I saw the light
13 Oct 2008 
in the early evening 
Matt Winckler
Today was “Instructor Appreciation Day” in Defensive Tactics, also known as “boxing day”. It involved students boxing one-on-one with instructors, and there was only one rule: the students were not allowed to hit back. As with many things at the academy, this was my first experience, and it was sufficient to convince me that boxing is not a sport I would like to take up for fun. During my bout with the instructor, I stayed on my feet and blocked a few strikes, but more of them found my face and head. Five or six of these strikes provided a sufficient jolt to cause my vision to explode into blinding flashes of light. (For those who, like me before today, have never experienced this sensation, the cartoons with stars circling around a character’s head are not strictly fiction, but in my case it was more like a camera flash directly in the face.) The exercise only lasted for roughly a minute, but by then I was ready to be done.
Following that we paired up with another student and began another boxing exercise. This time we went one-on-one with a student and boxed in three timed phases: first one was on offense-only and the other defense-only, then the roles swapped, and finally we would both fight. Each phase lasted for perhaps 30-45 seconds. I received a few more blows, but at least I had the opportunity to deal some back. I think I was somewhat too hesitant to hit hard, though; I certainly didn’t deliver punches at 100% for fear of causing more injuries. After the experience I’m left with a strange mixture of feelings–not particularly wanting to do more boxing, but at the same time wanting to go back and do it better than before. I was also left with a headache that is only now subsiding, ten hours later.
We followed up boxing with a block written exam (which, against all odds, I once again scored very well on) and four hours of an extremely boring class on hazardous materials. The class had few redeeming features, but it did have some interesting videos (such as this one).