Your proudest moment as a MAist

[Whitebelt]

Time for some lighthearted banter I think...

Please post your most potent page of the book of your life as a Martial Artist so that all the others yet to post may look upon your acheivements and go green with envy! Have a boast!

[crushing]

My proudest moment as a Martial Artist just happened yesterday (9/8/07). I saw my eldest son get his 1st Dan in TKD. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see him test, as I was testing at the same time. I outrank him by about 1.5 minutes. ;) He worked so hard, and he was pretty relaxed. Just before we were called to line up I was still going through the requirements and he was chatting with someone about Halo3 coming out. His much younger 'sponge' brain has a better retention rate for this, so he has been a huge help to me as we worked out outside of class on forms until they stuck in my head.

What a great day it was! I am sore and have some bruises today, but I slept real good last night.

[TheOriginalName]

Since i've started training in MA i've had a few proud days....

The first was when i started, in heinsight it was the hardest step.
The second was when i graded to yellow belt.
The third was just yesterday when i graded to blue belt... and yes, i am very sore today but am on top of the world!!

[crushing]

Since i've started training in MA i've had a few proud days....

The first was when i started, in heinsight it was the hardest step.
The second was when i graded to yellow belt.
The third was just yesterday when i graded to blue belt... and yes, i am very sore today but am on top of the world!!

That's great! Congratulations!

[bookworm_cn317]

Starting TKD (gotta agree with TheOriginalName on this one)
Breaking my first board
Surprising one of the Black Belts when I told him I wanted to spar

[Drac]

When I actually managed to land a light tap on Sensei during a sparring session...

[terryl965]

Everyday that I still can train. At this point in my life those are great day and will continue to be.

[Kennedy_Shogen_Ryu]

When my head instructor came up to me and said "I'd be more than willing to take you to Okinawa to train" It's well known that my head instructor travels to Okinawa every couple years to train and very rarely ever takes anyone with him, so I was quite elated for quite a while.

[Big Don]

That would have to be last Friday, when my Sifu asked me to go on a short road trip and help him teach.

[Em MacIntosh]

First time I talked myself out of a tussle.

[atinsley]

I have to say my proudest moments have been watching my daughter receive her next rank. The soreness and muscle pain that I am feeling (we train and test together) all goes away when she is called up for her promotion.

[Ping898]

When I recieved the honor of becoming an assistant instructor. In my school you can teach classes for a long time, but never actually become an instructor, I had to work hard to earn that recognition...

[kidswarrior]

Passing my first yellow belt test (of what turned out to be three, in different arts). That was Hapkido, many moons ago. ;)

[qi-tah]

Firstly, may i say congrads to both crushing and son and original name on their recent gradings! :asian:

I also had a bit of a "peak experience" in my ba gua practice last night, when my teacher approached me for a chat after class and mentioned that i should start to think about instructing for the school! I'm still in shock... i've only been training for 5 and a half years. Not that i'll be ready to teach any time soon (i still have heaps to learn), but i'm immensly gratified that he believes i have that kind of potential.

[Langenschwert]

Proudest moment? Hard to say. Last year I was doing some longsword sparring with padded weapons so we could go full speed. I had landed a hit on my opponent who had stumbled back, but I didn't notice that I had hit him. As soon as he stumbled back, without thinking I rushed in to press my advantage. For that moment, my "lizard" brain had taken over and all I thought was "kill target now". I was proud that I had ingrained that agression enough that it became reflex even under adrenaline dump. However, I was also proud that when my opponent raised his hand to signify he had been hit, I stopped dead in my tracks (like hitting a plexiglass wall, really), since under no circumstance can I threaten the safety of my training partners. Good times. :)

Best regards,

-Mark

[thardey]

Last summer I had just gotten my 1st Degree Black, and I went to Las Vegas national convention to help a friend of mine demonstrate one-step techniques as part of his 5th Degree (Master's rank) promotion ceremony.

I had just gotten my new uniform, and hadn't worn it yet, other than to try for size. During the ceremony I was up on stage about 6 feet from the Governing board for my system, all 8th degrees and above, Including GM Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, and my instructor, Chip Wright. It was quite an experience for a newly minted Black Belt.

