What got you into martial arts?

[Tez3]

I was crazy enough for it.

You would have been a liability though.

 

[ballen0351]

I simply see privatization as a viable option, and I do like to consider my options.

Thats what folks say when they didn't have the stones to sign up for the actual military. They run around playing airsoft in the woods and believe "its pretty much the same thing"

 

[Runs With Fire]

Thats what folks say when they didn't have the stones to sign up for the actual military. They run around playing airsoft in the woods and believe "its pretty much the same thing"

That's just ridiculous.

 

[Tez3]

That's just ridiculous.

No, it's not in the least. To be military you have to join the military, you cannot go on a couple of weeks course and think you are a soldier just as you cannot teach yourself martial arts, you can only parody, badly, a martial artist. You are either the real thing or you are a fake. There is no civilian course that can teach you soldiering it's just playing at it. it's not just the physical learning it's the state of mind, if you don't have it you don't join up and you will never be military.

 

[Runs With Fire]

No, it's not in the least. To be military you have to join the military, you cannot go on a couple of weeks course and think you are a soldier just as you cannot teach yourself martial arts, you can only parody, badly, a martial artist. You are either the real thing or you are a fake. There is no civilian course that can teach you soldiering it's just playing at it. it's not just the physical learning it's the state of mind, if you don't have it you don't join up and you will never be military.

Military is military, private or public. I am not either nor do I claim such.

 

[Tez3]

Military is military, private or public. I am not either nor do I claim such.

I am a veteran so I find it laughable that anyone thinks a civvy boot camp is military training.

 

[Runs With Fire]

I am a veteran so I find it laughable that anyone thinks a civvy boot camp is military training.

Fair enough

 

[Commander Grade]

the way that i got into martial arts it thanks to 2 things.
the first reason was a friend of mine recommended me to try his style, which is Kyokushinkai Karate.
The second reason is the movie Karate Kid and the show TMNT from 2003.
i started training in fall of 2010 and took a break in the fall of 2012. i reached the rank of 7th Kyu.
well, thats my story

 

[Buka]

the way that i got into martial arts it thanks to 2 things.
the first reason was a friend of mine recommended me to try his style, which is Kyokushinkai Karate.
The second reason is the movie Karate Kid and the show TMNT from 2003.
i started training in fall of 2010 and took a break in the fall of 2012. i reached the rank of 7th Kyu.
well, thats my story

Welcome to Martial Talk, Commander Grade.

 

[Bruce7]

I remember walking into my house after getting into a fight with the local bully "again"...my mom said "that's it,, enough" and went through the phone book and signed me up for karate class, I was really into it since I was a big fan of the kung-fu tv show.
I stopped after some time and the rocky movies got me interested in boxing.then I saw PKA kickboxing and I was hooked. Went back to training and never really stopped since then.

I was new in town. I was a sophomore, I asked a girl out. Come to find out her boyfriend like to fight. He enjoyed beating people up and since he had some boxing training had never lost a fight. Needless to say he hurt me pretty bad. My mother decided she did not care how much it cost or what we had to do. So every Saturday I drive 60 miles one way to one of Jack Hwang Schools for private lessons.
After I saw what Jack Hwang and my teacher could do. I would stay there all day after the lesson and practice. Every spare minute that I was not playing football or running track I practiced. I wanted to do what they could do. The Cool thing was the more experience students
would help me, they could tell I was serious about learning. Saturday was a practice day for the other students. I had seen the green hornet and Kung fu, but the thing that impressed me the most was my instructor and Jack Hwang.

 

[Bruce7]

I was 12, and going through a rough time. I had lost my father at age 6, and at 12, lost my hair. Nowadays, thankfully, the bald look is in....but in the early to mid eighties? Not so much, got made fun of a LOT in school, got into more than a couple of fights, and after coming home with a bloody nose and a black eye, my mom said "That's it!", and enrolled me in the local TKD club. Studied it for about a year or so...Then did some wrestling in junior high, and started boxing a bit in high school and right after.

One of my best friends was a boxer. His dad went to school in Michigan on a boxing scholarship, and both of his sons boxed. The one son was even golden gloves champ in his weight class in the state of Ohio. Anyway, his father built a boxing ring and gym with bags in the basement. We would both box and kickbox, and they taught me a lot. To the point, where even to this day, I feel comfortable with punching and trading punches.

Anyway, I went into the military and was in the Navy, but as a corpsman, assigned to the Marines. Second Recon, where I learned military combatives.. Also, my father was a black belt in Okinawan Karate (don't know what style) before he died when I was six. So, while I was in the military I studied Uechi Ryu Okinawan Karate for a couple of years. I also studied Hapkido for a limited time (about a year or so).....

Then to be honest, I kind of forgot about the martial arts, well, not really forgot, but was so busy with school, work, then getting married, having a child, etc. that I simply didn't have time or resources to pursue any arts for awhile.

Several years ago, my daughter enrolled in the local TKD class, and it got me thinking. I noticed that there was a local Aikido school nearby, and I had always been fascinated with it. So, decided to go take a class and see if I survived. Fast forward....and I'm also studying BJJ as well.

It's a journey....never a destination. And, I've enjoyed learning along the entire way.

Mike

Wonderful life story. For me the most impressive part was " I went into the military and was in the Navy, but as a corpsman, assigned to the Marines. Second Recon, where I learned military combatives". I have great respect for Corpsman assigned to marines.

