Why did you come back?

Spartacus Maximus · Black Belt

Here is a question for anyone who has returned to martial arts after a long time for whatever reason: What made you decide to go back to martial arts? What motivated you?

Spodo Komodo · Blue Belt

Its like malaria, you think you are ok for a few years and then bam! You find yourself side-kicking lamp-posts on your walk home and collecting your chocolate bar from the vending machine in horse-riding stance.

I tend to wander away from training due to life circumstances, moving away for a job, looking after family or nursing a serious injury. Inertia stops me from going back for a few years and I tend to have other things to fill my time but eventually I need to do something active and once you have done martial arts, the gym is a poor substitute.

Spartacus Maximus · Black Belt

For whoever has gone back after a long time, did you start a different martial art or do try to pick up where you left off?

Theochh · White Belt

Hi

I never stopped loving Karate, the discipline it gave me and the etiquette it taught me helped me in so many ways. I trained in Shotokan Karate for 7 years or so and achieved the grade of shodoan. However, life changed for me, met a girl, got married and had a son, very run of the mill. What was strange / odd was that my wife was also a karateka and trained in Shotokan...it didn't stop there, my father law was a 6th dan instructor and ran his own club. That inspired me to return to training and pick up from where i left off. The saddest part was that I didn't return sooner, huge regret. The happy part is that my wife also returned to training and my son also trains with us now.

Capella · Yellow Belt

I only trained for a few months when I was a teenager. I did a highschool exchange year in Kentucky, and that is where I started karate at a very small and cozy Goju Ryu dojo. It was the perfect place for me at the time, and my sensei, Robert Brown, did become my very own Mr Myagi.

When I returned to Germany, I wanted to continue, but the only thing I could find was very sports oriented Shotokan Karate at large sports clubs. A lot of rather rough kids in there as well. I really did not feel like I fit in. I did a little bit of Judo and Shaolin Kempo at uni later, and I liked it, especially Judo, but there were so many other things to do and so I gave it up.

Last year I decided I wanted to do something for my fitness, and I was tired of going to the gym on my own to lift weights or run on a treadmill. So I had a look at several martial arts schools instead, because it seemed more fun to me. And I stuck with a small kyokushin dojo. Great freindly atmosphere, really tough workouts and a very realistic, no-nonesense fighting style. I never thought I would enjoy full-contact fighting, but I really do.

Lupin1 · Black Belt

I stopped in 5th grade because I wanted to play basketball instead. After college I was back in my hometown and was sort of in a rut and had gone from having so much to do in college to not being involved in anything. I needed a hobby. And I still felt drawn to karate-- especially to the personal challenge of learning the forms and the techniques and advancing through the ranks.

So a few months after being home, I e-mailed my old instructor from when I was a kid and I started training again.

SLK59 · Yellow Belt

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