There were also about 200 Black belts of various ranks in the audience. I was just the attacker, and didn't do anything but fire the first punch, and then respond to the counterattacks and throws/take-downs. But still, we had been practicing for months.

[bydand]

My proudest moment was when I got to hand my two oldest sons their first belt promotions.

[JBrainard]

It's already been said in this thread, but I'm proud of myself for just starting. I had an immense fear of confrontation and had no idea what to expect, but I dived in anyway.

[bobster_ice]

My proudest moment as a martial artist.

It happened to me 2 weeks ago when I finally got as fit as I used to be....

Quite a few months ago I posted a topic about me having meningitus(SP?) and since then I lost alot of confidence and will power, I even lost the will power to train.....

But since I got confronted by a knife a couple of months ago, I remembered why I used to take my training so seriously and I slowly started to build my will power back up and started to train again.

I think this is probably the proudest moment I have ever had in my life, I know this sounds a bit gay but I honestly dont care lol.

[meth18au]

Tonight's session- I turned into Superman, crossed with Wolverine, and with a little bit of the Hulk thrown in there. Absolutely amazing.

:lol:

I love every day- no ultra proud moments. I guess when I passed my gradings and received my belts back in my Kung Fu days- I was pretty proud back then.

I was pretty proud also when I first started Muay Thai- I took about 5-6 weeks to really get a hang for the kicking aspect to it. One night I had this bonza breakthrough- I still remember it to this day. Since then- my kicks have just got better and harder and faster!!!

[Fushichou]

My proudest moment as a martial artist was the first time I had to actually use my training, and I gained that knowledge that I actually know how to defend myself and that I would have been subject to great harm if I hadn't been training.

When I was in college, I had a roommate who was a bit surly. He was an amateur boxer and pretty muscular and burly, and very aggressive. He was having a very bad week: he was dropped from his pledge to the fraternity he was trying to join, found out he was going to flunk out of the University, and then both his girlfriends learned the other existed and they both dumped him. He decided to drown his sorrows in alcohol, and came back to the dorm quite intoxicated and very angry. He decided he was going to take out all his frustrations on me. . .

After failing to try to talk him down, he started to take swings at me, and I kept blocking and dodging all his punches, until I was able to drop him to the ground with an ikkyo joint lock, and start to pin him down. He was fighting me, but I was able to keep him down and from swinging while I shouted for help.

The Resident Advisor came in and saw what was going on, and the school had a pretty strict no-alcohol policy and my roommate was already under warning for suspected violations of the policy, now he was found obviously drunk in the dorm. He also had a number of complaints against him for being threatening/violent to other residents, so when he was pinned to the ground flailing, everybody knew it was because he started it.

The police were called, he was taken in for public intoxication, he was temporarily moved to a new dorm room pending a disciplinary hearing, which proceedings began the next day. After he was suspended (and never came back), he kept in touch by e-mail with a few people in the dorm he became friends with, but that ended because a few months after he was suspended he ended up beating somebody to death in a bar brawl and going to prison.
When word reached us about that, I realized it was worth all the time and effort, and that without my martial arts training he might well have beat me to death that night, and martial arts became a lifelong pursuit to me.

[Phoenix44]

When my kids got their black belts.

[Balrog]

A while back, I promoted a young lady to 2nd Degree Black Belt. After the testing, her parents came up to us and said thanks, or tried to. The mother broke down crying and when she caught her breath, she said, "Thank you so much for what you have done for my daughter."

That is why I keep my school open even though I lose money every month. I am touching people's lives in a positive manner.

[Shotochem]

one of my proudest personal moments was a few years ago. I was sparring with my former Sensei a few weeks before my BB exam. He attacked and came at me in a way he never had before and I reacted in a way I never had before. The blocks came without thinking the attacks came more smoothly
than I ever recall before. I then got my first real earned point in on my
Sensei. I had actually blocked a full flurry of attacks countered and swept him and finished him.

He laughed and gave me a hug, then proceeded to sweep me 3 straight times in 3 different ways and said...."Now you are ready for grading".

-Marc-