Tuesday, August 11, 2009

They wanted to teach quiet Ola

Ola ... was it like this?

Ola Svensson was a vacationing Swedish karate and Savate instructor. He just dropped by one afternoon and asked whether he could train with us. Normally, someone from a hard style has a difficult time working in kenpo and I discourage them just jumping into a class or two while they are here on vacation. I recommend the Japanese school down the street. I noticed his accent and asked where he was from. It turned out he knew Ingmar Johansson, my friend in Sweden. Ola came to us for a week and warmed up with the class, then went off in the corner to kick the bag. No attitude, just wanted to work. I showed him how to hit harder with his punches and that made him smile. He took Ed Cabrera’s boxing class and said he really enjoyed that. The lesson here is that when you let someone into your class you don’t know what they’ll do. Hopefully they won’t hurt one of your students and get you sued. This man was competent and didn’t come to show off and run his mouth. Everyone likes Swedes and Aussies, said one of my black belts. Well, we got an Aussie, too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was exactly like that :). He was a very nice person who let me work out during my vacation even if we where from different styles. A great person with an open mind! /Ola la