After the usual Sunday geriatric’s class today, I dined at a local cafe. The waitress sat us down next to some heavily tatted dude who was with his girlfriend. Due to his intimidating looks, I was trying my best not to stare at his face tats nor at his busty silicone-loving partner. My fragile mother seemed to have no problem blatantly staring away however. Anyhow, I accidentally made eye contact with the guy.... Oh crap, was I staring at his face or his partner too long for him to remain looking at me…. Turns out, he had had a nice long gaze at my knuckles the whole time and wanted to strike up a chat about training and what I did.
For the regular person, I’m often asked why the hell my knuckles are so munted (yeah, try explaining to people why I love to punch planks of hardwood). Anyway, many questions and his bravado training tales came pouring out as if I was his best mate. Apparently, he trains in Muay Thai on the Gold Coast full-time and his passion happens to be conditioning….but after breaking his hand one too many times, that’s when the inclusion of makiwara training into his routine all started. Pretty cool I thought, a thug looking Muay Thai dude with legs shaved better than my wife, incorporating ideas from other martial arts who simply wanted to compare knuckles and stories with me. It reminded me of one Okinawa trip when a delivery guy rocked up to a restaurant - the owner told us to look at his knuckle. Yep, one big bad knuckle of doom is all it takes to stir up a good convo.
So back to Mr Face Tat – I was offered to go to his gym anytime for sparring, conditioning, and everything else in between. As nice and welcoming as he was, I think I’d rather spend time with my karate pensioner's club. But who would have thought some mutated looking knuckles could generate such excitement in someone.
Commenti