What do you think about this?

[TigerLove]

Why do we train martial arts? I have some thoughts, and i want to hear what others think about it?

I saw that i becomed pretty another person since i train. Not long, 2 years now. Few times, i asked my self why i train martial arts, what i am giving, and what am i achieveing?

While i trained various sports (sprinting, spear throwing, football), it was pretty obvious - i did it to win the medal.

Why i train martial arts, that answer wasn't so obvious, so as some others: why i gain feelings about it? Why i think of it as very important thing? Why it affects my mind so much? And so on..

I tried to think about it seriously, because doing something 4-7 times a week, and making it big part of your life, without knowing why, is pretty silly.

I decided to think, and here is the reasons i thinked off:

I train for self defense.
I train to make my body healther.
I want to raise my self - confidence.
I want to do sport, but there is something special in arts.
I want it, because it's my dream since always.

This is all great reasons, but...that's not it. When i stay alone with my self, i ask myself: ''Well, is that all boy? You got the medals, the belts, the self confidence, the health body, you know the moves from the films, you proved to yourself some things, you have your dream, and still something's wrong, right? Now, when dream is accomplished, was it worth it?''

Answer, which comes with huge pain inside is: ''No. That's not only it. I feel big emptynes inside.''

Then, i realised..

What i really learned and achieved while train? It's not medals, fights, boards, unbelieveable kicks and strikes, my dream.

I achieved knowing the fact that peace and love is the only way we must go. Give it, and receive it.

I realised the beauty of doing something for yourself - to train. But, not for medal, not to train to be a winner amongst others. Train to be a winner over yourself - to became stabilized, healthy, and lovefully person.

I becamed less agressive (not at all now), more self - controled person - both in the emotional and in the body way. I becomed more modest and wise person.

Or, i am in the way, to become it..

I don't know why i achieved this through martial arts, and why i feel like i feel. It seems kind of a paradox to me that i realised things like this while learning martial arts. It's like learn how to play chess while you train basketball.

Most people simply don't understand me - most of them asks: ''If you train so much and you say you don't train to win competition, you are crazy.''

Am I? What do you think about this?

 

[qwksilver61]

The world/my neighborhood is getting progressively worse.I can't even pump gas or enter a convenience store anymore without looking over my shoulder.
The same goes for all the little meth,crack thugs in my neighborhood,smart mouthed "I dare you types" I don't bother anyone,and it never used to be this way,people used to respect one another.Now it's "whatever..I'm entitled"
The way I see it,fair game.....

 

[terryl965]

Simple really because I know no better, this is what I have done my whole life.

 

[Flea]

The world/my neighborhood is getting progressively worse.I can't even pump gas or enter a convenience store anymore without looking over my shoulder.
The same goes for all the little meth,crack thugs in my neighborhood,smart mouthed "I dare you types" I don't bother anyone,and it never used to be this way,people used to respect one another.Now it's "whatever..I'm entitled"
The way I see it,fair game.....

That's exactly what got me started ... the last straw was somewhere between the guy who followed me down the street one night on a dog walk crooning "ooh baby, I could spend all night witchoo" and the night I came out to find some guy lurking in the bushes in my apartment parking lot.

I have no illusions that I could hold my own in a fight after a year and a half of training, but I am confident that I could escape successfully. Since then I've become more self-confident about life in general, and it's translated to other aspects of my life in a very positive domino effect.

 

[seasoned]

Why do we train martial arts?
I saw that i becomed pretty another person since i train.

I achieved knowing the fact that peace and love is the only way we must go. Give it, and receive it.

I realised the beauty of doing something for yourself - to train. But, not for medal, not to train to be a winner amongst others. Train to be a winner over yourself - to became stabilized, healthy, and lovefully person.

I becamed less agressive (not at all now), more self - controled person - both in the emotional and in the body way. I becomed more modest and wise person. Or, i am in the way, to become it..

You touch upon something that few discover. The changing of a person, or the person within us. When we first train, it is to learn how to fight and defend ourself. The fact of the matter is, once we start training that aspect gets overshadowed by a desire to better ourself as a person, physically and mentally. The more we train, and the better we can defend ourself, the less important it becomes. I think your above post is awesome, and I highlighted some of the things you said that make a very important point. One statement I always taught my students was the fact that we learn to fight, not so we can fight better, but so we don't have to fight at all.

 

[kungfu penguin]

martial arts ARE whar seems to keep my life in balance. with all the crappola i have taken throughout my life i think i would have snapped and really hurt someone else or myself so in essence it is the way i keep peace winning in my head or my scabbard for my sword. truly i would be dead with out it!

