Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Most Embarassing Moments in the Dojo

Last weekend I was asked to teach a technique at a black belt course that was being hosted at my dojo. I confidently got up and demonstrated a particular wrist takedown to the group of 12 or so black belts who were in attendance. As I was stepping back into a stance having finished the technique, I heard a loud ripping noise coming from behind me.

"Hm. I think I just ripped a whole in my pants," I announced to the group.


As I moved, I couldn't help but noticed the increased breeze caressing my back-end. I covered it up with my hands then backed away toward the washroom in a decidedly undignified manner. The best part of it is that it was all being recorded on camera so that everyone could "review" what was taught as necessary. Needless to say, the incident elicited a lot of laughs.

Now that I've shared my most embarrassing dojo moment, I'd love to alleviate my embarrassment by hearing some of your most embarrassing stories. Please share in the comments! :)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

It wasn't at my "home" dojo, per say, but it was at our head dojo. We were doing knee and elbow work on a pad, and my uke was really pissed off, so when she grabbed my shoulders, she shoved me back as well. I lost my footing, fell on my butt,and slid into the legs of another black belt. I was the only one out of the whole dojo, both our location, and the host location,to do so.

Nicole said...

Excellent *grin* bet no one will forget that for a while ;p And I did a post on embarrassing moments aggeeess ago so if you want to know you'll have to go hunt them out ;p I'm not repeating them!

http://damselinadirtydress.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

That was funny, I don't know if this is the same order of magnitude of embarassment but one time, to my horror, I discovered I forgot my belt(!) so I had to borrow a white one from somebody. Quite embarassing, to prevent cheeky remarks I told everyone I was demoted for bad behaviour. In those situations it's always better to crack a joke yourself than becoming a hapless victim. Slightly less embarassing: completely forgetting a technique when you're supposed to know it well or showing a horizontal gunting when a vertical one was requested (I was awfully tired then and hadn't slept more than 4 hours the night before), especially since I had to demonstrate and everyone was watching. I have a few others but I think it's best not to publish those.

What did you after that? Did you bring another set of clothing?

Zara

Lori O'Connell said...

Unfortunately, I had no other pants. Worse still, I had worn my pants to the dojo rather than changing. I borrowed another woman's pants for the rest of the class, then worse a pair of Chris's gi pants to get home.

Anonymous said...

That really wasn't your day, huh?

Allright, one more to ease your suffering: one time I actually managed to forget my gi pants and had to wear my jeans during practice which got quite smelly and uncomfortable after a while (another reason why it's not practical to practice in plain clothing, although that is supposed to be more 'realistic'). I wanted to go home but sensei insisted I'd stay, the sadistic bastard (lol). To this day I wonder how on earth you can pack a gi and not notice the pants are missing but then again I tend to be quite untidy and always have lots of stuff on my mind.

Did it work? The easing of the hurt pride that is ;-) I do hope so otherwise I've just embarassed myself for nothing, twice even.

Anonymous said...

This wasn't in a dojo per se -- we were training outdoors on the military base where my husband was stationed at the time.

My period started early, and heavy, while I was in the middle of sparring. (In light grey sweats, of course.) Everyone in the class apart from myself was a guy, too, which somehow makes it worse.

One of my dear friends took the signal when I ducked out of sparring, and gave me a towel out of his trunk and a ride home (I'd walked) to change.

True friendship is when a guy lets you sit in his car in that kind of emergency. <3

Sol said...

Kesa Gatame to Kata Gatame - shoulder buried deep into the Uke, backside high in the air and squeeze! You can guess that the loud gaseous emission was met with rapturous applause and an instant Sion tap by the Uke :0)

Sol said...

Kesa Gatame to Kata Gatame. Shoulder pressed firmly into the Uke, backside up in the air and squeeze! The resulting loud gaseous release was met with rapturous applause and manic submission tapping by the Uke!

Chris said...

I have split my pants this way on at least three separate occasions. Once, it was during lunchtime practice in my everyday clothes, and I had to return for 4 more hours of work. Fortunately I could spend most of my afternoon in a desk chair.

I've never dyed my gi pink or baby blue by accident, but friends have. (Although maybe with all the camo, patches and fancy trim these days, it's no longer a faux pas?)

Sam said...

ok, well, i have split my pants before, was doing some ground work and all of a sudden..RIP!
another thing ive done, is dye my Gi green..ish, i was throwing my gear in the washing machine, and my green belt was wrapped up with my other stuff, and had never been washed.

all good fun and memories.

Lori O'Connell said...

Thanks everyone for sharing. If you can laugh at yourself at least you can share in the joke with everyone else that's laughing. :)

Sylvie said...

Ok, it happened yesterday, so I just had to come in here and write a post about it!

I recently ordered these really cool bumper stickers that say "Sparring - Better than therapy!" I stuck one on my car, and I love it so much, that I stuck one on my karate bag as well. Well, last night, when I picked up my bag to go into the dojo, the sticker got caught on the side of my back and it stayed there during the entire sparring class!! People must of thought I was pretty weird, wearing a bumper sticker on my gi! It was only AFTER class that one of my friends finally asked me what I had stuck on me! I was really embarassed. But hey! I really believe it though... Sparring IS better than therapy! ;o)

Lori O'Connell said...

That's pretty funny, Sylvie! Thanks for sharing. :)

Strive 2 Shine said...

Hope you don't mind me commenting on such an old post! I just found your blog today, and have been browsing through... and this one got me chuckling at my own most embarrassing moment at the dojang:

Finding out that zip-up sport bras can and WILL unzip themselves. In the worst possible moments.

Nough said. ;)

Lori O'Connell said...

Ooooh. That one's a doozy. lol... thanks for sharing. Now I know never to wear a zip bra to Jiu-jitsu.