Fighting Back with Karate — Edouard Tales
Sadly, Edouard’s meek, nerdy, soft-spoken pre-pubescent demeanour at school emitted an aura that screamed, ‘Come at me; I’m here for the taking and won’t fight back.’
So, at 16, Edouard decided to take TaeKwonDo and defend himself against school bullies.
The word TaeKwonDo can be translated as tae(“strike with foot”), kwon (“strike with hand”), and do (“the art or way”).
TaeKwonDo is a martial art and combat sport that originated in South Korea. It involves various punching techniques, emphasizing head-height kicks, jumping, spinning, and other fast-kicking moves. It is perfect for dealing with schoolyard bullies.
The Mojang training hall was a far better learning place for Edouard than any high-school gymnasium.
Within a few months, Edouard started to see changes in his body. He gained confidence as he increased his muscle mass, flexibility, and endurance. He also learned how to toss bodies and dodge swings in self-defence.
He was hooked and finally found a sense of pride and accomplishment for the first time in his young life.
A Master Instructor taught Edouard, Mr. Kim, a Korean, 5th Dan blackbelt who ran a disciplined school and had a fondness and patience for nerds who wanted to defend themselves against unnecessary aggression.
Mr Kim thought Edouard showed a natural ability for freestyle sparring against competitors, so he paired him with black belts who toyed with his moves, occasionally letting him score a point to boost his motivation.
His three-times-a-week cardio workouts, which integrated relaxation, meditation and breathing drills, helped him learn to control his asthma and channel energy in the right direction.
With a focus on mental discipline, etiquette, justice, respect, self-confidence, and leadership skills, Edouard was learning to control his environment and stop being victimized.
Karate became a long-overdue mind, body, and spirit discipline. He morphed into a force to be reckoned who no longer stood for being called a ‘retard or wimp’ by others.
Ma and Pa were thrilled!
TaeKwonDo was a three-year journey from white belt to blue. He never aspired to become a blackbelt; blue was pretty good, he thought.
Mr Kim often lectured on the virtues of TaeKwoDo. ‘Karate gives you tremendous power that must never be abused, ‘ he said.
Detractors of his code in class were disciplined with fifty pushups or forced to stand in the corner, arms in the air, until he was satisfied they had learned their lesson. Leather strappings, intimidation, mockery or humiliation were forbidden.
Everyone was treated and respected equally, an attitude that starkly contrasted the teachers he endured within an education system that cared little about protecting kids who were different.
The Bully Test
One high school day, in a large lecture hall, the teacher stepped out for a few minutes, leaving the room of about 35 teenagers unsupervised.
Just then, a class clown and bully named Kevin Beady snuck up behind Edouard and battered him across the backside with a large textbook.
Most kids laughed, while others passively pretended nothing was happening. Being the weakest nerd meant the other geeks kept their heads down and were spared the same wrath. In a primal survivalistic way, you can’t blame them.
As bully Kevin proceeded to walk back to his chair, Edouard stood up, punched him in the chops and dropped-kicked him down a flight of stairs. Then, calmly walked back to his seat.
The class was stunned. No one saw these moves from Edouard coming.
Word travelled fast. The bullying stopped.
When you’re no longer perceived as weak, and the bully pays a price for slamming someone into a locker or bashing a book across the head, they move on to other prey and leave you alone.
Physical and emotional harm at the hands of nasty people was a regular occurrence for Edouard, and he was now physically and mentally able to fight back; better late than never!
Bullying is a complex socio-cultural phenomenon that relies more on a power imbalance than anything else. Karate gave Edouard the power balance needed to survive.
Edouard proved that fighting back is a great way to stop a bully dead in their tracks — mano-a-mano.
Karate resolved the issue.
By the grace of Allah, Edouard never manifested the adverse effects studies say are associated with long-term bullying. No depression, loneliness, anxiety, social maladjustment or suicide here, folks; move along; yes, he experimented with recreational drugs until he was 23, but never at a harmful level to be considered substance abuse. — that’s a story for another time
Who Is Edouard Tales
Short writings about a little boy named Edouard who, like so many nerdy kids, was bullied by his peers, mocked, misunderstood and labelled 'slow' by teachers for being different. Only later to be assessed as gifted. The abuses he endured in the 1970s and 1980s from...
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