have you ever wondered why it’s called martial arts? apparently it is derived from Mars, the god of war, hence martial arts = art of warfare. and just like in any war, there are always casualties.

the report of the teen who died after receiving a kick on the neck in a taekwondo competition jarred my nerves. it is one thing when someone who has lived a full life passes away (my dad would have been 74 today), but quite another when someone so young does. and in such an abrupt manner.

but it’s not just that. see, jan is already sporting a green belt. aside from his weekly lessons, he also attends a number of compulsory sparring sessions. they don protective gears on breast, shin, groin and arm areas, and are taught to put into action all the kicks and blocks they have learned previously. on saturday will be another round of grading, this time with sparring included.

what’s the probability that such a fatal accident will recur? probably very low. probably as low as one dying from an air crash. or a bad fall. or a lightning strike. but the thing is, one never knows, eh? after all those are the stats behind term life insurance quotes.

but what to do? pull him out of training? sounds absurd. cross fingers? sounds useless. arrgh.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at and is filed under jan-i-mania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.