It's what Janet Jackson talks about...

It's about CONTROL!!! (Her song just keeps going through my head as I think about it.)

After having a nice surprise yesterday, for the most part, classes went on as usual. Drew acted up in class. He couldn't keep his hands to himself, and was goofing off, hurt another kid, and said he was "bored" and acted up. Oh well. Another day at the ATA for Drew, as it was. My leadership class was cute, as two more teens/tweens came on board, and it's a small class, with some good kids in there. I was the only adult, other than MZ, who was learning her 3rd degree material while we worked on leadership stuff. (MZ already has her black collar, so she already is a very full-fledged certified instructor.) But prior to leadership class was a regular teen/adult class, and I got really pissed at a new student. I don't know his name, but I know he's new for sure, and must have transferred in from somewhere.

He was about as tall as I was, and reeked of cigarette smoke like he had had about 5 before walking into class. I'm guessing he was about 15 or 16 at least. MZ was teaching, and we were doing a sparring drill just on pads, and this kid and I were partnered up together. Well, all I have in my hands are two focus pads of sorts, and that's all. All we were required to do was a series of simple punch/jab/cross combinations, just to get into the rhythm of it. Well, first, when this kid held the pads for me, he held them too high, and too close to his face. I warned him that it was dangerous to do that, because I might accidentally punch him in the face with the pads so close to his face. He didn't care, no matter how many times I adjusted the pads. But then when it was my turn to hold the pads, whereby I did hold them far from MY face, he hit them with full force. And I mean FULL FORCE. C'mon, this is just a drill! This isn't even sparring, and even in sparring, you wouldn't need to hit that hard. After a few hits, I told him to back off a little, as he almost took my arm off by the shoulder (yes, he hit THAT hard), and that at graduation and tournament sparring that kind of punching would NEVER be allowed. But then it happened. He was trying to go so fast and hard that he missed the pad, and hit MY arm, on the inside part about 6 inches below my hand going towards my elbow. All I will say is that it is DAMN lucky he didn't break my arm. I could barely use my arm that well after that. I think he hit a nerve pretty badly, to say the least, because I could barely move my fingers for the rest of the night. I had to have my husband, later, help me get dressed and undressed, that's how bad it was.

We had to break boards, and since my hand was in no shape to be doing an actual hand break, I opted for my elbow, and that was fine. When we went to get our sparring gear on, which was painful for me to do, I went and asked SW if she could order me some forearm pads (I'd been thinking about it anyway), and told her what happened with the new Mr. Blue Belt. She asked if I said anything to him about backing off, and I told her I did, but I was still hurting. She said he was new, and she could quite figure out what his actual background was prior to this, but she suspects some of it was self-taught, and some of it was more from boxing. She had a pair of mismatched forearm pads that she sold to me at a discount since they were mismatched, but at least I have something now. We did things out of order, but my arm just hurt for the rest of the night, especially when doing forms. I couldn't really practice my SJB because my arm and hand hurt that much, so I just practiced with my left hand instead (which needed the work anyway). MZ did give me another huge section of my form, which helped too, but I just have to get the memorization down, and practice that. Thank goodness for the DVD video I have to help me review it if needed.

My arm hurt all the way home, so it was hard to drive, and as I said, my husband had to help me change. All I could do was ice it as much as I could, take an anti-inflammatory, and rest it. It did feel better this morning, and I can move my fingers again with less pain, but oddly enough there's no bruise there, but it still aches quite a bit. I'm just mobile now, and it's not as bad.

It just pisses me off that this kid had no control. I know this is a big issue with my own son, but he's 6 and doesn't know his own strength most of the time. I mean, I know some people reading this have had similar problems with some teens who don't use control, and unfortunately have broken some bones. I was spared this time, but I can tell you for a fact that I've sparred with a lot of the teen boys around here, and I have never felt like I was in danger, even with the ones who were bigger than me and really could wallop a punch if they wanted. Same with the adult men. The trick for that? Yep, you guessed it-- let's sing it like Ms. Jackson---"CONTROL". This kid had NONE. If I am ever paired up with this kid again, I will give him a very stern warning, and if he continues after the warning, then I see no reason to give him a taste of my powerful kick in his teeth.