This headline could look strange. While I was in school, Germany still knew real winters with snow and ice and coldness. But in this recent season had my area only one week of winter. Although a cycle of almost four-hundred years should have pointed to a really hard winter. But here is only relevant that I experienced real winters during my time in school, so had during these seasons to wear warm winter clothes. Keep this in mind because it explains something, which made me wonder a lot.

Winter is usually a peaceful time. Not only because of the Christmas feeling, but winter is also after Christmas still a peaceful time. The opposite of summer, when heat and sunshine make emotions boil over. Even usually peaceful people tend to get involved in fights. This is one of the reasons why I hate the summer. But once some quarrel with a classmate (actually a bully already introduced on this blog) happened in winter. We were in the classroom and had an economy lesson. This is one of the advantages of the many school years, which are as a German peculiarity necessary for the preparation for studying at an university. Another effect of these many years is that you can be still in school, but legally adult and the teachers must treat you as adults. This can create funny situations and strange effects. It had an unsuspected effect for me. The bully insulted me, so I tried to make him shut up by trying to scare him. Everybody in my class knew that I was already quite advanced in karate, so I told the bully that a fight could be the result if he wouldn’t stop to insult me. He immediately accepted the challenge. We left the classroom. This was permitted to my surprise because we had become legally adult already. This was the opposite of what I had wanted to achieve.

So we stood there outside in front of the classroom and closed the door. The bully asked: “Now what?!” I tried unassertive to explain that I’m no bully and violence isn’t my way to solve problems. I can’t recall what I said or if I did. Most likely I simply asked something like: “What is your problem with me?” I had asked this question to several people. I think that he didn’t let me finish the question, but pushed me and tried to punch me. I avoided several of his attacks, but was myself also not able to land a punch. I was able to force him into a rather far fighting distance and then landed a backward kick. I expected to have ended the fight this way. If you know karate, then you known that the ushiro-geri (backward kick) is feared in matches and requires caution in training. But the bully only exclaimed: “Nice trick!” I was startled, he grabbed me, swayed me in a way that we changed positions and pushed me against the door of our classroom. He held me there, but then he had no idea what he could do next. So he had to end this scuffle. All bullies are morons, hence fight without using their brains. He didn’t achieve anything except not continuing to insult me in front of my classmates. So he could simply have ended it without any fight. But bullies and the use of the brain….

I discussed with other karateka later why my technique wasn’t effective. We found no explanation and the other people didn’t seem very interested in the topic. Meanwhile I think I know this was due to our winter clothes. We were able to generate momentum, but not able to pass it on. Especially my thick, warm winter boots deadened the momentum of the backward kick. The technique is feared in karate matches because the karateka are barefooted and never wear thick clothes. So winter clothes serve as a kind of armor and this has to be considered in a fight. This is a good reason why kicks or punches are always inferior and why no martial artist should rely on them. Even if having already made good experiences with them.