Bad Sensei

The first time I watched the movie "The Karate Kid" I had a flashback about one of my sister Karina's boyfriends in Escondido back in 1969. The main "villain" in that movie was a bad "sensei" (karate teacher) whose philosophy was "No Weakness, No Pain, No Mercy". And I could swear that character was based on Karina's boyfriend...

I no longer remember the guy's name, but he was a former marine hand to hand combat instructor who had won multiple martial arts championships in southern California (primarily Taekwondo). His specialty was the Kendo stick. He had a number of students (mostly high school aged) in Escondido.

I observed one of his classes once (he was trying to talk me into joining). Now, as you may recall, pain avoidance was one of my primary motivators (or demotivators) at the time. And from that perspective the class was rather frightening :-) His higher level "devotees" sparred full contact. Some of them went to Orange Glen High and I remember seeing them in casts from injuries suffered during practices... Like in the movie - fear and mercy were not permitted...

Aside: I did see him do something once that seemed impossible... One of his students tossed a bamboo pole into the air in front of him and he struck it (using his hand) with sufficient force to break it in half... I mean - bamboo is pretty flexible... It's one thing to break a pole with the ends solidly supported - but the speed and force required to break something like that in mid air is difficult to comprehend... On his first attempt the pole didn't break. The thing bounced off the side wall, the far wall and the ceiling of the gym - and made it almost all the way back to him before it landed... It was sheer luck that nobody was hurt...

OK - here's the thing: People are usually ambivalent toward me. They neither particularly like or dislike me, but they usually don't mind having me around because I can be moderately amusing when not being totally annoying :-) ... But this guy could not stand me.
And I don't think it was just the hygiene issues I was having at the time: He had a ridiculously over-developed sense of smell. Karina lived with him for a while and one morning I stopped by their apartment for 2 or 3 minutes while he was at work. He came home 6 hours later and instantly knew I had been there...
But I think it was my attitude, lack of motivation and fear of pain that really set him off. Every time he saw me he said if I had any balls I'd meet him in the park across the street with Kendo sticks... Yeah - he really wanted to beat the hell out of me :-) ... I know he passed his negative sentiments on to his students because at least one of them made nasty comments every time he saw me at school - and I didn't even know the kid...

The guy really didn't care about Karina. She was just "convenient" to have around... He actually had that conversation with one of his students one evening while they were giving me a ride somewhere. I couldn't believe they were saying all that crap with me sitting in the back seat... But then they weren't exactly afraid of me :-)

Karina did finally break up with him... Apparently he and a few of his students were walking through a park in their gi's one day when some guys pointed and laughed. Long story short - they beat the tar out of the guys and took off before the police got there... He could have inflicted much more serious injuries if he'd wanted to - but he was still a bit too proud of himself for Karina's taste...

He was not the only black belt Karina went out with over the years. I honestly don't know what she found attractive about some of those guys... But I had long since given up trying to figure her out. There was really no rhyme or reason to any of it...