Who Inspired you?

[qwksilver61]

Yes I will be telling my age,my inspirations were;
Bruce Lee
Jackie Chan (much younger then)
Ultra Man
Bruce Tegner (books)
First and foremost; Sonny Chiba (who could forget Streetfighter?)
my mother dyed my judo gui dark blue and I wore a metal two latched belt like the one Sonny wore with pajama pants and blue deck shoes,we used to run through the neighborhood this way and pretend to be Chinese bad dudes beating up on each other (mock battles of course)

 

[terryl965]

Bruce Lee, Kung Fu and of course the song Kung Fu Fighter, man when that played I wanted to train.

 

[Grenadier]

The bullies in elementary, junior high, and to a lesser extent, high school, inspired me. It didn't feel too good being a late bloomer, and getting picked on by neaderthals who were bigger only because their parents had held them back a year or two, or they flunked a year or two. Now that I look back at things, I'm actually physically bigger than they ever were, and can only feel sorry for some of them, who are stuck in dead end jobs, and are in awful health from the chronic drinking and smoking...


The person who really got me going, though, was my first Sensei in Shotokan Karate. She was an excellent teacher, and despite teaching out of the YWCA's fellowship hall, ran really good classes.

Even if she weren't the most advanced of all of my teachers, that had nothing to do with her teaching abilities, and she was able to reach almost anyone, producing a good number of strong students along the way.

 

[Drac]

The bullies in elementary, junior high, and to a lesser extent, high school, inspired me. It didn't feel too good being a late bloomer, and getting picked on by neaderthals who were bigger only because their parents had held them back a year or two, or they flunked a year or two. Now that I look back at things, I'm actually physically bigger than they ever were, and can only feel sorry for some of them, who are stuck in dead end jobs, and are in awful health from the chronic drinking and smoking....

Same here...The jocks and tough guys who derived unlimited amusment by picking on a smaller fatter kid...The joy I felt when I tossed one of them out of the bar I was working at as a bouncer gave me more happiness that I can explain...

 

[searcher]

As has already been stated, the bullies in school. Even though I had been training ni submission with my dad, they showed me that taking one to the ground gave the chance to the others to kick the crap out of me while working on another. I was an athlete in school, but it made little difference to the stoners that were the bullies. After seeing what I needed to know I took up Kenpo and instantly became inspired by Mr. Parker(though I never met him face to face).

And who wasn't inspired by the TMNT and Karate Kid.

 

[Kacey]

I wasn't inspired when I started... I was talked into trying TKD by the guy I was dating at the time. After I started, however, I was inspired by my sahbum (who is still my sahbum, 20+ years later), as well as several students in the class, each of whom had overcome personal/physical problems to reach the ranks they were - or became - over the time I knew them.

 

[tellner]

The bullies and anti-Semites - not always the same people.

Once I got into Judo it was the teachers and senior students.

 

[thardey]

I was raised with a "soldier-mentality", or the "sheepdog" mentality, depending on how you want to put it.

So learning various MA's was natural for me, I just had to wait until I was in my 20's before I got the chance to do Karate specifically.

One of my biggest inspirations for learning the most effective use of my body was in high school football. I was a pint-sized lineman, often facing guys twice my weight. I learned to be quicker, more relaxed, smarter, and how to use leverage to my advantage. I also learned that they harder you attacked, the less it hurt me.

I knew that if the bug guys knew what I knew, I was toast, so, now that I'm a big guy (6', 250 lbs.) I always keep those early lessons in mind, and Karate is a natural extension of that. I'm a big guy who fights like a little guy.

 

[Sukerkin]

Some good hidden tales mixed in amongst the replies above I reckon :tup:.

For me, the inspiration to get involved in martial arts was simplicity itself - Enter the Dragon . Once I'd started, of course, I realised that I genuinely enjoyed the art and the process became self perpetuating.

When my bike accident put an end to all that I was in a martial arts wilderness for a long while until I managed to find and contact my current iaido sensei.

I'd ever had a passion for the sword arts (of any ilk) but there was something about the elegant power of MJER that really entrapped me. I'm sure that finding a martial art I could do and be good at, even with a wonky right arm, was a part of it but the excellence of my sensei's teaching and his own skill has been an inspiration in and of itself.

