I described already three of the four cases, when I got threatened with knives. While one was clearly a jest, another was either a jest or a test. It happened because I was boasting too much. In the remaining case I was boasting too much too. I was in a summer camp, which was organized by an umbrella organization of shooting clubs and was for the shooting clubs’ junior teams. I was only twice in my life in summer camps. Both were tent camps only. I still was a child during the first time, so I can’t recall much. I think that a friend and I were registered there via the sports club in my village, but I’m not sure. I’m only sure that I didn’t like the camps and this means not anything in them or about them. My two main concerns were to survive the food and to keep other people at enough distance to me. I tried to achieve the latter in the shooting clubs’ junior teams’ summer camp by boasting with my skills in karate. This of course resulted once in a situation, when a guy, who I didn’t know, drew a knife. He stood at some distance, too much for a fight. I actually had a knife too, at least in my tent, I can’t recall whether my knife was in my reach. But I can’t look at blood, so this knife was never meant for using it in a fight. At worst for boasting with it too. So when that guy drew his knife, I had completely forgotten that I also had a knife. I took a combat stance instead, thus trying to pretend that I would be able to handle him together with his knife. He understood and responded by moving his knife in ogees in order to show me that he didn’t just know to stab, but would be able to slice me. I had no answer. He most likely was able to kill me. So I simply tried to look confident while I was searching a way to flee. I had good luck that none of us saw any reason for a real fight.

It is really never a good idea to boast with your skills. Especially not with skills in martial arts. This is actually taught too when you learn a martial art, but it is contradictory with the necessary behaviour in combat sports, so it isn’t taught on time in deteriorated martial arts. I should still have known it because of the test, which I made a karateka undergo. So warning the meanies at my school also had an for me unexpected effect: I met bullies, who practiced kickboxing and thaiboxing. Although these people went to other schools. The meanies of my school made them visit for chasing me! The situation was still a little bit better because they went to other schools, so the time, when they could visit, was limited. But they were from a neighbouring village and used to visit the festivals in my village too. My village had the most festivals in the area until the pandemic, so my village was popular among party people.

So this is how I learned that boasting isn’t a good idea. When somebody asked me: “Is it true that you do karate?” I had used to answer: “Yes, it is!” This was seldom the beginning of a conversation, never making meanies shy back, but usually I got attacked then. This didn’t happen any longer when I had learned to answer: “You could try.” This indeed made meanies shy back. It is the Israeli strategy in small. Israel denies to have nuclear weapons and hence joins no treaty dealing with nuclear weapons, but threatens other countries with Israeli nuclear weapons. This keeps the possibilities at a maximum. It is best to avoid already words, which can be misunderstood as not clearly rejecting any possibility of consenting to a fight, while building an image like Batman in “Batman Begins” (“Why bats?”, “Because they are scary!”) or the Undertaker (I read in an interview with another wrestler: “You can know him very well, also privately, you can know the business very well, you can be convinced of your own skills, but if you are waiting in the ring and see the Undertaker enter, then you can’t help, but will feel different.”), so that meanies can be scared. No bully can win this way because thus is made clear that there will be no match nor sportsmanlike behaviour and bullies prefer to show no sportsmanlike behaviour, but not to get this requited. In this case they show their coward side. There are no bigger cowards than bullies. Among them are those, who ridicule you for a lack of braveness, the biggest cowards. This is a rule of thumb, but very reliable for a rule of thumb. I had also quickly learned: If bullies chase you, then run through an underground parking area! No people around means they can’t use their main skill, which is to victimize themselves and make false accusations. Then only real versus real is left. All parties will have to show their true colours. This fills every bully with fear.