Calling all the Men...Why did you start Martial Arts??

[Flying Crane]

On a side note: I wish more women were involved in the martial arts. I grow tired of meeting girls who think I am wasting time. I think us MA guys could all use a tough girl to reel us in sometimes.

I met my wife in the dojo. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones...

 

[CoryKS]

We got our son into it because he's smallish for his age and we wanted him to be able to defend himself. I signed up after about a year of taking him to classes because it looked like fun.

Have always hated just about every physical activity because they bored me to tears. Weight lifting has to be the most boring activity ever devised. Sports do nothing for me. And like the commercial says, my relationship with running is love/hate. MA has a mental aspect that engages me like nothing else.

Finally, I want to mention that those people who say things like "karate changed my whole life" used to creep me the hell out. They seemed kinda cultish in my eyes. Now I'm one of them, because it has changed my life. Some things can't be explained; they have to be experienced.

 

[searcher]

I met my wife in the dojo. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones...

Ditto for me. Been together for 9 years.

 

[Aiki Lee]

Ditto for me. Been together for 9 years.

I'm still young,hopefully I might get to have the same luck you and Crane have had.

 

[astrobiologist]

I started when I was 5 so things were kind of different in my mind back then. I had seen a lot of martial arts movies since my father was way into them. My father had wrestled in high school, was and is a pretty tough guy, so he got into martial arts when I was 3 or 4. When I was 5 he asked if I wanted to go with him and I was ecstatic. So, my two reasons for starting were:

1.) Thought it sounded cool, mostly from watching a lot of chuck norris, steven seagul, bruce lee movies and such

2.) My Father! He is now the Master at our school, which he and his wife own and operate, and where I am an instructor. I'm hopefully leaving soon for grad school, but I'll still return to train with my father at least once or twice a year if I can afford to.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I do it for the Chicks.

Originaly this was da plan.
Sean

 

[Josh Oakley]

I started when I was 5. At this point it's one of the major defining factors in my life.

 

[Ninebird8]

It has evolved over the last 32 years I have been training. At first, after 4 years of wrestling in high school, it was my pre - ADD diagnosis times of maintaining equilibrium and becoming less anal......I have always been active and use to get in trouble in school making straight As and getting bad act marks. This cured it before I got to college. I was also small and needed to defend myself, and love the way kung fu would study animals for years and develop fighting styles, it appealed to my intellect. Also, always wanted a Master's degree in the martial arts, and a Master's in Finance, and got both of them in my mid to late 40s!!!

As far as chicks, none of my two ex wives and one current wife find it fascinating, and one ex and two kids are Asian and half Asian respectively. I find most chicks either are intimidated, figure we are violent, or do not trust any man who would purposely hurt himself like that!! Luckily, I haved studied Yang tai chi the last 12 years so I can either be Tai Chi Mike or Kung fu Mike.

Don't know.....kung fu will never leave you no matter how hard you treat it....LOL!!!

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Took it up as a kid to deal with schoolyard bullies. Self defense and learning to fight.

Daniel

 

[Raynac]

I really just liked the idea of improving myself, knowing that I was learning how to better control my body and others.

orginally going in i also wanted to learn ways to defend my friends, because at that time I assumed i was invincble. even though im yet to be in a real fight, I know different now. so Im now learning to defend my friends and me.

 

[AnnunakiKungFu]

I kept getting pushed around and picked on in school so my dad enrolled me into TaeKwonDo. Once I hit 6'5 people stayed away from me in school anyway. Funny how height really solves the problem of people messing around with you.

 

[Jason Striker II]

It may have been seeing Bruce on the Green Hornet... It may have been to defend myself against Bozo the Clown, if I ever were confronted by him...

God's honest, I don't exactly remember...