What is the purpose in your MA training?

[Jenna]

Why do you turn up time after time? what are you striving to achieve and for what reason?? when it come to the time you are about to die.. what will have been the purpose of all of this time you have spent training learning studying your martial arts? thank you for responding xo

 

[gerardbu07059]

Well I tell you. There are different styles which concentrate on developing different skills. But according to the style it is in many cases not something that is a finite purpose. It is a life style. If you look for example in China millions of elderly people practice every morning to stay nimble, flexible, and strong. It is not different than practicing yoga . Many people now day mistake martial arts as just mma. Mixed martial art that you see on TV where competitors beat their heads in. This is only a recent sport that has been developed. Other arts that include not just the physical but also the mental part has been around for thousand of years. Just like yoga. Hope this helps

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[Kong Soo Do]

To go home at the end of my shift, and to teach others the same.

 

[Jenna]

Well I tell you. There are different styles which concentrate on developing different skills. But according to the style it is in many cases not something that is a finite purpose. It is a life style. If you look for example in China millions of elderly people practice every morning to stay nimble, flexible, and strong. It is not different than practicing yoga . Many people now day mistake martial arts as just mma. Mixed martial art that you see on TV where competitors beat their heads in. This is only a recent sport that has been developed. Other arts that include not just the physical but also the mental part has been around for thousand of years. Just like yoga. Hope this helps

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Thank you.. and for you personally? There is not any finite purpose in your MA?

 

[Skullpunch]

1) Have fun and enjoy life

2) Randori builds character like nothing else possibly can

3) Self-actualizaton/mastery. I will never attain this but I will enjoy the journey for as long as it lasts.

4) Stay in shape

5) In a roundabout way it's good for mental health - getting b1tch tossed, choked, etc by competitive black belts makes some of life's challenges seem like no big deal by comparison

6) Closely related to #5 and #2, the part of my brain that pushes me to do hard things whether or not I want to do them needs to be conditioned like any muscle and my training has done this more effectively than anything else in my life ever has.

 

[Buka]

I think it changes over the years. At first it was fascination. Then it became something else. Then, if you teach, it changes again, and suddenly it has more importance. I believe teaching Martial Arts is a great responsibility.

If I am lucky enough to lie on my death bed and think about things gone by, I believe I'll be smiling.

 

[ShortBridge]

Jenna, you post the most relevant and provocative questions.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Jenna, I started first wanting to just be effective. Really nothing more, nothing less. Then I wanted to compete and I pursued that. During that time I always had fun and started to teach. My emphasis then came to be safe during work and get home at the end of the day. Now a day's I train for fun, fitness and the one or two times I might encounter violence left in my life. I also hope never to have to use my martial training again.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I always want to develop "at least 1 thing" that I can do better than anybody else on this planet. If I have spent 20,000 hours to develop something, I'm sure my result will be better than someone who has only spent 1,000 hours to develop the same thing.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Why do you turn up time after time? what are you striving to achieve and for what reason?? when it come to the time you are about to die.. what will have been the purpose of all of this time you have spent training learning studying your martial arts? thank you for responding xo

I train because it has become part of the warp and weft of my life. It is my 'way', what I do. It is what I understand as a 'do' (Japanese 'doh', not American English 'doo').

Self-defense is part of it, physical fitness (or more honestly, physical activity) is part of it, but the real reason I train now is because I enjoy everything about it. Mostly, though, it's internal now. It's what it does for my spirit, rather than what it does for my fists. Yes, I still hit like a train and kick like a mule, but if that's all I wanted to do, I can do that now.

It is the settling of my weight, locking to the floor. It is the spring tension as I receive a blow, or the uncoiling power as I strike. It is the speed and precision and control which I find within myself. It is my breathing, coordinated with my movement. It is the moments of clarity as I discover some new nuance, some new minute adjustment to my posture; or my attitude, which I had previously been unable to perceive. It is the manner in which I live my life outside the dojo and inside, and how little by little, my outside life comes to represent the lessons I have learned inside the dojo. Self-restraint, courtesy, kindness, resolve, steadfastness, determination, even humor.

Everything I ever wanted for myself as I looked for my purpose in life, I have found within the walls of a small nondescript dojo, surrounded by friends who were once strangers and are now people I would trust with my life.

