My brother has always had a thing for fighting. When we were all little, this manifested as him chasing me and my sister around with sticks and hitting us with them, which prompted my parents to start him training in Taekwondo (before starting kindergarten!) and get him a set of real, albeit padded, nunchaku as Taekwondo in Korea also encompasses many elements of weapons training.

Trust me, the week he got those chained fuckers was *really* fun, till he was threatened with having them confiscated which seemed to make him behave…well, a bit more anyway.

After achieving black belt 3rd dan halfway through high school, he was informed by his current coach that as he was so young, he’d not be able to earn his 4th dan at the end of his third year on his 3rd dan, but would be forced to wait till he was 18 to take the test. Out of annoyance and frustration, he threw in the towel and began focusing on learning how to box and kickbox (mostly from videos and his mates, many of whom are also martial artists from varying disciplines). After he began to seriously pack muscle onto his otherwise slender frame, I discovered that he was taking part in a ‘fight club’ with some of his mates. I’ve lost count of the number of Saturday mornings that I spent nervous and frantic with worry for my careless kid brother, my heart only calming when he walked in the front door with no or minor injuries - thank goodness!

Though I don’t and never have condoned physical fighting in any form or context, ever since my brother threatened to find my first love (after he broke my heart) and break both his legs, I’ve always known that he was just as protective of me as I was of him, and though the offer of violence was cute, I didn’t think that my trained and quite strong brother was actually capable of hurting anyone.

After seeing his latest fight video, I’ve realized just how wrong I am/was!

martin vs luke (kickboxing)

My favourite moments:

2:20 - Martin uses a reverse kick which connects with his opponents upper chest and floors him
7:13 - Martin attempts a (I think) reverse roundhouse and whilst in mid-air, his opponent kicks his shin and sends him falling. Am I a mean sister to admit that it made me giggle?
7:30 - Not fight-related, but my brother’s Foamy ringtone can be heard going off (”Follow the sound of my voice and kill whoever’s holding the phone!”)
7:57 - Another reverse kick that connects with the opponents throat and sends him down to the ground. Ouch.

While I don’t approve of his fighting, after seeing this, I’m *really* glad (and strangely enough, a little proud) of the fact that he’s never really come home sporting more than a few bruises and sore joints.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Dear Diary, Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.