Our dojo did some grappling, but not much.
Shi Sei Kai Kan is all about putting your opponent down fast and moving on to the next guy.
It was developed for warfare, when a soldier might be facing multiple opponents.
Grappling left you vulnerable to attack from another opponent.
And I had no desire to get up close and personal with Lee.
He roared with humiliation-charged rage and came for me.
Block and block, twist and dodge, I kept him from contacting me.
Someone called out sharply, "Sensei! Check out Lee's fight." "Enough, Lee," Sensei called from the far side of the dojo, where he'd been working with someone.
"That's enough." Lee didn't appear to hear him.
If I hadn't been so much faster than him, I'd have been hurt already.
As it was, I made sure he couldn't connect any of his hits.
For a while, at least, until I got cocky and overconfident.
I fell for a sham move with his right hand, while he slammed me in the diaphragm and laid me out on the floor with his left.
Ignoring my lack of breath as much as I could, I rolled and stumbled to my feet.
And as I rolled, I saw that Adam was standing in the doorway in a business suit.
He had his arms folded on his chest as he waited for me to deal with Lee.
So I did.
I thought it was Adam's presence that gave me the idea.
I'd spent some time at his dojo--in his garage--practicing a jumping, spinning roundhouse kick.
It was developed as a way to knock an opponent off his horse, a sacrificial move that the foot soldier would not expect to survive.
Mounted warriors had more value as a weapon than foot soldiers, so the sacrifice would be worth it.
In modern days, the kick is mostly for demos, used in combat with another skilled person on the ground it is generally too slow, too flashy, to be useful.
Too slow unless you happened to be a part-time coyote and supernaturally fast.
Lee would never expect me to try it.
My heel hit Lee's jaw, and he collapsed on the floor almost before I'd decided to use the move.
I collapsed right next to him, still fighting for breath from his hit to my diaphragm.
Sensei was beside Lee, checking him out almost before I landed.
Adam put his hand on my abdomen and pulled my legs straight to facilitate breathing.
"Pretty," he said.
"Too bad you pulled it; if anyone deserved to lose his head ..." He didn't mean it as a joke.