Calling all the Men...Why did you start Martial Arts??

What got you started?

  • Self Defense

  • Friend was involved/I got dragged along by a friend

  • Build Confidence

  • Fitness/Something Physical to do

  • Watched it in a Movie/Demo, thought it looked cool

  • Meet new people

  • Other (please explain)


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Cirdan

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Something physical to do pretty much sums up my reasons. I am not much of a sports fan and jogging gets boring fast. I guess meeting people was another motive since I was new in town.
 

bydand

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Actually the reasons I got into the martial arts are a combination of self-defense and watched it in movies. LOL. As kids, my best friend and I were going to be the next big "Kung-Fu" stars, it didn't matter that we were both scrawny and lived in an area with NO MA schools close. We watched all the movies and by the grace of God didn't kill ourselves or each other trying to mimic what we watched (Picture a skinny little white kid and a skinny little hispanic kid beating the hell out of each other with homemade nunchucks).
When I moved away there was a Judo club in town and I started with that... WOW not at all like the movies huh?? Lost interest until I grew-up and really started looking at each art and what they could offer. I guess maturity does have it's benefits, I am now am in an art I LOVE & RESPECT.

Scott G.
 

Drac

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Wasn't very aggressive back then and always would up as a target for whatever buly was nearby...
 

CuongNhuka

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Sarah said:
For sure...it is so hard to get those pesky blood stains outta my satin clothes :)

Oh La La (lol)!!! Sorry, I couldn't help myself. (now for the thing I do when ever I think I might have ticked off one of my friends) You're going to hurt me now aren't you? Should I run? I'll run. (followed by me backing away hopeing to not get punched in the gut).
also newbies that should check out there user cp for my welcoming gift: Cirdan (say isn't Oslo the capital of Norway?), Bydand, & Andrew Main.

Sweet Brighit Bless your Blade,

John
 

Cirdan

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Thanks coungnhuka. Just figured out how the user cp works :lookie:
Yep, Oslo is the capital of Norway. :viking1:
 

bydand

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Cirdan; actually, I read the Admin Announcement post about self-censoring and the profanity filter so I went ahead and typed what I meant. The post said the filter would catch the words on the banned list. I figured if it wouldn't pass muster, it would be filtered out automatically, guess I was wrong.
 

bydand

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OOOOPS, sorry cirdan I meant to type Counguhuka not your name. My bad, read too many posts today and had the names mixed up.
 

DeLamar.J

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Sarah said:
We have a thread going asking the Ladies of Martial Talk what there initial inspiration was to start Martial Arts....it would be interesting to see if the guys have similar reasons or are comparatively different.

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31003http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31003http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31003
My dad was doing it all his life, and I wanted to be like him. Then once I started getting a little older I started to enjoy it more personally instead of just doing it because my dad was.
 

shesulsa

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bydand said:
Cirdan; actually, I read the Admin Announcement post about self-censoring and the profanity filter so I went ahead and typed what I meant. The post said the filter would catch the words on the banned list. I figured if it wouldn't pass muster, it would be filtered out automatically, guess I was wrong.
We don't worry too much about "***" ... it does help if we choose better wording so the filter doesn't have to work, but ... it's good to have it here. And when something slips through, we know to change it.
 

beauty_in_the_sai

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Sarah said:
Thats interesting, most people here are quite impressed by MA'ist.. I have also found that girls that are involved in MA quite fancy Men in MA!


I did! I was very impressed with guy martial artists, especially black belts. Every time I went to a tourny, I gazed open-mouthed at them, drooling. LOL As it turns out, I married a 3rd degree black belt. Since I started martial arts, I was only drawn to martial art guys. Then, I married one. And how lucky I am, I must say!

Becky
 

Dalum

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I've said it in other threads...

I started taking MAs to find my roots somehow. I grew up here as the only one in my family born in the US. I was raised as an American, not as a Filipino. I didn't get the same things my other 3 siblings got in terms of knowing heritage. They got the short end of the stick too, I got privlidges they never were allowed to even think of as I was under a different set of rules. LOL

(BTW, I chose other.)
 

MJS

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Sarah said:
We have a thread going asking the Ladies of Martial Talk what there initial inspiration was to start Martial Arts....it would be interesting to see if the guys have similar reasons or are comparatively different.

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31003http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31003http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31003

Originally started for SD and to get in better shape. Over the course of my training, I've had the chance to be exposed to a few different arts, as well as meet many great people who have made my journey a great experience.

Mike
 

IcemanSK

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I originally started in high school because I figured the bully problem of jr high would follow me. (It didn't) It helped that it made me unique & different in school. But I was still one of those people who blended into the walls in high school. TKD just made me feel like I had a unique niche in the world.

I was hardly the "chick magnet" I am today. I attract my wife every day. That's enough for me.:)
 

IcemanSK

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In every school or gym I've trained in, I've had women instructors or fellow students that were awesome! From state TKD champs to stunt women to Boxing world champs. I've learned to never underestimate a women in the gym.:asian:
 

Simon Curran

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Initially, I got into it on the recommendation of a teacher, since I used to have a really bad problem controlling my temper.
That is going (slightly) better these days, and I continue to train cos I love it.
 

bushidomartialarts

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Long journey for me with three factors:

1. My mom sang me to sleep with songs like 'the impossible dream' -- you remember 'to fight for the right/without question or pause/to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause'. And then I grew up reading Lord of the Rings and listening to the likes of Manowar. The word 'warrior' was important to me as long ago as I can remember.

2. Wrestled in high school and missed training of that sort of intensity.

3. Started dating a martial artist halfway through college and was introduced to the thought and philosophy behind the training.

Next thing ya know, I walk into a school run by Lee Sprague and Bill Packer, two phenomenally talented artists and warriors. The rest is 14 years of history, challenge and personal evolution.
 

Dronak

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Well, I could probably make this long or short, so I'll try to keep is somewhere in the middle. During grad school, I decided that I needed some activity to help me relieve stress. I tried some meditation, then yoga, then tai chi. The meditation was too still for me. Yoga was better, but still mostly static poses. I liked things like the sun salutation (I think it's called), moving sequences of poses better. That moved me over to tai chi. I tried learning some on my own, with books and videos, which went OK. But later I found out about a Chinese martial arts club at the school I was attending. They were going to teach long fist kung fu primarily, but would also do tai chi. I wanted to learn tai chi and decided that it would be worth taking the kung fu classes to get the tai chi classes. I did learn the tai chi I wanted, but also learned a bunch of kung fu forms, too. It worked out well. I don't practice a lot now, usually just enough to keep from completely forgetting the forms, but I am trying to resume regular tai chi practice.
 

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