Told you I’d rant again.

[Xue Sheng]

First the rant, then an example and then the question.

RANT -
The short time I have been on MT I have come across multiple posts that are all basically the same. Could you handle a real fight, is you MA real, do you pressure test, do you train for real situations, what if the guy is tougher than you, could you handle yourself in the street, bar, alley, are you dangerous, are you nasty, can you beat someone up.

And to be honest I am sick and tired of it. In my opinion may of these threads are started by people that may well train for real situations and may well be able to handle themselves in a fight, and may even be dangerous. But they have never been in a real bare knuckle; knock down drag out fight in their life. And even if they have WHO CARES?

Have I been in any real fights? Most unfortunately yes, more than I want to think about. I was once young and stupid and on occasion drunk young and stupid, which is considerably worse and I have no desire to think about those fights at all. Later I was smarter but I had a job that required me to use what I know and I am not all too happy about that either, although I was at that time better at talking my way out and if I had to tell someone “sure you can kick my %ss” I did so if it meant no fight.

Sometime after 16 I stop listening to what my first Sensei said and I didn’t remember again until around 20 what he had said. What my very first Sensei (Jujitsu) had said. “If you can run away, run. Otherwise you could get hurt or killed or worse yet hurt or kill someone else. And then you have to live with it.” “Fight only as a last resort”

There are acting military, ex-military on this page there are police and retired police on this page, bouncers and ex-bouncers as well as people that had to deal with more crap growing up that anyone should have to, I am none of these by the way, they have all had to deal with the real world, real violence and real idiots and you do not see any of them posting, “Look who I beat up” and “look how dangerous I am”, or “I am a trained killer” now do you. There is SOOO much more to martial arts that this and if you don’t see that you are missing the whole point.
- RANT DONE

Now that I have said that, there is so much more to Martial Arts than beating someone up, being dangerous and telling people how “BAD” you are.

EXAMPLE –
A few years back when I was training Xingyi very hard and I was walking in a Macy’s department store. I noticed an elderly couple walking, about 10 feet, in front of me; I would estimate around late 70s early 80s. The woman was about 5 foot 5, slender and pushing her husband in a wheelchair. He looked to be about 6 foot and also slender. I would later find out they needed to be on the second floor and could not find an elevator.

The women pushed the man onto the escalator and as it started up they stared going backwards and down. Before I knew it I had made the distance caught her and the wheel chair and stopped them from falling. I also found the elevator for them when we got to the second floor.

I fully believe I would not have been able to do this without my Xingyi training. I would have never covered the distance that quickly nor would I have any idea of what force was necessary to stop their fall and still not hit them to hard.

QUESTION –
Now has anyone else feel that have had experience with something positive they were able to accomplish because of their martial arts training?

Anything at all be it wining a contest, getting the job, helping a child, getting healthier and being a better person for it or to saving a life, anything at all.

Thank You

 

[Kacey]

QUESTION –
Now has anyone else feel that have had experience with something positive they were able to accomplish because of their martial arts training?

Anything at all be it wining a contest, getting the job, helping a child, getting healthier and being a better person for it or to saving a life, anything at all.

Thank You

This is a great topic... and yes, I have been able to accomplish something positive with my TKD training. I started TKD in 1987; I started teaching TKD in 1990 or so... which led me into becoming a special education teacher. The respect and courtesy that I learned in TKD, as well as the discipline and high expectations regardless of starting point, carried over from the dojang into my classroom, and has had an incredibly positive effect on my students - both in their behavior, as, being shown respect, they return it, and I have few behavior problems that last past the first few weeks I have a student in class - even if other teachers have problems, and in their performance, because regardless of their starting point, I expect them to do their best and improve from wherever they start, which, for some of my students, is 3-5 years behind in middle school - and they all improve, some of them amazingly, some less so - but all more than they expected, because too many teachers lower their expectations. Without TKD, I don't know that I would ever have become a teacher, and even if I did, I don't think I would have the skills I take from TKD to the classroom that help my students succeed.

 

[HKphooey]

Sounds like you train for different reasons than the people you were "ranting" about. I too, train for those same reasons. It is not about the punishment I can inflict, how "bad" I can be, or how many trophies I can take home. But I cannot fault others for wanting that out of their training.

I know I can adequately handle myself in real word applications, but for me it has always been about helping others learn to handle those situations, avoid those situation and make themselves better people. I have had students come and go who I knew were going to have a tough life ahead of them and I wish they did not stop training. I know my instruction and guidance has kept some kids out of the wrong crowds and some professionals safe on their jobs.

