(The following is a comment made in Response my post “Why keep it a secret?”. Write by some one calling themselves ‘Nobody Knows’ on November 24, 2007 at 7:30 am)
There are practical reasons for witholding one’s skills and maintaining them secretly.
In my own life, I have trained since I was in grade school. My skill set is best assessed by others. I will say that for many years I was a simple man living at home with a wife and living day to day. During those years I trained alot, openly at the local gym and the nearby university… I was seen carrying my gear, wearing my gi, wearing martial arts related T-shirts, etc….I only had two experiences in 20years when I needed to physical express my training and the results were devastating for the recipient of that attention. In both cases these guys were much larger and more phsyically intimidating. One of them actually said to me “Come down to my dojo and get your ass kicked”. I replied that I had a hard time imagining anyone who was a true martial artist behaving in the way that he was. He overestimated himself and underestimated me. When it was over he was humiliated and badly injured but only after he tried to push me into traffic (he had rammed my car in a road rage, I had never seen him before).
Then I ended up living alone in a different state. I took up another spiritual practice involving freediving and deep swimming and began developing it as a practice and an adjunct to martial arts training (you can fake your way through Karate but not through holding your breath and swimming below 125ft…). This put me in a very public place and I made it a point to never display my skills, never to talk about my training or offer opinions that would betray my experience, never wear gi pants, never do anything to stand out and just practice the freediving skill.
It seemed to me when I moved that it might serve me well to make my training a secret. I continued reading, studying, and working out but never where I could be seen doing it. I continued improving my health and my skills as I always have.
Since that time I have been assaulted on three occasions by mentally ill Hawaiian natives. All of them at least a third again my own wieght and size. Every incident was unprovoked and truly involved bullying mindsets of men who were used to physically intimidating anyone that they felt the urge to abuse. These men were rascists, uneducated, self-rightous and unreachable by all techniques to disarm violent situations that I have learned. They felt no reason to fear me or listen to me.In two of the situations I used a knife after being attacked. I followed all rules of engagement. I was unable to retreat, I put out my hands and warned them. I drew my weapon and continued to warn them back and when they pressed their attack they ended up in the hospital and then in jail.
Each time I had witnesses who saw the attacks. Each time I was exonerated. Each time there was no discussion of my martial skills.This is successful self-defense.
The lesson is that if you want Karate to be an effective weapon, one blow and one victory… remember… Gichin Funakoshi said “There is no first strike in Karate-do”. The element of surprise combined with an opponent who underestimates you is the best position for a karate fighter to be in if the situation is going to come to blows.
Also remember that you can’t surprise anyone if you tell everyone about yourself ahead of time by either talking or demonstrating your skills.
