Spinning Backfist

Greg (or was it Gregg?) was a bit younger than me, and small for his age. I pretty much towered over him. He and his brother moved in across the street from me after we had settled down in the neighborhood for a few years.

Greg’s older brother was bigger than me by the same amount I was bigger than Greg. This would be a pattern I would repeat a few more times: I would often be friends with a kid who was a little younger than me who had a brother who was a little older, so I got to experience a little bit of both worlds.

I have two different martial arts-related stories (kinda—you be the judge) centered around Greg and his older brother.

The first one is a bit like my rough introduction to judo, which happened around the same time. I had not yet become good at any martial arts by this point, but a window of opportunity had just opened up. During a summer camp of some sort that had a bunch of miscellaneous activities, karate was one of the classes offered among the typical crafts and outdoor activities.

Maybe you can imagine how much this kid lost his mind:

I can assure you that I did not earn the belt in this pic

He had seen The Karate Kid in theaters at least once, so he knew a thing or two about karate. Seriously, though, you couldn’t escape martial arts if you were an active kid growing up during the ‘80s. If you were a jock, you were drawn to the struggle for dominance that fighting displayed; and if you were a nerd, you were drawn to the leverage and to the scientific aspects of martial arts.

Everything was ninjas and camo, so virtually every kid I knew was drawn toward martial artists. Having had a few lessons now, I felt comfortable sharing this knowledge with others. This is something every gym owner and instructor hates to see happening, but we all know it goes on anyway.

With a lot of martial arts knowledge, you can help guide people toward safe outcomes. With a little bit of martial arts knowledge, you’re almost certain to create an unsafe environment, besides not really understanding what you’re doing.

Anyway, that was me with Greg. I had figured out how to do a spinning backfist through some combination of that karate class and reading Black Belt Magazine, so I showed Greg how to do it.

After a couple of practices, we thought it would be a good idea to try this out on a real human body. I volunteered, figuring I was much, much bigger than Greg, and figuring that even with the leverage, the impact would be trivial.

The impact was not trivial.

I bent in half immediately, clutching my poor internal organs. As far as I know, no permanent internal damage was done, and I learned a very valuable lesson about teaching boundaries. Greg learned a sweet backfist in return.

Now, I mentioned two martial-arts related stories. The second incident began when Greg’s brother got mad at me for something I did or said pertaining to Greg. I’m not sure what the misunderstanding was, but I’m certain that this older kid had the ability to pound me into his driveway if he wanted to.

During the process of getting to know Greg and his brother, I had made peanut butter balls from scratch. I recall being incredibly proud of being able to follow this recipe and actually make something people really wanted to eat. I shared these balls with both of them, and they were both fans.

Somehow, Greg’s brother had some pretty powerful better angels sitting on his shoulder. He came up with a solution: I would make some of those peanut butter balls for him and his brother, and all would be forgiven.

I accepted.

Now, to someone who’s never trained martial arts, it might seem strange that I would connect this second incident with my own martial arts experience. For folks who have trained for a while, though, you’re probably already nodding your head knowingly.

First of all, Greg’s brother offered me an honorable retreat of sorts. He let me use my creative energy to smooth things over, which was quite the diplomatic coup. Accepting these terms lined up with my own perception of my martial arts heroes.

There was Mr. Miyagi from the aforementioned Karate Kid franchise, who would cautiously avoid any kind of confrontation, even to the point of looking like a wimp in front of people. The same was true of David Carradine’s portrayal of Kwai-Chang Caine on Kung Fu, and it tends to be true of the really seasoned martial artists I know.

We all understand that getting into a fight is a thing to be avoided, and we get that humility is sometimes our best defense.

I learned some truly valuable lessons from my interactions with these two brothers, but most of my memories of interacting with them have long been brushed away. I remember they had a dog named Kaiser—potentially a Dachshund, but I don’t really trust my memory here.

I certainly remember the way that spinning backfist felt.