Apologies, sound effects and a stuntman

Considering the fantastic violence we train for in Haganah, essentially learning  how to restrain, incapacitate or terminate people with our bare hands, we are incredibly apologetic to one another when we accidentally catch someone with an errant  knee or elbow while practicing.
Even though we practice the moves slowly and make contact only to ensure the accuracy of our strikes, accidents do happen. Accidents pretty much have to happen when you're throwing rear uppercut elbows to you partner's jaw and flexing their arms to the point just before tendons snap.  These accidents are always followed by heartfelt outpourings of Sorry dude; My bad; Oh crap, are you OK? Although these apologies might seem out of place while practicing separating the spinal cord from the brain stem, I would want it no other way. You must respect your classmates and always be looking out for their well being. And at the very least, you have to keep in mind that what goes around comes around. If you're going all Attila the Hun on your partner, since we're always switching roles from attacker to defender,  it's just a matter of a few seconds before you get your comeuppance.

Apologizing is just one of  the pleasant peculiarities found in Haganah class. Another one is sound effects. Many people, consciously or unconsciously,  include these auditory enhancements when punching, kicking and elbowing, as if making a noise that mimics fist hitting neck will somehow improve their skill. There could be two reasons for this:  We are taught to exhale when punching, kicking or otherwise striking an opponent. It helps add power and exhaling is just way more natural than trying to inhale when striking. So the sound effects could be an extension of that. Of course, the sound effects could also be a symptom of  Hollywood, where any movement of a limb during a movie fight brings forth the sound of rushing air and like in the old Batman TV show all hits are registered with a POW! or BLAMO!!

In addition to apologies and sound effects, last night's class (Mon. Jan. 30) featured my first observation of a stuntman. My partner, who is very new to the class, responded to my light blows with exaggerated body movements. Example: I throw an elbow to his neck, he throws his head to the side with corresponding grimace of pain.