Living with My X by Stephen Malherbe

Author:Stephen Malherbe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Living with My X
ISBN: 9781770221970
Publisher: Random House Struik
Published: 2011-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

19

Martial arts and fragile bones

I was alone again, living in a flat in Johannesburg, trying to rebuild my life. I continued practising martial arts, something that had always given me great pleasure. I’d been involved with martial arts since my late high school years and I especially loved karate. It was the only sport I really enjoyed; it gave me confidence. Like with most things in life, it had a downside though – I broke the odd rib and even the occasional finger. The doctors didn’t think the broken bones were anything strange, and presumably put it down to training partners who punched and kicked too hard. I continued to enjoy my practice sessions and eventually progressed to black-belt level (first dan).

I was almost due for a karate evaluation, but about six months prior to the evaluation, I caught a guy hanging about suspiciously near my car. Alarm bells rang: his dirty denims and T-shirt hung loosely on his tall, lanky frame (he was a good six foot four), and his large, menacing eyes protruded strangely from their sockets. I soon realised that he was breaking into my vehicle. In my martial arts class, we had talked about how we would react if such an event occurred – we would act our meanest. Well, reality is not like the movies. Everything I’d learnt went out the window; I was scared.

When the man saw me, he jumped away from the car and pulled out a huge knife. ‘Shit, what do I do now?’ I thought. ‘I wasn’t taught how to handle this.’ I was trying to jump out of his way when I realised that he was as scared as I was, which could be even more dangerous. I was fearing for my life but trying to calm him down at the same time. A thought flashed through my mind: ‘Does he have accomplices hiding in the bushes?’

Fortunately for me, the knifeman ran off into the park. Besides shaking like a leaf, I had come out of the incident unscathed, but it unsettled me and made me look differently at my favourite sport. After seven years of training, I had been unable to defend myself effectively against an attacker with a knife. The karate class did not teach that. The next day I told the dojo I was quitting.

I still had a love for martial arts and started looking for another form that would be of more benefit to me, should I ever find myself in a similar situation. I found a school that taught ju-jitsu. This form teaches one to go at attackers, regardless of their size, using their body weight to their disadvantage. Unlike karate, where one has to rely on strength and muscle to knock an opponent down, ju-jitsu teaches one to deflect attacks. It also enables one to defend oneself against knife attacks. I learnt the pressure points, strangleholds and how to immobilise an opponent.

Ju-jitsu came naturally to me, probably because of my years of doing karate.

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