Master B's Web log

Jack Scott- United Karate- Cookeville, Tennessee   Around 1988, I arrived at my inlaws who had relocated to Cookeville from New Jersey.  We had brought my four year old son there to visit his grandparents and spend some quality family time.  After being there a few days I casually leafed through the yellow pages to see what karate schools were around.  My eyes landed on Jack Scotts United Karate Studio and I decided to call.   I explained I was visiting family and asked if I could come down and watch some karate classes.  Mr. Scott said it was not a good night to come down but the next night would be better.  Of course that prompted me to go down and see why I could not watch.  Well he received me with open arms and let me watch for several hours.  We talked for a long time and then he asked if I would like to take a class the next night.  I responded I would like to but had not brought my uniform.  He loaned me a uniform...

Ho-Shin-Sool   (호신술) consists of three characters and their meanings are as follows. Ho (호) is to guard, to protect, to defend or to keep us safe from something against such as physical assaults, diseases, and/or even from harmful spirits. Shin (신) refers to our body, and Sool   (술) is a word for skills or techniques. Therefore, ho-shin-sool   is all and any techniques used to guard our body.

In my life I have seen many bullying situations.   From children to teens and even adults I have seen some of the worst cases of mental and emotional abuse go on.   As a teenager I feared confrontation and hated to see the bullies work against helpless and timid people.   When I was younger I wished I knew martial arts and had the courage and fortitude to stand up to these mean and angry people.   Should I stand up to these big, mean intimidators?   No not me. There is always a chance that they would turn their attention my way.   I couldn’t risk that, or could I?   Several years ago one of my little skinny blond students, while riding the bus, would get picked on.   She was a good student but a little shy.   She may not have been a bruiser in sparring class but she always managed to hold her own but these were not the skills needed on the school bus.   The verbal taunts and abuse would leave her in tears both on her way to sc...

Once I got settled in as the solo bouncer I devised ways to keep myself safe in my role.  New Britain had a mixed population of gangs, bikers and offbeat characters and I never knew who was going to show up.  I kept a quarter over the payphone in case I needed to call the police and in the eventuality things went bad quickly, I hung my jacket by the door.  I kept a pair of nunchaku with one piece down the sleeve and one piece hanging out so I could retrieve it quickly. Things kept fairly calm at the bar.  I made friends with the football team and they became my backup in case things got out of hand.  It is easier to be a bouncer when you have a couple of 250 pound linebackers standing behind you. Little did I know that at the end of my graduate career I was going to postpone returning back to my old high school as a counselor and get into the nightclub business where bouncing took a more serious track. Just when I got the hang of working t...

Being a Black Belt does not make you a bouncer.  Fighting in tournaments does not make you a bouncer. Knowing martial arts does not make you a bouncer. Learning on the job helps make you a bouncer. Most of the time when people were unruly in the college bar we just had to break up fights, cool people down and then kick them out.  It became a matter of restraint rather than a brawl (although I will go over those episodes too) and we had to keep people safe in spite of themselves. One night during a busy night there were three very big college football guys drunk at the door.  I had stopped them from entry because they were already drunk.  We began to argue and knowing that the odds were against me I came up with an effective strategy.                                      ...

Attending college as a Black Belt and needing a part time job, it was only a matter of time before applying to the local college bar as a bouncer. The bar was a local restaurant and prominent college student hangout.  The drinking age was 18 so every weekend students flocked to Elmers Place for lots of fun.  The first night I was there the owners had friends show up to visit.  They invited me to sit down with them and plyed me with drinks.  At the end of the night I told them I would quit the job if that was to be the standard. Drinking and bouncing is not a good idea. I was the solo bouncer in a crowd of one hundred and fifty patrons!  No backup, no one to cover my back, another lack of planning because I had not thought much of it.  About two weeks in, it was alumni weekend and the school was populated by an extra thousand people visiting and that Saturday night they all wanted to be partying at Elmers. There was an unruly group of alumni in the d...