I hope to train until I die. And why not? It gives me something more important than mere pleasure; it gives me meaning.

 

[marques]

Self defence, health, "flow state", pleasure, mental skills (reflexes, fast thinking...), relaxation and forgetting daily troubles for a moment. After training, all trouble becomes smaller.

 

[Paul_D]

when it come to the time you are about to die.. what will have been the purpose of all of this time you have spent training learning studying your martial arts? thank you for responding xo

It was a lot of fun, as where the social events I had with the friends I made.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

Mental and physical stimulation. Most other forms of exercise for me are very very boring, or require a lot of people to do (i.e. teamsports). I don't have many friends so Martial Arts gives me a good mental and physical workout that doesn't rely on other people. Sure, if there is someone else with me I can spar with, fantastic, but if I'm on my own I can still train just as effectively.

 

[jobo]

its a complicated answer, firstly I'm having my second mid life crisis, the first at about 40 ,caused me to revert to about 28 , I bought a red sports car, got my self a 21 yo girl friend and a harley generaly acted like a knob.

this time round I'm doing all the things I wanted to do at about 14, learning to play guitar,, wheelie a push bike , play snooker and learn karate. I must point out that me being 14 clashed with the release of Enter the dragon in British cinema.

the up side is that im fitter than I have been for several decades and I've met a lot of nice people, I'm even considering getting some Japanese. Writing tattooed on my arm and I had more sense than that when I was 14

 

[kuniggety]

I love getting my hands on sweaty men.

Really, I think it started as a kid with the fantasy of being some ninja warrior. And also on a level of just wanting to be able to defend myself (or others) if I needed to. I think it's still one of the driving factors today.

Another factor is fitness. I'm always sweating buckets by the end of class, and ache all over afterwards, which means I've been getting in a workout as I'm having fun.

Lastly is the sense of satisfaction of putting in the time for something and getting better at it. I used to walk in and get my *** kicked over and over and over. Now, depending on who I spar with, that might still happen, or I might last longer, or I might put someone on the defensive, or I might kick their *** over and over.

 

[Martial_Kumite]

When I first started, I just wanted a something that I could do. I was never any good at baseball or soccer, and I have siblings that beat me in both. So, my martial arts started with a desire to have something that was mine, that I knew how to do. Then I got older, and I realized that It is a place that I can use to keep personal demons at bay. I incorporated, and am still incorporating it into my lifestyle.
Today, I can say that my MA training is simply to make a better me. Mentally, publicly, and socially.

Hiped that helped.

 

[oaktree]

To find peace of mind

 

[Headhunter]

Just something to do

 

[JR 137]

I've wanted to learn karate for as long as I can remember. Maybe it was Kung Fu Theater, Bruce Lee, and the WWF's influence on me when I was a kid. I always had a fascination with being this fighting machine. Not to hurt people, but I guess just for me to know I'm badass lol. Kind of hard to put into words. I still have a part of me that feels that way, and I'm 40. I haven't reached that level of badassness though

There are too many things to list as to what keeps me going back, but here's my top two (because they're a tie)...

1. I'm too competitive to stop. Not competitive with others; I don't care if I'm the worst one in the building (I'm not) or the best (not even close). I have to outdo myself. I have to be better than I currently am. I have to do better than I thought I could. I have to stop make my the mistakes I'm currently making. I'm after mastery of my art, yet I know I'll never truly master it. Even if I am fortunate enough to one day EARN a master rank.

2. Inside the dojo, the outside world doesn't exist. I don't have time to think about the ridiculousness of work when someone's trying to kick me upside the head. My argument with my wife doesn't cross my mind when someone's trying to punch me in the stomach. And on and on. The only thing that exists is what's in front of me at that moment. For an hour and a half, nothing else exists, nothing else matters. On my way home, those problems that annoyed the hell out of me cause me into perspective. The serious ones, such as my grandmother being in hospice care come back, but they're easier to face. The insignificant ones like my daughters not wanting to eat their dinner just go away.

 

[Blindside]

As a kid I did it for fun, and I probably wanted to be a bad ***.

Later I did it for both self-defense and for personal challenge, can I make my body do that?

Now I do it almost entirely for fun and personal challenge.