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Writing a book about violence in Japanese baseball apparently makes Bob an expert in Martial Arts. NOT.

Author Robert Whiting, who detailed corporal punishment in Japanese baseball in his 1989 book "You Gotta Have Wa," said violence in Japanese sports traces its roots to martial arts.

"Corporal punishment is the legacy of the martial arts, where physical education means physical punishment and is considered a valid way of teaching," Whiting said. "Still evident all over Japan in all sports, it's very widespread. Screw up in practice and you get a slap on the head or a kick in the butt. That's how you learn."(AP)

Bob is an idiot. Bob has also, very clearly, never taken a Martial Art with any degree of comprehension because corporal punishment is *not* any more a tenant of training than it is for modern sports. What it *is* a reflection of is culture. I doubt very much that physical abuse in sports training is the same across all nations, or even across all sports. Take curling, do you really think that players are being beaten with brooms if they miss? Or what about ping pong? Getting slapped with the paddle perhaps? I'd say it depends on the country, but that's not my beef, my beef is the lumping of martial arts into a big target as the source of "corporal punishment."

I've practiced martial arts for over two decades, and started fairly young for an American. My kids started even younger. Punishment for failure meant disappointment, or additional time, never once, not ever, was I forced to endure any sort of hitting, yelling or even additional calisthenics. (Once I had to do a dozen extra pushups, but that was because I was part of a group horsing around, and 12 pushups, imho do not amount to "corporal" anything.)

Even in the most aggressive martial arts, certain types of Karate where physical conditioning is difficult (forearm and shin pounding to build bone and deaden the nerves) students are *not* disrespected with slaps to the head or kicks to the butt. Sorry, that is an ignorant statement from someone who hasn't spent enough time observing or even learning the principles of what Martial Arts means.

So here's a bit of enlightenment for you Bob: the most brutal punishment a Martial Arts instructor can inflict is to ignore the student. It doesn't involve a single touch or even a word. It's more effective than any blow can be, and that it typically the punishment dished out for the worst infractions, but never, ever for failing to succeed after trying your best.