"He Caught Himself"

A few posts ago, I wrote a blog called: "A Strong Man Falls". In that blog I told the story of my last meeting with my teacher Mr. Chen Junhao, and my sadness at seeing him stumble and fall while trying to show me a movement. I was very happy that quite a few people read my blog about Mr. Chen, and to share my link with a true Chinese martial arts (CMA) master from a bygone era. I'm honored that people would take time out of their days to read this blog; and I firmly believe that it is Mr. Chen's great passion for CMA and his willingness to share it that has continued to inspire people. However, when I wrote the "A Strong Man Falls" blog, my memory of the event was not as clear as I had thought.

A friend who also trained with Mr. Chen emailed me after I had written that blog. She remembered that day very well, and after hearing her story, it came back to me. She said: "He caught himself", and my memory came back. Mr. Chen was in a great deal of pain at that time, and probably quite weak--and although others saw him taking pain pills, he somehow kept that secret from me (or maybe I did not want to see?).

Mr. Chen never did fall down, just stumbled forward and within a few steps, regained his balance. Like slow-motion. In retrospect I believe that if he had actually fallen, he would have been too weak to get back up right away. Remembering that Mr. Chen caught himself, the story is now complete for me. Of course he would catch himself; of course his decades of training learned from some of the best masters in China would kick in. Reminds me of a line from the movie "Raging Bull" in which Robert Diniro plays the prize fighter Jake LaMotta. After taking a brutal beating at the hands of Sugar Ray Robinson, he stumbles across the ring on rubbery legs, over to Robinson's corner.
"You couldn't put me down, Ray....I never went down" he says, a final point of pride.