Feeling a little uncomfortable

[Hard Fists]

So I got clocked pretty good while sparring the other night. By the time I got home and showered, my eye was swolen up tight and I couldn't open it. D@mn, I haven't had a black eye in about five years. Guess I need to work on slipping a bit more.

Anyway, I work in a government office and wear long button up shirts mostly to cover up my tats and stuff. Now I've got a sh!tload of meetings that I can't skip and my bosses keep stopping by my office to discuss work issues and I have to sit here while everybody looks at my world class shiner.

I'm feeling a little out of place here. I wish I could work at a kung fu school to support my family.:(

Has anyone else been embarrassed as a result of a fight or sparring session while at their desk job?

[Oso]

not me but I've got students who have.

Ming Yue, who posts here, actually got approached by DSS because someone reported her as being possibly in a bad situation due to the bruises on her arms when we all started Pong Lai.

I have one woman who trains pretty hard and when she first started her arms were black and blue for weeks...and otherwise tinted from the Jao...she had to cover up due to her job. she's also gotten one black eye that luckily wasn't an issue because she didn't have anything important coming up.

now, she'll ease up a bit and will wear face mask for sparring if she has a big event coming up.

if you start catching grief for it, talk to your teacher and he or she should understand when you might need to ease up a bit.

[Hard Fists]

I don't mind the grief so much, it's just weird when people come by and ask me what happened. It's kind of hard to play low key around here. I guess it is kind of funny, my division director just left my desk after a 10 minute long anecdote of his college boxing years.

[Oso]

eh...well, if you're not being told it's 'unprofessional' then just relax in to it and revel in the legend that will grow about how much of a bad ass you are. ;) :D

the worst black eye I've ever had was three years ago when this scrawny but very hard edge dude cracked me right on the edge of the orbital socket...had to come back to work at a private school that week....

[Chief Fox]

Nothing to be embarassed about. Wear it like a badge of honor. If someone asks about it, just tell them that you got popped pretty good while sparring and invite them to the school to try it out.

[BruceSteveRoy]

as a person who is prone to self injurious behavior i have complete sympathy. When i did judo i managed to dislocate my shoulder ( and relocated it a week later landing from the same throw that initially hurt it), sprained my ankle, and broke a rib (all separate injuries). Going to work all banged up became pretty common and ppl were always making a huge deal out of it. you get sick of explaining the stories. Now in this kung fu school my fore arms are always bruised from sam sing and it gets so hot in my office i put my sleeves up and then comes the barrage of questions. i have to say it is funny when someone tries to out do my story with one of their own (plus it gets the focus off of me).

So whats the solution? this is what you do. just say the first rule about fight club is... then pause look side to side suddenly flip your desk and sprint for the exit. if you cant flip the desk you can abruptly sweep all the stuff off of the top of it and jump on top of it and then sprint for the exit. i think both have the same kind of impact. (of course after they fire you there will be more time for training.)

[Oso]

{snort} lol at BSR...funny

[brothernumber9]

I used to work three separate jobs when I went to sparring regularly. Not many people showed for class often so I sparred the instructors alot and got banged up on the regular. a decent amount of chaffe (sp?) and cuts and bruises as head gear was optional then. But I never got questioned for it, or at least not in fear of the affect it would have on my employment.

Probably since all three jobs I worked for my Sifu.

[Hard Fists]

So whats the solution? this is what you do. just say the first rule about fight club is... then pause look side to side suddenly flip your desk and sprint for the exit. if you cant flip the desk you can abruptly sweep all the stuff off of the top of it and jump on top of it and then sprint for the exit. i think both have the same kind of impact. (of course after they fire you there will be more time for training.)

LOL-Got it:D

[Judge Pen]

So whats the solution? this is what you do. just say the first rule about fight club is... then pause look side to side suddenly flip your desk and sprint for the exit. if you cant flip the desk you can abruptly sweep all the stuff off of the top of it and jump on top of it and then sprint for the exit. i think both have the same kind of impact. (of course after they fire you there will be more time for training.)

Just wait until they call you into the office to discuss these "issues" and then beat the crap out of yourself. Subsidize your training with corporate sponsorship (like they did in the movie).

[Ray Pina]

Has anyone else been embarrassed as a result of a fight or sparring session while at their desk job?

Who you kidding? You love it:)

[shaolinboxer]

You've become "that" guy :). There a guy in every office like that...always injured from sports or martial arts.

[Banjos_dad]

the last tavern I worked at, we had so many people come in for work all lumped up that we actually had to make a rule, "don't come to work with a black eye."
Mainly applied to the servers, but another manager is a little dumb ass, always drank too much combined with a stupid mouth and insufficient skills, he came in with 'doubles' (2 shiners) more than once lol. He could be a nice guy, but you know, we probably all know or have met someone like this at one point or another.

[Scott R. Brown]

When my oldest son was 2 years old he accidentally hit me below the eye with a 3” action figure giving me a black eye. I worked as a Correctional Officer at the time so everyone at work just “assumed” I was tagged by an inmate. I didn’t mind correcting them, but one Lieutenant asked me if I gave the guy a good wooping! I replied, ‘NO! I let him off easy!” He was stunned for a moment before I told him it was my 2 year old, LOL!!!

[Hard Fists]

Who you kidding? You love it:)

Yeah, I guess I do. The sweat from training took a lot of the swelling away so doesn't look to bad today anyway. Have a good weekend.

[5Animals1Path]

When we started doing bone conditioning I got alot of looks and questions for the lumps and bruises on my arms. I tried to explain the point of it, but it very quickly just turned into "I got beat up at class." Ever since then that's pretty much been everyone's assumption when I come in limping, brusied, or bandaged.




Makes trying to get off on injuries at work a bugger. "We know you're not hurt that bad, you've worked through with worse from the outside." :rolleyes:

[David Jamieson]

what you gotta do is shrimp up and keep your guard up, pay attention to the incoming and make your tactical decisions accordingly.

you'll get less black eyes that way. :p

[GeneChing]

In sort of the reverse of what Hard Fists is experiencing, it was well over a decade ago when I got a black eye 'in the field'. I do volunteer psych tech work (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=469) for the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic as part of my charity efforts. A combative patient caught me with a sucker punch to my orbital ridge, which caused some discoloration under my eye. It wasn't bad, but it was colorful. I was the head instructor then, so when I got back to the kwoon, everyone was amused. Never mind that I told them I did this sort of work before, it was probably too weird for them to wrap their minds around. There's nothing like a black eye for validation. I remember my simu at the time, who knew nothing of real combat, saw my eye and asked incredulously, 'didn't you use your kung fu?' My sifu overheard this and gave a huge eye roll :rolleyes: behind her and chuckled as he walked away, shaking his head at her.

[David Jamieson]

:p

funny how people think that because you learn martial arts, you must be impervious to this kind of thing.

last black eye I had I got while I slept and my wife rolled over and elbowed me. lol
I didn't even wake up and was wondering what the deal was the next day.

Used to work with a guy who was a karate instructor. One day hes out for lunch and some punkass kids are screwing around with people in the drive through, so he get's out of his car and tells them off. They throw a rock at him, hit him square in the eye and almost bust his nose then they run off.

sh1t happens.