 

[Jai]

Bruce Lee double feature one Saturday. I was hooked from there on.

 

[wade]

Please read qwksilver61's post and you have mine. I'm still not real sure I didn't write it in the first place, at least in my mind. Scary, eh?

 

[Freestyler777]

Bruce Lee, Karl Gotch, Larry Hartsell, and my old friend, Ray Longo (one of Richard Bustillo's best students)

 

[stickarts]

While there have been famous people that have inspired me, the people that have had ther biggest impact have been people that I have met that took a bit of extra time with me and believed in me. A baseball coach, a few various martial arts instructors, and now some of my students inspire me.
Sometimes my daughters do things that amaze me and they inspire me.

 

[RED]

I lived a life of tourment being a skinny late blooming red head until my sophmore year of high school. I tried basketball but never got the hang of it. Gymnastics caused me a lot of knee pain. Parents wouldn't agree to let me play any other sports. Although I excelled in Boy Scouts (Eagle '84) I wanted to do somethhing athletic. I often watched "Kung Fu Theater" saturday afternoons and wanted to study "Karate" but money was tight. Then in high school I heard about a Catholic priest (one of my high school teachers) who taught free TKD at night in the school basement. He is an inspiring man who has had an affect on hundreds of people including me. I don't live in the area now but if I did I would be one of his students again. Although I haven't been to one of his classes in 17 years the fundamentals that I learned from him have shined through with every instructor I've come across. A couple have even asked me if I studied in Korea. My wife inspried me to be better than I thought I could be in many aspects too. I know that sounds superficial but it is true.

 

[qwksilver61]

Definitely Kung-Fu theatre! Mr Wade what do you think? (I'm conversing with that guy in my head again)

 

[terryl965]

You know after thinking about this question, my answer has to include one other person and that person is me. I'm simply amazed that I can still train at some level each and everyday.

 

[stickarts]

You know after thinking about this question, my answer has to include one other person and that person is me. I'm simply amazed that I can still train at some level each and everyday.

I think ultimately it has to come from within. Others can help, but you have to have the spark from within everyday to go the distance!

 

[Brian S]

Yes I will be telling my age,my inspirations were;
Bruce Lee
Jackie Chan (much younger then)
Ultra Man
Bruce Tegner (books)
First and foremost; Sonny Chiba (who could forget Streetfighter?)
my mother dyed my judo gui dark blue and I wore a metal two latched belt like the one Sonny wore with pajama pants and blue deck shoes,we used to run through the neighborhood this way and pretend to be Chinese bad dudes beating up on each other (mock battles of course)

Chuck Norris

 

[Brandon Fisher]

I got involved because my friend was in it at the time and my mom and dad thought it was a good idea for me. Thats not really inspiration I was scared to death the first time I went to class.

But some inspiring figures in my background are:
Renshi Tom Ward, 6th Dan Shorin Ryu Shorinkan
Kyoshi Eddie B. Bethea, Jr. 7th Dan Shorin Ryu Shorinkan
Hanshi Jack Buckley, 9th Dan Shotokan / American Streetwise Karate
Kyoshi Frank Williams, 7th Dan Shorin Ryu Ryujikan / Zen Sekai Bujitsu Kyokai
Hanshi Seifuku Nitta, 10th Dan, Shorin Ryu Seidokan / Okinawa Kensei Do Ko Kai, Okinawa
Hanshi Kiichi Nakamoto, 10th Dan, Ryukyunote kobujutsu kyokai, Okinawa

Some of these sensei have had bigger impacts on me than others but none the less large impacts by all.

 

[Balrog]

The bullies in elementary, junior high, and to a lesser extent, high school, inspired me.

Ditto. I got so tired of it that when I saw my first m.a. movie (Five Fingers of Death) and then saw Bruce Lee, I said I gotta learn that stuff. I was so desperate I even read Bruce Tegner's books, but back in the mid 60s, who knew? I was 17 when I took my first Taekwondo class and I have been hooked on m. a. ever since.