It’s not every day that you get kicked in the nuts by a priest, in fact, I think I’m one of a few that can say that. No, it wasn’t on purpose, nor the fact that he was a religious figure had anything to do with it. A coincidence I find amusing.  It happened back in fall term when I took a martial class. Being new to college, I wanted to take a class that was really out there for me, and Jeet Kune Do fit the bill.
JKD is a type of fighting heavily influenced by the philosophy of action star Bruce Lee. It isn’t like Judo or Taekwondo where there is a set of rules and participants can score points off of each. JKD is used strictly for self-defense with the main tactic used being thumbing the eye of the enemy, causing them to either lose their vision or attempt to block you.
It’s a natural response to protect your eye, so this action naturally creates an opening. At this point, you’re supposed to kick them in the genitals and this apparently is a weak spot for both girls and guys. You could also head butt, punch, or do all sorts of moves.
The class was small, about 14 total, and we met twice a week. As corny as this sounds, I actually gave nicknames to everyone there. I say them out loud, oh no. It was more of a game I used to preoccupy myself as we ran laps and did stretches for warm ups. Some of the ones I can still remember were: Yoga, a guy who was extraordinarily flexible, Tai Chi, a guy who always warmed himself up with monk like hand motions, and The Towel, a guy who brought a towel to every class to wipe off his sweat.
Overall, the class was very nice and friendly. Yoga, Olympia, Judo, Junior, The Gentleman (always dressed up for class) and The Thespian (guy who always made dramatic looking faces when throwing his punches) had all clearly done a fighting class before and made me feel very out of shape in comparison. Even though I was nowhere in their league, they were all helpful and gave me tips and pointers on how to throw a good punch or kick without becoming off balanced.
Most of the classes involved the teacher demonstrating a kick or punch and then us going off and attempting to replicate it. We would then pair up and practice on one another. Sometimes we would have boxing gloves and would jab at one another. Junior was so good that on many occasions he would punch my gloves right off my hands.
Each week we would focus on a different fighting technique. We did punching, kicking, head butting, tackling, staff and knife using. The knife unit was the best because we got to use wooden dowels as fake knifes and hit the other person on their boxing gloves. The guy I was matched with was clever and brought hockey gloves, which allowed him to switch which hand his dowel was in and got the upper hand.
Another fun story was this one time where we were practicing tackling and I was paired up with a giant. It was easy for him to bring me to the ground but the reverse was harder, not because he was a good two feet taller than me (although that did help) but because he was so sweaty.
I learned a lot in that class, like how to defend myself, how to get into a knife fight without getting cut, and how not to head butt. By the end of the term, no one in that class wanted to get into a real fight. Any way you looked at it, you were bound to get injured. JKD was a fun class and a great experience, I just hope that what I learned in this class, I’ll never have to use.