A "Gotcha" Moment

Have a friend, Jon, that's something of an "expert" in martial arts, he is a 10th dan black belt in jiu jitsu, kung fu, and shorei ryu karate as well as a 6th dan in judo. He's been teaching me (and some kids from church) a combination of these arts for about a year now. We practice in one of the rooms at church on Tuesday nights (I want to go more often, but my wife doesn't like that idea, so once a week is "it" right now.)

Anyway, after the kids leave Jon and I practice an additional 10 to 15 minutes. When they left tonight, Jon decided we would practice disabling armed and unarmed assailants, and something happened that doesn't happen often... I got him to raise his eyebrows and say, "That was good."

Before he told me what we were doing, he grabbed my gi and said, "Go ahead and show me what you've got." Because he's my teacher, I let him grab me, and asked him what he was looking for me to attempt. He laughed at me and said, "You're already too slow."

Since I couldn't read his mind, I asked again -- only this time, I asked specifically if he wanted to see strikes, kicks, submission holds, or combinations. I guess he must have had somewhere to go, because he said, "I don't care, just get my hand off of you..." Which was when the words died in his mouth, he took a step back, and told me I'd done well.

When he'd gotten to the "Y" sound in "you" I trapped his hand with my left hand, and simultaneously threw a right elbow to his face. The words "died" because the striking point of my elbow touched his upper lip and nose on the "oo" part of "you." Of course I pulled it at the last second, but normally, he gets away before I'm close enough to touch.

He was a lot more alert for the rest of the practice. =)