Oh, and it helped quit smoking!

 

[Gemini]

Though I can't say that I agree with your rant, I will say I agree that there is so much more to be gained than the physical aspect our arts teach us. Case in point, I've found a great benefit of my training is my ability to stand in front of a large group of people and maintain my composure. That's about as far removed from what some may look for, but absolutely directly related to my training.

 

[crushing]

QUESTION –
Now has anyone else feel that have had experience with something positive they were able to accomplish because of their martial arts training?

Anything at all be it wining a contest, getting the job, helping a child, getting healthier and being a better person for it or to saving a life, anything at all.

Thank You

Great question! I look forward to the responses.

In addition to the health aspects, I think MA is improving my golf game.

But, I don't have anything so noble as your example. But that makes me wonder if a person wouldn't necessarily realize that their training and studies played a key role in some event.

You know what? I do have a 'noble' example. My eldest son and I train together and I think that it has really benefitted our relationship (he's a teenager, and looking back, that's not an easy time) and I hope he realizes the benefits of such studies for years to come.

 

[still learning]

Hello, Good point here! The world is made of all kinds of people who grew up with all kinds of role models.

Very few "perfect" people in this world. Each child is raise by an adult who may or may not be the right person, who was also raise by a questionable role model.

So each person has his own personal style of behaving. We cannot blame the way people act......they were raise that way!

BUT: People can change to a more positive person if they choose too! ...Just my thoughts on this.....Aloha

 

[Kreth]

In addition to the health aspects, I think MA is improving my golf game.

I think there can be a lot of subtle benefits to be picked up from MA training. Case in point, as part of my training, I learned some junan taiso stretching exercises for the wrists and fingers. I've been working as a computer geek for years, never had any problems with CTS. A few of my co-workers over the years have developed CTS symptoms, I showed them the exercises, and they stopped having problems.

 

[MRE]

Regarding the rant, I can see your point, but I enjoy reading about the thoughts and opinions of other martial artists. So I can't agree with it, but, since it is your opinion, I won't disagree with it either.

Sadly (for me), I don't have any stories about how my training has helped me do anything cool. However, I did lose 15 pounds since I started training!

 

[Flying Crane]

Sadly (for me), I don't have any stories about how my training has helped me do anything cool. However, I did lose 15 pounds since I started training!

I'd say this is pretty cool...

 

[Gemini]

I'd say this is pretty cool...

I agree. I thought he was going to say he lost 15% on his car insurance but this is much better. It's as much to Xue Sheng's point as any IMO.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Sadly (for me), I don't have any stories about how my training has helped me do anything cool. However, I did lose 15 pounds since I started training!

That is not a sad thing that's a good thing.

As to the rant, and against my better judgment I am going to rant again

RANT -
Others opinions on the matter are a good thing and it is important. But if you read these things from first to last post somewhere in there the whole thing gets pretty silly and repetitive and it comes down to an ego fest. And then the whole thing degenerates into if you can't fight in the street you just ain't no good.

And surprisingly enough the people making that statement are not the ones that may actually know anything about it, as per my examples of those on the site.

And then the whole entire point is missed, or at least I feel it is, the training we do as martial artists is generally done for more than just "I want to be dangerous" and when those that do know what they are talking about get involved and do not agree or expound on what they have dealt with it goes to trying to out yell them and calling them fake or Charlatans and then they go off patting themselves on the back for a job well. Give me a break.
- RANT OVER

Sorry, apparently I am in a ranting kind of mood, as I said in another post today, I should never take a day off.

Back to my main theme and/or question. These are all great things that have been posted so far including saving 15% on his car insurance, I'm just not sure how MA training achieved that but its all good.

Thanks

 

[Carol]

Over the past 12 months, there's quite a lot to say.

Lost 30 pounds.

Fought off some serious depression of being laid off well enough to ace a job interview for a job I desperately wanted, and needed.

After acing the interview, my training was a crucial point in me getting the offer. I loved the job, but the only shifts available were the unpopular, off-hours slots that involved nights, weekends, or both. My boss was concerned that I'd say yes to the job because I clearly needed one, and then freak out about the hours once I was doing it. I gave him a couple of reasons that started with "My karate..." and got a phone call the next day with the offer.

