What made you do the Martial Art that you do?

Metsubushi · Yellow Belt

ie Why did yo ustatrt doing kara te tai chi etc

Fryia · White Belt

truthfully for me it was because that was what was avalible at my local YMCA. I was young and knew nothing but that i wanted to be like the movie guys. I know now that is not what it is about. Then when my instructor started his own private club i moved with him out of loyalty
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Martial Arts is for self-defence
It is for mental, phisical and speritual groth
people say black belt is the end
I say it is only the begining

Tibby · Purple Belt

After years of Boxing and Karate and even various Swordfighting styles, I figured I had enough Striking, time to try my hand at grappling. I've loved it is far!

stl_karateka · Brown Belt

I started IsshinRyu when I was 9 cause I guy was handing out business cards about his school --- at the time I didn't have the time and my parents didn't have the money for me to continue past the 3 month intro class.

By the time I got to college I was flipping thru the course guide and saw I could take karate as a gym class -- eventhough I didn't need one cause I was in ROTC --- I called anyway to find out what kind it was --- once I found out it was IsshinRyu I just HAD to take it ---- the rest is history!!

Well, not really --- I progressed to 1st Kyu brown in IsshinRyu when it was time for me to move to IL --- I searched long and hard for another IsshinRyu school --- closest one was over an 1hour away --- I tried it but I couldn't deal with the commute --- so I found a Matsubayshi Shorin Ryu school and the rest is history!!!
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KarateForums.com Sempai

karatekid1975 · KF VIP

I know how ya feel, Kita. Well you do, too LOL. I moved to NY and couldn't find TSD

I knew nothing about MA when I started. I wanted self defense. I wasn't looking for a "style" either.

To make a long story short, I ended up in a Tang Soo Do dojang .... well a hybrid style. It was mixed with Hapkido, Thai boxing and other stuff. So I thought it was perfect. It ended up being a really good place to train. I loved it there.

Then I moved. I ended up in a sport place ..... bad for me (not for sport people though). Now I do a hyprid style of Tae Kwon Do Moo Duk Kwan. Similar to my TSD dojang. Lots of self defense PLUS grappling and throws as a bonus

I love it.
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Laurie F

JohnnyS · Green Belt

I already had a black belt in TKD and was training in Okinawan Goju Ryu but felt like there was something more out there that I ws missing out on. At the same time I was doing Goju, my black belt friends from TKD and other arts would get together in my backyard to train and exchange techniques. One of my mates Sean had bought Gracie In Action and said to Patrick "Pat, you're a good boxer. Put on these gloves. I want you to try and hit me, and keep going no matter what". Patrick thought it was a great idea, but Sean quickly took Patrick to the ground and applied a bad choke. We thought this was terrific and used to do it all the time: one person could punch, kick, knee etc as hard as he wanted and the other person could only grapple. The grappler always won, and we didn't even know what we were doing when it came to grappling.

Later we went and trained with John Will (who was a BJJ blue belt at the time) and started learning BJJ. The thing I like about BJJ is it's okay to question your instructor. In fact, I encourage my students to ask me questions and I now know that if someone asks me a question they are ready to be given more information. I've also noticed that there seems to be less arrogance about BJJ than in some other arts. I've walked into some martial arts schools and as soon as you walk through the door you can feel people measuring you up. That doesn't happen in BJJ schools, everyone seems to be quite friendly. You can't get away with being arrogant in BJJ because someone is always going to tap you

The other great thing is the problem solving - BJJ is just physical chess with counters, counters to counters etc. You set up your opponent so he only has two ways out of something, he goes one way you get him with this, he goes the other you get him with that. What's great about it is that everything becomes predicatable. Obviously it's not always like that, but you can map out a position and know all the responses from that position, and have all answers mapped out. That's the difference between say a black belt and a blue belt. The Black belt doesn't have to think ahead (a common misconception), because he knows his opponent only has a few options and knows how to take advantage of whatever option his opponent chooses.
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BJJ - Black Belt under John Will (Machado)
Shootfighting - 3rd Degree Black Belt
TKD - Black Belt

Shorinryu Sensei · Black Belt

I got out of the Army in September, 1974 (yeah, I'm an old fart) and where I was from there were only two instructors of MA in the whole town of around 12,000 people. This was during the "Bruce Lee Era" and I really wanted to get involved in some sort of MA.

One of the local instructors was Robert F..a 3rd Dan in TKD, and the other was Chuck G..a "Master/Professor" of Hawaiian Kempo. Both of these individuals were well known locally (and I had seen this numerous times myself) for starting fights in local bars..and generally considered bullies and jerks.

Sorry, not my thing, so I figured I'd never get an opportunity to learn anything.

In January of 1975, I called a friend of mine and asked him if he wanted to go drink some beer and cruise around town (the thing to do at that time) in my '68 Plymouth Roadrunner (God, I miss that car!!!). He said he couldn't right now, but would later..he had to go to karate class!

I sighed and asked..."Robert or Chuck's class?" He said "neither, there's a new guy in town."

I perked right up and asked my friend if I could come and watch..he said "sure", and I went over to a duplex apartment on a bad side of town where Dennis M. was teaching Okinawan Shorinryu classes in his small living room. He had recently also gotten out of the military after being stationed on Okinawa for a couple of years.

Dennis had about 8 people crammed into that small space and when my friend introduced me, Dennis said "Take your shoes off and get in line." I told him I just wanted to watch, and I'll never forget what he told me..(I still use this line myself.)

"If you're interested enough to watch, then you're interested enough to try it."...so I did! Man, was I SCARED!!!

Two months later, my friend had to quit..and this coming January, I will have 29 years in the art, and STILL LEARNING!!!

SBN Doug · KF VIP

Mine was a mistake gone right.

I was looking for Aikido or Hapkido, anything that was mainly standing, but grappling.

Nothing was near by, so I figured I'd go to the little TKD place around the corner (which had a good beginners special) to get stretched out, and pick up my endurance while I continued to look.

Come to find out, it wasn't TKD, it was Kuk Sool Won. And, for any that don't know from the article yet, is extremely similar to Hapkido.

Stayed with it ever since.

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Kuk Sool Won - 4th dan
Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.

ZR440 · Black Belt

You did what? Bwahahahhaha

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It's happy hour somewhere in the world.

Bdaze · Orange Belt

what made me do my art? well, my answer is most liely going to sound like some fantasy o delussion, but trust me, it happened.

okay, i studdied Parker kempo for about 5 years when i was 10 years old. some of it stuck, but not enough to make me feel confident in my self. i always wanted to get back into the martial arts but never found a good dojo nearby.

that is until i saw an advert for a local Budo Taijitsu dojo. i toyed around with the idea with a freind of mine. we checked it out. i liked it alot but wasn't sure if i wanted to make the commitment.

now, a few weeks later i had a dream. it was one of those recurring ones. im in school or sitting around in a public place and someone walks up and atacks me. then i try to retaliate by punching them and suddenly i can;t lift my arms, or if i can it's not enough to fight back.

this dream is always deeply disturbing to me because i have a fear of beeing helpless or defenseless. but this dream was differant., this time the second time the person punched me i managed to get enough nergy to grab his hand and put on a basic wrist lock which brought him to the floor

so basically my subconcious knew that i didnt feel confident with a striking art and going the way of a grappeling or softer art would be better suited to my needs.

i was sold after my first lesson, this is the art for me.
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If in your journey you encounter God, God will be cut

~Hatori Hanso (sonny chiba)

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