This is eleven year old Alex. A gold belt in our Goju-ryu Karate program. He suffered his first and hopefully only bloody nose while sparring. We do not advocate punching to the face in sparring. We don’t encourage attempting to hurt our fellow sparring opponents. But, this is martial arts and it’s definitely not checkers. Occasionally, one zigs and he should have zagged. So, the bloody nose, albeit, unfortunate, is also treated as a right of passage. What is impressive is the perspective he offers in the video, and that he realized he is not made of paper. Finally, it’s impressive that the ill placed shot to the nose made him motivated while sparring versus breaking down and shutting down. Martial arts is supposed to make us more durable and more confident in our ability to handle obstacles, pressure, and adversity. Alex shows a lot of maturity in the brief interview and a great deal of perspective. To an eleven year old a bloody nose is a big deal, and he handled it just fine.
Cheers,
Jett
