Just Punishment

You gotta read the last 3 Friday's posts to be up to speed on this series of tales on fisticuffs if you haven't yet. Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3.

A sign of a good sensei is someone that is not just a good martial artist nor merely someone that can teach well. The mark of excellence comes with inspiration and instilling into your students the drive to actually want to pass their potential as a martial artist. Sensei Clause used the word "can't" as one of the cornerstones of his teaching style. The word "can't" was to never be used. The word was to be replaced with "not able to" meaning that at this time you are not able to, but when your ability has improved, you will be able to then.

On the surface, sure its corny and sure its also meaningless; however, belief in or taking on a certain frame of mind is everything in martial arts. As physical as martial arts is, it is triple that in mental. Without turning this into a martial arts post, let me tell you a little story about using words that aren't liked by Sensei Clause.

If kids used the word "can't" they would start off with say, 10 pushups and double every time after. For the teens you'd start off with 20 or so depending on the strength level. As for us adults, he'd be easy on some and hellbent on others such as HMT and myself. I remember, about 6 months into my training with Sensei Clause, I slipped up and said "can't." Fuck was I done. My punishment was 1,000 bare knuckle strikes, of my choosing, to the heavy bag before class started. If you've ever heard of the term "peppered" you know what I mean. If you don't, basically the more times you strike something with your knuckles the more capillaries you begin to burst. The resulting effect is a myriad of red spots on your knuckles from repetition. Hence the adjective, "peppered." Let me tell you, I never said the word "can't" again. It was a damn good motivator.

So one day, during a teen class HMT and I are assisting on, there was this one kid named Tsoi (Choy). A joke of a kid, was maybe 14 but looked like he was 10 and punched like he was 8. Real quick, this was near the end of my days with Sensei Clause, he was far gone mentally at this point, this was just another brick in the burial wall. So, Sensei Clause has the teens sweating balls, really giving them a tough workout. He tells them to do something outrageous for an extended period of time and retreats to his office. All the teens are making under their breath comments of being tired. The bad news is there's a good 25-30 min left in class.

All of a sudden Tsoi blurts out, "I'm gonna die."

Sensei Clause charges out of his office like an enraged hippo. His face is beat red, "Who said that!?"

Tsoi's fucked. Why? Really, HMT and I had no clue. At that point, it was safe to say he was tho. Off the bat, Clause reduces young Tsoi to tears. After stripping the sad sack of any manhood, Clause makes him bust his ass with pushups and shit at insane levels of speed and stamina. The kid is cooked, Sensei Clause doesn't care.

As final recourse for the action, Sensei Clause made the entire class run, not walk, not drive, but run down to the local cemetery in their gi (full uniform). Their assignment once they arrived at the cemetery was to reflect on life. On everything. To think about life and how precious it is. They were to stay at the cemetery for at least a couple of hours. Hours!

Sensei Clause begins to explain his irrational actions to the class. He would get so mad because growing up, he "saw death everywhere." This was obviously due to his gang related past and the fact that he probably caused most of the deaths he is talking about by making drug dealers overdose on their own product after he pummeled them silly. Frankie (Clause's sensei growing up and whom of which we will cover next week) always told him "cherish every second of life." With the passing of Frankie these words not only rang true but became a frame of mind for Sensei Clause.. but there was something more sinister at work here. What these words evolved into was a means by which to punish others for silly statements regardless of the fact that they are kids.

It was pretty maddening to watch. I'm all for setting a positive example and even setting a harsh example. Sure, it was a bit over the top but the bottom line is that the lesson was learned and Tsoi was a better person for it. Not really but that's not important, right? What is important is next Friday's post. Frankie: A Living Spirit. An exploration on how a story like this flies in the face of everything Sensei Clause stands for.