Why you started taking martial arts

Why did you start taking martial arts

  • You were scared of being beat up

  • You beat up and scared it would happen again

  • You were beat up and wanted revenge

  • Saw it in the movies and thought it would be fun

  • Fitness

  • Other (please post why)


Results are only viewable after voting.
Originally posted by TKD50

Came home one night and the TV was blasting away in my (then) 11 year old daughter's face. The computer was blasting in my (then) 13 year old son's face. Right there and then I decided that they needed a hobby (Soccer season was over). Decided to train with them

That's great! How long agao was this?
 
Six years ago. Best thing I ever did for them and probably myself. Hadn't practiced martial arts for the previous 26 years prior to that. Had to quit when I was 18 due to school, lack of time, and lack of money.
 
I got into the martial arts for 2 reasons.....one was the basic I got beat up alot as a kid but the main reason is because of women like Mrs. J

My mother, other female family members, female friends and 75% of the girls I've dated have been raped or assaulted. It isn't coincidence that I know these people...or that I attract certain types of women..... It's that because of the way I talk to these people they feel safe and want to open up to me. What I'm saying is...it is way more common than people think. Most women don't tell anyone anything. I can't honestly say that I like what has happened (being told again and again by people I care about that they have been brutalised), and I kinda wish I was like everyone else and didn't know all the evil that men do. I went a little crazy and my life changed forever when I was 17 and my girlfriend called me sobbing because her step father had raped her at knife point AGAIN. It was too close....all the other stories from my mother and people I cared about were in the past, easy to disregard as horibble history, but this...this just happened. I joined martial arts to attain the weapons necessary to do something about men like her step father.

The funny thing is...... if it werent for me joining martial arts I would be either dead or in jail gauranteed. I joined with the intent to do some damage but I learned the moral and ethical codes of the martial arts as well. Instead I try to help people by teaching them martial arts as a street defence and confidence building system.

Mrs. J, you seem like an extremely strong woman and I have the utmost respect for you. I have only been there to hear about people being victimized and it hurt me to no end..... the strength you have had to live through it and become the person you are today shows that you have strength beyond measure. You are a stronger person than I.

Damian Mavis
Honour TKD
 
Originally posted by Damian Mavis
I got into the martial arts for 2 reasons.....one was the basic I got beat up alot as a kid but the main reason is because of women like Mrs. J

Yeah, there a lot of hot chicks in TKD.
:rolleyes:
 
....so have a drink and take a seat..;)

As a kid in the 70's, I watched the Bruce Lee movies and was awed. I wanted to do all those cool moves, and my friends and I played like we were karate/kung-fu guys as much as we could. There was also this anime cartoon on at the time: "Sam, the King of Judo"....I saw that guy do martial arts, and thought that for SURE that's what I wanted to do!!

But my parents wouldn't go for it. *sigh*. No luck.

Would have helped, too, as I was considered a "geek", and was not one of the popular kids. So, I got teased a lot. I was also living in Puerto Rico at the time. Being a white kid, I was in the minority, and got a lot of stress sent my way. For that reason (among others) I have never been prejudiced. Thank goodness for that.

Grade school days were spent back in the states. Still a geek, still taking flak, getting pushed around, still no martial arts. I still dreamed, though, and read what books I could. However, I had no confidence, and didn't think I could ever do it.

High school, pretty much the same. Still a geek, still getting pushed around. I had a girlfriend that I wanted to protect, and was never sure that I could. I dreamed a lot, and figured that some day, I would get into the arts. Parents still not going for it.

College--out on my own!! Yes!! So I sign up for a Wado Ryu Karate class at the University, and got my first belt.....also tasted my first competition (lost in sparring, took first in forms). Unfortunately, I was still undisciplined, and couldn't hack it. I quit after about 3 months.

Years after college, I got married to a woman who I knew I couldn't stay married to (I married her so her son--not mine biologically--would have a father). She found a boyfriend, he had a temper, and threatened on more than one occasion to whoop my ***. At that point, I decided that I had to fish or cut bait. I went and signed my son and myself up for karate.

That was ten years ago. I never did wind up having to use my arts, and have developed much more tolerance and confidence since. My son is not as excited about it, but he is getting back into karate, and I have finally earned my Black Belt.

I am no longer married to my first wife (my son's mother), and she left her then boyfriend years ago after he beat her up.

And the girl I wanted to protect in high school? She is now my wife, we have been married for going on three years, and she is a Black Sash in Chen Tai Chi and a practitioner of pressure points. Yeah, I *could* protect her just fine......but she can protect herself..:)

Basically, I joined martial arts to stop being pushed around and to protect myself. However, I stayed because of the confidence building and the peace that it gave me. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Like Cthulhu said.....I'm not sure I made a point, but oh well. That's my story, and life is good...;)

Peace--
 
Hi all,

I was a bouncer and a street thug (PUNK),
and I was hurting people. The long nights in
the police stations were interfering with my
slep time. I joined to learn control and
later I realized to release stress.:D

Just my two cents

Rich
 
I never get beat up, mainly because I'm taller then most of the "strong" guys at my school, anyways, I chose the saw at movies and though it was fun choice, because that was it too.. :p
 
Way back in the early 1970's, some Karate school came in to our High School offering a demo class to anyone interested. I signed up, had a blast, and ran right home to ask my parents to put me in lessons. My horrified parents informed me that no daughter of theirs was going to take part in such a thing, and I was ordered to forget about it. And I guess I did, for almost 3 decades.

