Aiki Lee
Master of Arts
What's worse in all you folk's opinions: The people who think what you do is some kind of childish hobby, or the people who think of you as a violent person simply because of MA (or firearms) training?
"Nice to meet you! Please don't hurt me ...."
- Thread starter shesulsa
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Good question. I suppose the more dangerous of the two would be the latter.
lklawson
Grandmaster
Neither of them are particularly awful. But I find myself being more annoyed at the latter than the former.
Truth to be told, I have met very few folks who say something like, "aren't you getting a little old for that martial arts stuff?" The vast majority, if age is any consideration at all, are more impressed by participation in martial arts the older the participant is. Everyone loves to read (and write) newspaper stories about the 90 year old granny who just got her black belt.
I get annoyed by the folks who reject that there might ever be a need to protect myself or my loved ones. I honestly get tired and frustrated by telling them that, yes, I know violent crime is at an all time low in the U.S. So are house fires but I still carry Fire Insurance. It usually devolves from there and I give up the cause as lost after about 5 min. God help you if you're both Christians and hold opposing opinions on Self Defense.
Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
I don't get annoyed, with two exceptions which I'll get to later.
People who are curious are good, regardless of what form that curiosity takes or how ill informed it might be. People with incorrect preconceptions are a great excuse to extol the virtues of your chosen art.
What annoys me are people who see the revelation that I practice martial arts as a reason to make some kind of faux knife hand movement, stand on one leg and go 'Waaa'. Is that supposed to be funny? It's happened to me a lot, it's not funny when you see it for the hundredth time, and I doubt it was funny when the first ill-informed dorks did it to cromagnon martial artists.
Second exception is people who see it as a challenge, and spend the rest of the day trying to surprise me like Kato. I watched an interview with Steven Seagal recently where the interviewer asked him what happens to young firebrands who walk up to him in bars to challenge him or take him by surprise. His two word answer reflects my own experience: "bad things".
It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye.
Gnarlie
People who are curious are good, regardless of what form that curiosity takes or how ill informed it might be. People with incorrect preconceptions are a great excuse to extol the virtues of your chosen art.
What annoys me are people who see the revelation that I practice martial arts as a reason to make some kind of faux knife hand movement, stand on one leg and go 'Waaa'. Is that supposed to be funny? It's happened to me a lot, it's not funny when you see it for the hundredth time, and I doubt it was funny when the first ill-informed dorks did it to cromagnon martial artists.
Second exception is people who see it as a challenge, and spend the rest of the day trying to surprise me like Kato. I watched an interview with Steven Seagal recently where the interviewer asked him what happens to young firebrands who walk up to him in bars to challenge him or take him by surprise. His two word answer reflects my own experience: "bad things".
It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye.
Gnarlie
lklawson
Grandmaster
Happens sometimes. I usually manage to avoid dotting their eye.
That has more to do with being Male than anything else. And, yeah, it's annoying. I gave a Bowie/Tomahawk/Bata seminar this weekend and, as is common, in the middle of one drill illustrating a given concept one fella stood up and said, "but what happens if I do something else instead?" <sigh> So I went and did a "let's find out" but, sadly, he changed it again with a "yeah, but what about when I go this instead of that!" I still don't recall exactly what I did (or what he did for that matter). All I know is that I felt something begin to tighten up that shouldn't and I "reacted." He faceplanted behind me. Yeah, well, what happens? That. <sigh> I wanted to rant on about "why do people DO that?!?! They're there to learn from me. They paid good money to learn from me. Why do they get that little bit of 'challenge the instructor' going on?" But I don't need to rant because I already know why. We're men.
I'm just glad no one got really squirrely.
Then it's hockey.
Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
punisher73
Senior Master
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Looking at our enrollment and how it goes up quickly after a movie like Kung Fu Panda or the new Kung Fu...errrr Karate Kid movie. And then how quickly it goes back to what it was shortly after. It doesn't surprise me when people say that they did "X" when they were younger. It also doesn't surprise me when they can't really so how long they studied (which usually implies it was a very short amount of time).
