him by the hair and threw him over my shoulder.Many in Hapkido have the hip torque to easily throw people with just thatalone, so even seated it is possible to lift the person and throw them.

Years of Hapkido training should have kicked in and said “Thisis getting out of hand, we need to slow down.”

Well, he landed somewhat hard, and had the breathknocked out of him until he regained a sense of control, or composure. At mosthe was stunned. I do not believe I acted wrongly, not past what needed to bedone to get him off me. In my book, if I lose consciousness it is riskingdeath, and I will not allow it. He crossed a boundary extending sparring andshadow boxing to being a very real and dangerous thing, and sometimes ourstudents will do that.

It takes two to tango.
Now, sometimes someone does go a little too rough and youneed to wake them up, but it should never go as far as this unless the personis being deliberately malicious.

Perhaps it is risking a lawsuit. But then again, I donot risk such things with people I believe are likely to do such things. Callit honor, or friendship, or loyalty, but certainly with this student inquestion, we have faith in each other we won't do lasting harm. We are realtraining partners, even if I have many years more experience than he.

But if the fear of lawsuits stays our hand, and keeps those who wish to learnfrom us from growing, than we are handicapping our arts as well, in the end. Ican't do that, and I do follow the tradition if a student gets uppity,endangers my life, I will defend myself. I will avoid hurting them. But I dohave a right to self-defense, and use what I am teaching.

People can be permanently injured in the most seeminglybenign ways. You need to be careful. I’ve seen people almost paralyzed forescalating during an ego driven training session. There is a difference tosimulating real danger and being reckless.
And if you injure someone seriously in training, it willappear as negligence to the courts no matter how hard you argue that you had todefend yourself against a person you were training.
You need some more supervision, and that is not a jab atyou. That is one outside observer saying that you need someone to watch you andmake sure you are on the path you think you are.

 

[Mauthos]

I'm just curious as you said it devolved to the ground and maybe I am misunderstanding this, but if you were both on the ground, i.e grappling one on top of the other and not standing with him going for the choke, how could you perform a shoulder throw?

 

[Grenadier]

Naturally, but I mean it moreso in the spirit of what a teacher is willing to go to lengths toward, in training their students. Do we let them dangle and weather the waters, or cut the rope and let them drown? This could be the case with this person eventually.

Maybe it's your teaching that could be a significant part of the blame?

Understand I have never knocked out a student of my own, but when teaching techniques that deliberatelly strike pressure and vital points, and we are practicing heavy contact to those areas (for more advanced practitioners)

Practicing heavy contact to vital points is very, very foolish. There's nothing to be gained from it, and no matter how much control you have, heavy contact is going to be too heavy at one time or another, regardless of protection. I've seen some rather interesting organizations demonstrate that they can take a kick to the groin (a lot of staged stuff involved). What good comes from it?

the threat of being hurt myself is very real. I am training these people to be either as good as myself, or better, and sometimes I have actually had to defend myself where otherwise I would have ended up hospitalized.

If you're constantly being put in such situations, then you need to evaluate what you're doing wrong.

I have read once that as you become more experienced, every trip to the training hall becomes more and more dangerous, until each training session is a serious question of life or death. I don't believe in taking it to that extreme, but I do in the spirit of that ethos.

You're either reading poorly-written material, or have a less than satisfactory understanding of what control really is.

As you get more experienced, your control *should* be getting better. I have no qualms about putting a well-trained brown belt with a student who has had 6 months of experience, simply because the more advanced student is going to have a greater degree of discipline and control compared to the less experienced student, and that the more experienced student knows how to work with the neophytes in a safe manner that encourages good technique.

Furthermore, students shouldn't be free sparring until they have demonstrated that they have at least a fundamental level of control.

But I'll tell you what; one time my leading student and I were sparring. It devolved to the ground, and while I was playing around, he and I continued to escalate (I call it anteing it up) when suddenly he threw his arms around my neck and applied a submission hold, intended to put me unconscious. His reasoning was that he felt endangered after he drew blood from me

Again, if this is what you consider "playing around," where blood gets drawn, you may want to re-consider your methods.

, and I made the statement, 'now lets have fun'. I had no ill intentions and would not have deviated in how we were practicing. It's blood, who cares.

This is an even more reckless statement.

But unfortunantely his fear caused him to suddenly go into survival mode, and I found myself with a very strong set of arms around my neck, attempting to choke me out.

You brought this upon yourself. As the senior, it's up to *you* to slow things down, not to taunt your student. If you don't know how to spar with less experienced students safely, then perhaps you should consider getting more training.

What did I do?

Pretty much everything wrong.

Out of instinct, and luckily many years of Hapikido training, I grabbed him by the hair and threw him over my shoulder. Many in Hapkido have the hip torque to easily throw people with just that alone, so even seated it is possible to lift the person and throw them.

Once again, this demonstrates the lack of self-control (both physical and mental) on your part, and the lack of the ability to control the pace of a sparring session with a student.

Well, he landed somewhat hard, and had the breath knocked out of him until he regained a sense of control, or composure. At most he was stunned. I do not believe I acted wrongly

First of all, you're lucky that it was just a "stunned" situation. You made the mistake of taunting, when you should have been encouraging him to slow things down, since that's what he needed.

, not past what needed to be done to get him off me. In my book, if I lose consciousness it is risking death, and I will not allow it. He crossed a boundary extending sparring and shadow boxing to being a very real and dangerous thing, and sometimes our students will do that.

If such a thing happens once in a long while, I understand that things can sometimes get heated, and fluke occurrences can occur.

If your students do that on a regular basis, then again, there's something dreadfully wrong with your teaching. You're not teaching them self-control, self-restraint, and discipline, and even worse, you are not practicing those very critical things yourself.


The first thing you should do is to stop and think about why you constantly get into these negative situations.

The next thing you should do is change your behavior, so that you avoid such situations. The best defense against a fight is for the fight not to happen.

The next thing is that you need to get some in-depth study on the martial arts. If, by your own assertion, you have almost 20 years of training in the martial arts and several black belt rankings, then you should have already had the focus and discipline to do the right thing. Maybe it's time to go back, and train, so that you can improve things, especially when it comes to character, discipline, focus, and common sense. Now that you're older than when you first started, maybe you'll reap more rewards from it this time around.