In the middle of a heated conference call at work, I stood up to a colleague hurling nasty words AT me (not "Oh Bleep" but "You're a Bleep") without losing my temper or saying anything I regretted. I got serious props from management for doing so.

I've enjoyed a countless number of jokes because my colleauges think it is so cool that I train, even though not many of them understand MA.

Probably talked my way out of a traffic ticket because I defaulted to my training when the trooper approached my car. Everything I said ended in "Sir." And - Gemini - that probably DID save me 15% on my auto insurance by not having the extra mark on there

I've started to wonder if MA is my life or not. I've been kind of dismissive of it as something that I do, but perhaps not my life and certainly not my career. When in fact...it is my life. My MA friends were there for me when I went through a nasty layoff, and a devastating breakup. They reached out to me before I even had to ask. They were there for me when I landed my job, and they are there for me when I just want to say hi.

So...most importantly of all...I have made some unbelievable friendships with people that I hope will be part of my training life for a long time to come. And that I treasure over everything else. Whatever my skills are, however I applied them, whichever belt is around my waist, that is all irrelevant compared to the great people that I have met. They are why I keep training, and why I keep trying. :asian:

 

[Jade Tigress]

I think there can be a lot of subtle benefits to be picked up from MA training.

True. I find my reflexes are much quicker in general. There was a cool experience with my son about a year or so ago when he was training kung fu. My husband was working in the garage and there was lots of stuff on the floor. My son was in there with him and had stepped back and tripped over something...he did a breakfall and smacked out..saving his head from cracking against the concrete floor. We were very thankful he knew breakfalls that day.

 

[Rich Parsons]

First the rant, then an example and then the question.

RANT -
The short time I have been on MT I have come across multiple posts that are all basically the same. Could you handle a real fight, is you MA real, do you pressure test, do you train for real situations, what if the guy is tougher than you, could you handle yourself in the street, bar, alley, are you dangerous, are you nasty, can you beat someone up.

And to be honest I am sick and tired of it. In my opinion may of these threads are started by people that may well train for real situations and may well be able to handle themselves in a fight, and may even be dangerous. But they have never been in a real bare knuckle; knock down drag out fight in their life. And even if they have WHO CARES?

Have I been in any real fights? Most unfortunately yes, more than I want to think about. I was once young and stupid and on occasion drunk young and stupid, which is considerably worse and I have no desire to think about those fights at all. Later I was smarter but I had a job that required me to use what I know and I am not all too happy about that either, although I was at that time better at talking my way out and if I had to tell someone “sure you can kick my %ss” I did so if it meant no fight.

Sometime after 16 I stop listening to what my first Sensei said and I didn’t remember again until around 20 what he had said. What my very first Sensei (Jujitsu) had said. “If you can run away, run. Otherwise you could get hurt or killed or worse yet hurt or kill someone else. And then you have to live with it.” “Fight only as a last resort”

There are acting military, ex-military on this page there are police and retired police on this page, bouncers and ex-bouncers as well as people that had to deal with more crap growing up that anyone should have to, I am none of these by the way, they have all had to deal with the real world, real violence and real idiots and you do not see any of them posting, “Look who I beat up” and “look how dangerous I am”, or “I am a trained killer” now do you. There is SOOO much more to martial arts that this and if you don’t see that you are missing the whole point.
- RANT DONE

Now that I have said that, there is so much more to Martial Arts than beating someone up, being dangerous and telling people how “BAD” you are.

EXAMPLE –
A few years back when I was training Xingyi very hard and I was walking in a Macy’s department store. I noticed an elderly couple walking, about 10 feet, in front of me; I would estimate around late 70s early 80s. The woman was about 5 foot 5, slender and pushing her husband in a wheelchair. He looked to be about 6 foot and also slender. I would later find out they needed to be on the second floor and could not find an elevator.

The women pushed the man onto the escalator and as it started up they stared going backwards and down. Before I knew it I had made the distance caught her and the wheel chair and stopped them from falling. I also found the elevator for them when we got to the second floor.

I fully believe I would not have been able to do this without my Xingyi training. I would have never covered the distance that quickly nor would I have any idea of what force was necessary to stop their fall and still not hit them to hard.

QUESTION –
Now has anyone else feel that have had experience with something positive they were able to accomplish because of their martial arts training?

Anything at all be it wining a contest, getting the job, helping a child, getting healthier and being a better person for it or to saving a life, anything at all.

Thank You

SHHHH This is a secret, but yes I joined Martial Arts not to learn how to beat people up, but to better control them with out breaking them.

