Strange Behavior

There is also the scenario where you almost walk into someone on the street and you both do the "this way, no that way" dance... so far i've refrained from using the ba gua "green dragon turns it's head and shows it's claws" manoevure to get around that situation, but it's certainly flashed through my mind!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!
 
Standing on one leg with the other leg raised high, in a chamber or pre-chamber position, for minutes at a time, training balance. My story outside my immediate family is that I have tight hamstrings and need to stretch them, but my wife and son know better and hiss at me to put my leg down. It's not 100% unconscious, but it's not totally deliberate and premeditated either. It's just, well, OK, nothing else going on, time to get a little balance practice in...

Maybe the most troubling thing of all about this is that it seems to me, looking at it in the cold light of day, to be a perfectly reasonable kind of thing to do. It's not just your behaviors that get strange from doing MAs; I'm becoming convinced your thinking is affected also...:D
 
I know by marriage that there indeed is no strange behavior where professors are concerned... it would appear you all are eccentric. I told my wife that one could trap 75% of profs on any given campus by posting signs for a lecture that offered free food.

Be careful if you visit this state, though. New York is a little coarser than Ohio - here if people see leg raising, they fear impending butt thunder.:fart:
 
I am actually quite secretive about my martial arts (reserved may be a better word). At work we have big heavy fire doors, and some time ago I got into the habit of either pulling them open with one finger, or pushing them with a fist, sometimes with a phoenix eye fist. I do sometimes deliberately bump into things, and strike posts with my forearm as I walk by. Nothing obvious though, all very subtle so no one really notices.
 
I know by marriage that there indeed is no strange behavior where professors are concerned... it would appear you all are eccentric. I told my wife that one could trap 75% of profs on any given campus by posting signs for a lecture that offered free food.

Yes. It's astonishing how preoccupied academics are with eating and drinking. It's not exactly like we starve, though some of us eat less than others (years of excessive caffeination have left me with permanent appetite reduction, I suspect). But the idea of free food is sovereign on campus. No reception worthy of the name can be held unless a lavish assorment of delicacies is provided.

Be careful if you visit this state, though. New York is a little coarser than Ohio - here if people see leg raising, they fear impending butt thunder.:fart:

Good heavens, how coarse! :lol:

Around here, the more likely interpretation is that you have become paralyzed in mid-step. The higher your chambered leg, the more likely everyone is to assume that you are in fact a drum major in some marching band or other, who happens to have become paralyzed in mid-step...
 
The obsession with free food isn't limited to academics.

You want to ensure cops show up for training? List any sort of food/meal being provided during the training... It's almost as effective as painting something black and labelling it "tactical" as a marketing gimmick...
 
The "free" designation doesn't work to attract lawyers, though - that takes the joy of stealing right out of it. There is no harder profession to round up for training, either. Even the clerks hide well.

We try to do Tai Chi at work on break times.... some wise guys asked, "Wonder what they're doing in there?" I quite truthfully told them we were learning to move our bodies in complete sync with each other, and that we hoped to have it up to an hour soon.
 
I tend to stretch my forearms, wrists and fingers.. even when in meetings. I also open doors using stikes or locks against the handle.

Me too..
 
What behaviors have you developed during your practice of the martial arts that people that do not study might find strange?

I know that even after all these years of study I still tend to bow when walking into strange places or when greeting people for the first time

lol, same here. I just cant avoid it. I tend to stretch too, even in social situations, lol.

Or most the girls/women I talk can't believe I chose "such a physically demanding exercise", the occasional bruises, etc. Or "that white think (the dobok) makes me look fat!".

The other day I was taking the supermarket bags and I called the elevator raising my foot, touching the button with the toes xD Some people just looked at me like OMG! hahaha.

Unconscious things xD

I have been known to unconsciously work on blocks or punches in the air. At home is one thing. At work, it's quite another.

Argh, my husband practices his blocks and punches when he's sleeping. I've seen it when I go to sleep later because I've been working in the computer, etc. Two nights ago he just gave me a hard punch in the chest...!!! grrr!!

He always practices the poomses (forms) in from of every mirror when he thinks nobody is looking hahaha

(broken ribs?! ouch! we are poor wives of the martial artists! hahaha)
 
I bow at least slightly almost always, shake with my right hand, but almost always put my left hand under my right elbow.....and almost always have hands full so I use my foot to open doors with panic bars.
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Not sure if this counts. Being more flexable than my jeans I've torn the crouch out of a few pairs climbing up on equipment.


I often have urges to remove my shoes.
 
We had a "5 animals month" where we focused completely on the five animals. We all chose an animal style to fight in and I chose Mantis. When we would do techniques it would be out of that animal. So now I find myself constantly moving my fingers into mantis position, and doing small circular movements, my closest friends know what I'm doing and they hit me, I also tend to bow to people when I shake there hand and when I enter a building. I also try to sit in a way that stretches my legs and I'll stretch my hands lol.

I get so many weird looks, I've also yelled loud Kiais in the middle of school when I'm focusing lol
 
What behaviors have you developed during your practice of the martial arts that people that do not study might find strange?

I know that even after all these years of study I still tend to bow when walking into strange places or when greeting people for the first time

I have been known to do the above, also when making hand gestures I keep my thumbs tucked in.
 
I ... shake with my right hand, but almost always put my left hand under my right elbow...

Yes, I've noticed that I tend to do this a bit too. Very unnerving for the other person, but it's become almost a reflex... :uhohh:
 
I surely have some things that happen related to my training and that I do not mean to do actually. Sometimes I do them on purpose, for example if with other guys at work who do MA even tho another Art. Lemme make a little list:

1_ If someone calls my name and I am absent minded I answer immediately "hi!" with a deep and steady tone of voice...sometimes even a little bit too loud lol.
2_ I work as a stocker in a grocery department. When stocking low shelves I tend to move on my knees with the classic knee walking you see Aikidoka do.
3_ When I am walking and I have to move sidway coz another person is coming or to avoid an object I don't simply step, I slide with my center.
4_ When I need to turn sideway, like when passing trough an automatic door, I no longer turn the shoulders like I used to do, but I carry out a complete hip turn.
5_ When I need at work to push shopping carts I use my center. Before I would get tired with heavy breath immediately, now I learnt not to use my muscles and do it almost effortless.

And many more...
 
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