Fighting a nine year old
When I was about 15, I used to be very keen on Wado-Ryu karate. I was pretty good - 1st Kyu I believe at the time. My opponent was a nine year old boy who had just completed Shodan, so we were very close in technical ability. However, I was at least three times his size.

This was the first national level semi-contact tournament I'd been in (had done pretty well so far too), and one of the rules of semi (rather than full) is that you don't knock your opponent out and you try and score points, rather than battering your opponent into a mess.

This kid was worryingly small and fragile looking and I was quite concerned about fighting him, as I probably had about a 7st weight advantage. Let me re-iterate that - I was very worried I'd hurt him. Ha!

We square up, touch gloves, and I step forward tentatively. I remember trying a pretty light and slow roundhouse punch... I woke up and I was flat on my back with a very painful nose. I sneezed blood all over the front of my Gi and wondered what the hell happened. Right. No Mercy, pile in and do the little bugger... err... no. The kid was soooo fast I had absolutely no chance of hitting him. He pulvarised me.

It all ended (for me) with two cracked ribs, a broken nose, strained wrist ligament, a written off Gi and a fresh vow to never, ever, ever fight again in a martial arts competition.

So, I failed in the only serious sports competition I ever took part in, and to add insult to injury, I got comprehensively beaten by a small 9yo in front of approximately 200 people. In Birmingham.

Apologies for length, but once I start I can't stop.
(It's what Ian Rush drinks!, Wed 10 Jan 2007, 18:03, Reply)