 

[Bruce7]

Welcome to Martial Talk, Commander Grade.

Thank you for bring back this post. I enjoyed it very much. There were so many good post.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

The reason that I got into martial arts because I want to do at least one thing better than everybody else on this planet.

When I was 5, I used to hold a small rock among 3 of my fingers. I told myself that one day I wanted to squeeze that rock into powder. Later on I found something much more fun to do than that.

 

[isshinryuronin]

I was at my 'advanced adults only' class last night. Despite being nearly 55, I was one of the youngest guys there, and at Ni Dan, tied for lowest-ranking with one other karateka. We did warmups, bag work, basics, kata, and some bo work. We don't always do that, but last night we did. So yeah, we still do kata and lots of fundamentals, even as advanced adult students.

You say you don't remember much in the way of practical self-defense instruction, but you were getting it. You just didn't know it. As you said, you were there through blue belt. It takes a while longer than that, I suspect, for the realization that kata *is* practical self-defense instruction. It's all in there.

I have the greatest respect for Master Armstrong. He is not our lineage (we derive from Masters Mitchum and Harrill) but there is a photo with Master Armstrong in it on our dojo wall.

Yes, real self-defense is all in the kata, but many did/do not know it (great way of putting it, Bill), including most all the 1st/2nd generation Isshinryu black belts. As Marines, their stay in Okinawa was short and they did not have the time to be taught the true bunkai/oyo. Plus, they were outsiders. Some, like Sherman Harrill, made a great effort to discover the "real" Okinawan karate in the Isshinryu katas. This is now an increasing trend.

This in no way demeans those original black belts - they could not teach what they did not know. So, they taught the basics up and down the dojo floor, sparring, and kata with basic bunkai. This is how I learned. But I learned it well. I was never bored with it, since mastering even the basics was a decades long challenge. But now, having discovered the true nature of the katas, I can appreciate the purpose and value in them even more. And, to hearken back to another recent topic: Those basic moves have become more advanced.

 

[Orion Nebula]

The second reason is the movie Karate Kid and the show TMNT from 2003.

My earliest interest in MA came from watching the original Ninja Turtles in the late 80's, plus the live action films. Michelangelo was always my favorite. A few years later, I found out that you could actually take karate classes and I repeatedly asked to go. Unfortunately, my family couldn't afford it.

My interest renewed in the late 90's when I watched Xena. I thought she was pretty bad-a**, and while I was a bit more interested in sword and staff fighting at the time, I still had the urge to learn empty hand fighting skills.

I finally started training in 2001 when I was 16. My parents had the money at last and used karate classes to bribe me into getting my driver's license. I had no interest in driving at the time since almost everything in my life of interest was in walking distance and I didn't particularly want to spend the money I had been saving for several years on a car (I intended to use it to pay for a 3-week exchange trip to Russia my junior or senior year when I was eligible to apply). The bribery worked of course, and I trained for two years until I went to college. Made it to 4th kyu.

Six months ago, I started training again in a different style. Mainly my goal was to get in shape and lose weight doing something I used to love. However, I quickly found myself remembering why karate was so great, and my attitude is more like "I need to lose weight and get in better shape so I can do karate better." Oddly enough, I have never felt like I needed karate for self-defense. My life has been happily safe, although I have foolishly put myself into a few situations that could have ended badly. But they didn't. I do karate because it's fun and because it's pretty amazing to do all of this stuff with my body.

 

[JR 137]

Yes, real self-defense is all in the kata, but many did/do not know it (great way of putting it, Bill), including most all the 1st/2nd generation Isshinryu black belts. As Marines, their stay in Okinawa was short and they did not have the time to be taught the true bunkai/oyo. Plus, they were outsiders. Some, like Sherman Harrill, made a great effort to discover the "real" Okinawan karate in the Isshinryu katas. This is now an increasing trend.

This in no way demeans those original black belts - they could not teach what they did not know. So, they taught the basics up and down the dojo floor, sparring, and kata with basic bunkai. This is how I learned. But I learned it well. I was never bored with it, since mastering even the basics was a decades long challenge. But now, having discovered the true nature of the katas, I can appreciate the purpose and value in them even more. And, to hearken back to another recent topic: Those basic moves have become more advanced.

I don’t think those guys from that generation really needed to learn bunkai Those guys were tough as coffin nails.

 

[Flying Crane]

I don’t think those guys from that generation really needed to learn bunkai Those guys were tough as coffin nails.

Yeah those are tough. I usually just take a sawzall and cut around them.

 

[Bruce7]

There are so many great post in this original post, I don't want to lose it.
Is there some way to combine What got you into martial arts? and What made you want to train in Martial Arts?
It is confusing.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

When I was 5, I was the youngest boy in my 1st year grade school. There was a huge Mongolian girl who loved to mounted on top of me and used my head a her punching bag. Everyday I went home with bruise all over my body. My father asked me why didn't I fight back. I told my father that she was just too big for me (she was about twice of my size). One year later one day during the ground game, I bit her on her arm. She cried and left me along after that (I had proved that biting worked in the ground game).

Since that day, I refused to let any girl to mount on top of me. I started to train MA.

That girl later on became national women swimming champion in Taiwan. Her name was 乌容敏 (Wu Rong Min). Hope one day I can have a re-match with her.

 

[Martial D]

)

Since that day, I refused to let any girl to mount on top of me.

You really don't know what you're missing.