Well the thing that first attracted be to karate was basically a show on Discoverey channle. I saw a couple guys gettin' 2x4s beaten over them and it didn't hurt them at all. I also so a guy punching a buket of tacks, and they weren't even breaking the skin. I thought it looked pretty nifty, and I also knew that I knew some friennd that took karate and there was quite a few dojos in my area.