What's Your Story??

[Shinzu]

since being on this board i have seen alot of great posts, excellent info and many styles. so i figured i would start this thread.

how did you get started in the Martial Arts?

What are your goals? (i.e - self defense, exercise..etc)

how did you decide on your style?

i'll start

when i was around 13 years old my friend told me that his buddy was taking karate at a local youth center. i was like awesome..we gotta join!

turns out that the style was shotokan. i didnt know the difference then, i thought karate was katate. i joined for around 2 years reaching my green belt. i dont remember why i stopped but i did.

in high school another friend was telling me he started taking karate in the school gym on certain nights. it sparked my interest so i checked it out. to my surprise it was shotokan so i began to train again. they had a different ranking system so i started off as a lower belt and worked my way up again.

with life as a teenager i again put the arts aside. if i knew then what i know now i would have stuck to it.

after college i was watching a MA movie and thought..i should really get back into it. i joined the u.s shotokai and studied under sensei miyazaki for around 2 years reaching 1st kyu.

the school raised its rates and my wife and i were going to have our first child. so with that said i needed to adjust my priorities. karate went on the back burner yet again.

3 years went by and we decided to move form new york to pennsylvania.
i again found the martial arts entering my life after striking up a conversation with some work friends. since there were no shotokan schools where i was living i decided to check out tang soo do. i was not familiar with the style at all but i wanted to go and see.

to my surprise it was just like shotokan. i was extremely excited and enrolled right away. now almost 2 years later i have reached 1st dan and i am working toward 2nd. i am hopefully going to open a school in the near future under the organization that i am with now.

i never knew how much of a role the arts would play in my life. i am truly looking foward to teaching my son the same values it has taught me, and pass down the knowledge that i am so grateful for.

:asian:

 

[Monkey King]

I grew up watching the green Hornet, Batman and Robin, etc. In 1973, the year that Bruce Lee died, my older brother took me to see "Fists of Fury". I was 15 years old. I remember watching in awe at the power he cinematically displayed. I knew that's what I wanted to do.

Three days later I see an article in the paper that Bruce Lee died.

I didn't know what to think. By then "Kung Fu" the series came on TV so I started watching religiously. I began taking boxing lessons but my heart was already sold out to Martial Arts.

When I turned 16, I joined the Colorado Karate Association. (As it was known back then.) Now it's the Japan Karate Assoc. They taught Shotokan. The Sensei was Yutaka Yamaguchi, a 7th degree black belt from Japan. He was a strict disciplinarian. I remember one day after class I was heading out the door after changing. All of the class had left except for a couple of black belts and the Sensei. They were all sitting in the office talking about the change in marial arts and how it used to be a lifetime art but the new blood coming in wanted rapid advancement. I sat there for an hour listening to him talk about the old ways. He truly inspired me to continue and make it a lifetime acheivement.

We would have to kneel after class and recite the core values of an honorable warrior.

As it turned out, I ran out of money and had to stop taking classes. But I still practiced on my own almost everyday. I became very proficient with the Nunchaku, not any of the goofy stuff like between your legs,etc.

I continued to practice throughout the years even in the military. But it wasn't until I was 38 years old that I joined the Chinese Shaolin Center. And began my shaolin journey.

All because of a TV show.

 

[arnisador]

See also this thread in this forum, entitled Why you started taking martial arts.

 

[Shinzu]

oops. sorry i didnt see that thread before i posted this.

anyways i hope some new members post their bio's here

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by Shinzu

sorry i didnt see that thread before i posted this.

No problem--interesting topics will certainly get repeated from time to time.

anyways i hope some new members post their bio's here

Agreed!