So yes, I have had lots of positive benefits from my training.

A couple of recent events:

I was changing a bulb in an overhead ceiling projector, and when I went to get down I stepped to the edge of the table. The table tipped. I rode it like a surf board (* which by the way is much harder to stand up then it looks and I was never able to get the tranistion. *) and kept my balance and then once the table was flat again I jumped to the floor. I made very little sound, and many people were more surprised by that then by me not getting hurt from a fall.

So, it got me thinking about the women around work who weigh about 100 lbs to 150 lbs and they stomp their feet and you can hear and feel them coming. Where as I walk light and can just walk into cubes, which unfortunately scares the crap out of people who see a 280 lbs Gorilla standing behind them. I then noticed that many of those older than I who walked harder had more knee and hip and ankle problems and even those my age who walked harder than I were having these symptoms. So I take that as a nice benefit for me.

 

[Rich Parsons]

I think there can be a lot of subtle benefits to be picked up from MA training. Case in point, as part of my training, I learned some junan taiso stretching exercises for the wrists and fingers. I've been working as a computer geek for years, never had any problems with CTS. A few of my co-workers over the years have developed CTS symptoms, I showed them the exercises, and they stopped having problems.

As I can type but I never learned to type the conventional way. So I use more forearm movement and wrist variation then the traditional typist, and therefore have had no issues with my wrists Although I do execute stretches for them. So not sure which is the most benefit so I will have to ponder this.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Well..................

*started noticing a bit of weight loss/ started FEELING much better than I did

*Which Got me out of the pre-diabetic danger zone

* helped give me the last boost out of a half year long....idunno if I'd call it full on "depression", because I never felt *totally* hopeless, but whatever, I'm out of the half year long whatever-that-was, and finding a school gave me back that missed sense of purpose and helped me make that last vault clear.

 

[Explorer]

I think I think better ... gooder? Ah, it helps my thinking. THAT's what I meant to say!

Kidding aside, martial arts has helped me to think more clearly. If you are training for the 'real world' you have to have an accurate view of what the real world is actually like. Under what circumstances do the most common assaults occur; what are the most common assaults; are weapons involved in most assaults; which ones?

I understand the 'macho' view very well ... they're training for worst case scenario. I like that thinking. However, you should also train for 'most likely case sceanario' and the tools you will use to control that situation are most likely in your brain and your heart.

Now, when I turn those lessons toward my family or business situations ... I start asking myself relevant questions ... and often have to do some research to find any kind of answer.

If we ask ourselves good, relevant questions and earnestly seek answers, the end result is a kind of enlightenment.

Yep ... martial arts helps me think goodest.

 

[Paul B]

Yep ... martial arts helps me think goodest.

I prefer "more better".:lol:

I really can't remember any glorious examples in detail. I know that Hapkido has helped me in so many ways that it would be difficult for me to separate one from the other.


I think the areas that I notice the most change has been in my mental capacities(or lack thereof). The actual technique kinda takes care of itself.

It has helped me to keep my cool,to focus, and to relax when other people have been losing it. Hapkido,all told,has generally been a calming,assertive influence. All that and a cool way to fight,too!!

 

[tradrockrat]

Well, for me there was a very important personal benifit to training.

I'm ADD. As a child I was also Hyperactive. Drove parents, teachers and many others absolutlely crazy. Teachers BEGGED my mother to medicate me, but she refused because I was able to get good grades despite my issues (thank god).

I found MA to be one of the only things I was able to "hyperfocus" on. I was able to use it as an outlet for my energy, and my anger at being "different" and frustrating to a lot of people but not being able to stop it.

Later, the Discipline I got from training helped cure me of my near terminal "foot-in-mouth" disease that seems to dog us ADD people forever.

Today, many people need to know me well and be around me for quite a while before they realize that I am in fact ADD, and I give MAs 100% of the credit for this.

Perhaps as a result of this, I have come to dedicate my life to teaching special needs students and though I will soon leave the classroom, I will definitely continue to work with this population - specifically Autistic and ADD/ADHD children

 

[matt.m]

This is easy for me to answer. I find it theraputic physically and mentally. I could hardly get around without a cane. Dad suggested I go back to class. I called the Grandmaster, I began Mar. 20 again. I am able to do jump spinning cresent and tornado kicks again.

I will always have my leg braces, at least until double knee surgery. But if I can do kicks like that then who cares?