 

[kungfu penguin]

it is my church my peace my balance without it i would be an empty shell it is the reason i can sheathe my sword and walk in peace and not from hate without it i would be in jail for something vicious or i would be dead there is no other option for me

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I do it because I like to wear white pyjamas and jump around hitting things.

 

[bluekey88]

This week, due to training, I have a deep bone brusie (possible fracture?) on the top of my left foot due to catching the point of an elbow during sparring. I have a resolving bruise on my left bicep from a back kick. I have a brusie on my left hand left from some knife defense work I did the other week. I've got brusies up and down my legs. A bruise on my right forearm from a strike during weapon disarm practice.

last night I was walking around like an old man due to being sore from head to toe. My wife asked me "why do you do this?" <y answer: "I must be wired wrong. I enjoy this too much."

All the others tuff (self-defense, health, etc.) is just rationalization. I', wired wrong, I have to do this stuff.

Peace,
Erik

 

[KELLYG]

I started training to get into shape. I noticed that after a while that I used also as a release, from the tension of the modern day world, tension of being female in a pre-menopausal body. I seem to get more accomplished when someone else is driving my training. Their is also a since of community that is not available in a standard gym. My most favorite part is learning, and relearning. Will I be a champion, competitor, teacher, probably not. Will I know more today than yesterday, tomorrow, more than today yes.

 

[zDom]

I've also thought about this.

The short answer is, "I don't want to lose my Super Powers"

The long version? Well, here is the first draft of a Pindaric Ode that I recently wrote for a poetry class:

Hapkido

The Way of Coordinating Inner Power
is not an easy path, a matter of
"learning a few moves"
after which one "knows hapkido"
but a lifelong commitment
to grueling workouts
aching muscle
bruised bone.
There are no serial numbers
tattooed on my hands or feet,
no registration
yet I am never seen
by Lady Justice
as unarmed if I assault or batter.
For self defense
a gun is faster learned
more easily used
and, for the most part, more effective.

Step off hapkido&#8217;s mat
rinse off the sweat:
water is sweeter
food more flavorful
sleep, deeper
stillness a pleasure.
The hardship is a brake
on the perceived velocity of time;
boredom has become a vague memory.
I am self aware
body and mind
grown stronger, surer.
The discipline of strenuous repetition
by sets of ten stacked into hundreds
and hundreds into thousands
makes daily feats facile.
I have abilities others covet
but don&#8217;t have the will to cultivate.

So I remain on this arduous path
toward the unattainable Perfection's Peak
satisfied with rare glimpses
at unexpected bends
which indicate I've moved closer.
The pitch, here, such
that to stop my climb&#8217;s inertia
is to slide downward,
pulled from the rarefied
air, the elevated view,
and settle for pedestrian slopes.
Another climb up,
to regain my present place,
would be a familiar road
but even more difficult:
strength sapped by age,
shouldered responsibilities:
Even now, I feel the climb slow
toward merely holding
atrophy
at bay.





Another couplet I didn't feel worked in the above poem but I like a lot (maybe as a really short stand-along poem):


Hapkido is never about competing for a trophy;

Hapkido is a lifelong battle against atrophy.

 

[TigerLove]

I received some positive comments on my opinnions, from people i believe i can take an advice and opinnion, even if i never seen them.

It's hard to say how much does it mean to me.

If you asked me for martial arts two weeks before, i'd say it's just training, nothing of a much matter. Few days ago, just suddenly, it camed to my mind, how martial arts is a big part of my life. Like bomb, for some reasons, it shocked me.

And, some other things camed to my mind, as can be seen in thread first post.

Howewer, i know i am heading in the right way.

 

[Wey]

It seems like we're all thinking the same thing here. For the most part, we all started for self-defense reasons, whether its a bad neighborhood or the pure yearning to learn the art (or an art) of self-defense. I can attest to this - we all got much more than we bargained for.

The mental/emotional/spiritual aspects of training martial arts have been mind-boggling obvious and essential to my life. I look at life as a blessing, as something to be cherished and enjoyed. I've come to the realization that there is a force of yin and yang in this world, which is something most people cannot grasp / do not believe in. I'm calm and collective and take everything in stride; I do not get angry (it is very rare that I do), I try to see the good in every situation, and I do not stress.

The irony that is martial arts is fantastic, and I cannot get enough of it. The initial training for self-defense has yielded a passive, loving, and caring person.

 

[Blade96]

I dont know why I love it, my MA, Shotokan, so much. Well I do. for a number of reasons said here. But really. I never ever thought of doing any MA my whole life. Then last year - Bang. I have no idea why something pushed me to it. Its like it was my destiny.