Thursdays are fight night in class.
Up to this point, I have abstained and focused on my technique. I usually end up with one or two other students in the corner, practicing my kata and going through physical exercises.
Sensei approaches me. He hands me a pair of black and white, padded, fingerless gloves.
They smell like Ajax laundry detergent.
“I got these for you.”
I flip them over and slip them on. They are a little big. I bow.
“Thank you, Sensei.”
He bows back.
“We have extra Sensei in class tonight. You will have your first sparring match. Come.”
Let’s not.
He walks back to the center of the room. I follow uncomfortably.
He motions for an older teenage boy to come to “The Ring,” which is a stall sized area marked off with four tiny orange cones in the corners.
The greenbelt trots up and bows to him.
“You will bow to me, bow to each other, get into your fighting stance, then when I say Hajime, you will begin!” I nod.
“Yes, SIR!” The teenager quips.
We go through the bowing routine.
“Hold on, Sensei.” One of the other Sensei says, he is a senior rank. He walks into our ring.
He stands very close to me. I can smell his deodorant and rotting breath under the mint he is sucking on. He folds his hands over my wrists and straightens them and moves my arms a little higher.
“Tip your elbows in slightly to cover your ribs.” His fingers brush my left side.
I flush and move my arm.
“Would you like to monitor this fight Sir?” The Sensei who gave me the gloves asks. He smiles broadly, we are locked in eye contact. Someone must have broken his nose when he was younger.
“Why, yes, I would. Thank you, sir.”
Sensei bows and stands at one of the corners.
Rot breath turns on the greenbelt.
“If you hurt her, I will hurt you, boy.”
Great. Way to ruin something before it starts.
He stands between us and adjusts my arm again.
Stop touching me.
“Hajime!”
I move in with a side kick and plant it squarely on the greenbelt’s hip. He falls over backwards, landing on his butt.
“Oh! I am sorry!” I say and leap forward to pull him up. He draws backwards from me and scrambles up.
“I am fine!”
He comes in with a punch and hits my arm. I punch back aiming at his sternum, he is very soft, the air exits him in a single “Oof.”
“Yame!” Sensei calls.
The greenbelt puts his hands above his head as he works to get his wind back.
“You need to use more control.” Sensei says to me. I nod only looking at the greenbelt.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard.”
He shrugs.
“You are alright, for a girl.”
We line up up again.
“Hajime!”
He whips in with a kick and catches me on the side of my leg.
That hurts but I can take it.
I back up and block with my arms as he comes in with a couple of punches. I back up farther. He is about a foot and a half taller than me. When he punches he leaves himself exposed with his long skinny arms. I absorb another hit on my arm and I hit him in the sternum again. He collapses forward, the air knocked out of him again.
“Yame!”
He puts his hands on his head again as he gets his air back.
“Nice job getting his solar plexus!” Someone outside the ring says.
Sensei who is guiding the fight grins at me with his crooked nose.
“You are going to be a battle ax.”
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