Then, out of the blue, my 7 year old daughter asked if she could take Karate. I was surprised, as she had already taken Violin lessons for two years and still had trouble standing up and holding up her violin for the duration of her lesson. She was the proverbial wet noodle. My kid needed a backbone fast, and since I remembered wanting to take Karate too when I was young, we went in search of lessons for her. In a nearby town, I found a Tracy's school with extended hours, and my kid and I went in to check it out, and maybe pick up a brochure. The instructor went into his 'and for one low price the whole family can take it together' spiel, and my daughter bit, and hard. She looked up at me with her big brown eyes and said ( actually for the first time ever, being till then a 'daddy's girl' ) " cool Mommy, we could take it TOGETHER!! It'll be fun doing something together for a change!" Then he went in for the kill with his 'take a FREE private lesson and see how you like it' offer, and my kid picks up on this one too saying "see mommy, it won't even cost you anything to try!!"

All it took was that one free lesson, and I have been lost in Kenpo ever since. My daughter and I trained together until we got our Blue Belts in Tracy's, and we both competed at the Tiger Balm Internationals for the last two years. She happily continues to train in Tracy's still, and is confident enough to do it on her own now. She has also become a talented violinist, and you would never know she used to have trouble holding the thing up.

I have had other battles to fight with injury and illness and could not continue to go to town to train as I had been doing. That is another long story which is already here on some other thread. I'm now studying AK under Dennis Conatser and am having the time of my life, and am now even more addicted to Kenpo than ever. My daughter has been teasing me about it, but I didn't even mind starting over at Yellow Belt, as I guess I'm just glad I can still train at all.

Now my little boy wants to start training as well, though I ain't holding my breath about my hubby! I can just imagine the dinner table discussions at our place over the next few years, especially when my kids figure out that I do not, in fact, know everything. Right now, I'm just happy they can still find something about me to brag about, like my 5 year old son said recently, "that Ninja Turtle can use a Bo almost as well as my mom!" So now I REALLY gotta keep training. I've got an image to maintain now! LMAO! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 
I had a student a while back who came in claiming he wanted to study because he ws always being pushed around and picked on. (He was a kid) After a few classes I came to realise that the problem probably was the kid himslef. He ws a wise ***, always mothing off, and Knowing more than anyone else about everything(or so he thought).
Working with him was a pain. He did get in good shape doing push ups. Oh, he stoped comeing when he didn"t get" all the good stuff" every night.
Sometimes we take things ands people at face value only to find they have two or more faces.
Shadow:asian:
 
Most of them were like that. We had some that would have been good if they stayed, but since, like you said, they were not getting the 'good' stuff, they didn't care to keep on coming. Plus the fact that they didn't really care for the workout, they just wanted to learn what they wanted and nothing else. That really didn't help matter......
 
Several reasons.

For one thing, I was raped by my cousin when I was about seven, and Im not going to let that happen to me again, so for that reason I have been wanting to start doing some sort of martial art ever since. Unfortunatley, my father wouldn`t let me, because "girls should`nt do that sort of thing", and of course, me being stubborn, that only made me want it more, but since I didn`t have the money to pay for classes I had to wait until I grew up.

And then it took me awhile to decide exactly what I wanted to do, but eventually I did, and so I´ve been training TaeKwonDo for about a year, and It`s everything I hoped for, my only regret is that I didn`t start sooner.
 
I'm totally scared of getting beat up...:(

So I started Shotokan Karate at age of 12. For 3 months got till yellow belt. But didn't like Karate.
This one in particular too stiff. MOve there, move here, no don't move there, you gotta move here... Impossible to work.

I did Hung-Gar Kung FU at age 14 got choked in school. 4months 6x per week. Did hung ga again at age 15, from Oct2001 - Feb2002 1x per week *Free*

Now I have nothing:confused:
 
I've never really bin afraid of beingbeaten up since ive always bin fairly big compared to the other kids, but it may change next year in grade 10 at the new school, though i doubt it.

I've bin doing karate for the last year because i like to know how to fight. Its fun and i take it seriusly. I love the knowledge as when you think you just about perfected something, sensei can tell you how to correct it more and it links to other things to be fixed and so on. you know what i mean.
 
Originally posted by Deathtrap101

I've never really bin afraid of beingbeaten up since ive always bin fairly big compared to the other kids, but it may change next year in grade 10 at the new school, though i doubt it.

I've bin doing karate for the last year because i like to know how to fight. Its fun and i take it seriusly. I love the knowledge as when you think you just about perfected something, sensei can tell you how to correct it more and it links to other things to be fixed and so on. you know what i mean.


The times I use to get bullied or whatever, I was their same size or taller. But they were more than 5, never 1 on me, always more than 3 or 5. I wasn't no Kung-Fu, Budo, Bujutsu, Ninja Master to leave out safe.
:soapbox:

When I entered 9th gr. I was 5'10ft. tall for a 14yr old. Always skinny though but I'm solid. Now going to the 11th gr, I'm 6'2 1/2ft. tall (16)yrs old.
 
For self defense. All my life though, I've loved the cartoon super-heros on TV and I wanted to be one. Now, in a very small way, I feel like I'm learning to be one. ;) :rolleyes: :D :shrug:

Robyn :asian:
:yinyang:
 
Originally posted by The Opal Dragon

For self defense. All my life though, I've loved the cartoon super-heros on TV and I wanted to be one. Now, in a very small way, I feel like I'm learning to be one. ;) :rolleyes: :D :shrug:

Robyn :asian:
:yinyang:

I did too
 
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