Safety

I was going through my old photos and found this mark on my hand. I wondered, “What the heck did I do?”

Then I remembered—it was from the beating I got from my grandmaster, after I gave in to my student’s challenge to spar without a helmet.

The sparring itself went fine, nothing serious happened. But the next day, something went wrong—my student ended up in the hospital. The news went straight to HQ.

A month later, during the annual camp at HQ, it was time for sparring sessions. Deep down, I knew I’d get punished for breaking protocol (helmets are mandatory). And I was right.

“Put on your helmet and grappling gloves,” the master ordered.

“Siap,” I replied.

He assigned one of my seniors, Mas Pen—a local champion famous for his open-hand slaps to the face (allowed in our ChakraV silat). He rained blows on me, but I defended myself as best as I could. Even with my size, I managed to land some jabs on his nose.

Then the master got impatient, stopped the fight, and stepped in himself. That’s when the real beating began—bam, boom, bak, bak, boom—no time to react. Within moments I was flat out. Master-level strikes, no joke.

He looked at me and said:

“Now do you see how severe the blows are, even with a helmet? What more without it? Your student ended up in the hospital because of your ego. Never accept such challenges in vain.”

I looked down at my forearm, feeling the friction burns from his gloves. The next morning, it burned like hell when I showered.

Still, I had no hard feelings. Memories like this are priceless. It was tough love. I miss him, even though things were not always easy between us. You only truly understand your teacher’s lessons when you become a teacher yourself.

Al-Fatihah to you, Mas Guru. If I could turn back time, I’d redeem myself. 

In the picture, the bruises don’t look too obvious, but God knows how bad it was, haha. So if I whack you guys, don’t take it personally, hahaha.

Taken from my fb post. Reviving the lesson on student safety.