Why did you start your martial art?

[The Saint]

First Name which style you are taking and why you started training? What do you like or dislike about it?

 

I study Tradition TKD (ITF). I started because I was getting sick of the gym. I like TKD because it has helped me increase my flexablity and taught me how to defend myself if I ever need too. I enjoy the training and sparring, patterns are one of my dislikes but you need them for a good base.

[Nilla Ice]

Kuk Sool Won...it simply offered more than the other styles.

 

I always wanted to do a martial art, but my parents never embraced it. So, when I graduated college and had plenty of discretionary income, I went looking and found Kuk Sool. I never looked back on that decision!

[Myst]

WTF Tae Kwon Do. I started training because I was a six year old tomboy who was obsessed with anything martial arts (at the time, I think my obsession was on either Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee).

 

I love how it has instilled a great sense of patience and respect for myself and others in me. Also, I'm an introvert, so it gives me a place where I can yell as loud as I want and improve my "public speaking skills" when I teach the class. Right now, the only thing that I dislike is the fact that we've had to cut down on classes because my instructor has a full-time job working with at-risk kids in the school system, as well as running the dojang.

[Akaineko]

I originally started aikido. And it was all by chance. I should have been cramming for an exam, and instead I was surfing the net. Found that in a nearby school they had it that night. So I took my shoes and went. And then sticked to it for a while.

 

But then I found I needed something different. So I ended up at Jiu-jitsu which I love. Cause it has some punching and kicking, and also the fun throws and alike.

 

And I can very effectivly get rid of my extra energy there:D

[SevenStar]

coincidentally, this topic came up last week in another forum I post on - It was a thread about how we got started in MA. I'll just copy and paste my reply:

 

I guess I'll put mine up here...When I was about six, I was watching kung fu theater (can't remember which movie) and I saw a guy kick down a door - I wanted to be able to do it too. It looked soooo easy. I knew I could do it. So, I went into the bathroom, locked the door and did a flying side kick (well, a sloppy attempt at one) at the door - it was still standing. I kicked the door repeatedly trying to knock it down. Eventually, my mother heard the noise, woke up and rushed to the door. She told me to unlock it, but I refused - I wasn't coming out until I kicked it down. She ended up having to pick the lock - then she took a belt to my * for not doing what she told me to do.

 

A few weeks later, we got a new kid in my class - carlos. he was a bully. I was his victim. he beat me up a few times, so my parents bought me the upside down speed bag on a particle board stand and my dad started teaching me how to box. Carlos tried to mess with me sometime later, and I beat him up easily. I then took his shoe off and threw it in a nearby kerosene heater - he never messed with me again. After the incident, my parents decided I needed to channel my energy somehow, and gave me the choice of either karate or gymnastics, since both were close. I chose karate. The school was chuck norris' karate studio... I looked them up on the web recently - my sensei from all those years ago is still teaching there. Anyway, I trained regularly up until blue belt, then I got burned out with it and quit...worst mistake I ever made.

 

Even though I had quit, I was getting plenty of practice - I was the "bully killer" at my school - if a friend was being picked on, they told me, and I'd beat up whomever was picking on them. That went on until 7th grade, when we left va beach. My seventh grade year, I was the new kid in school and the city - naturally, I was the one to pick on. I ended up fighting a guy in the gym. His friend tried to jump in, so another kid in class jumped in and helped me out. We ended up becoming friends and worked out together. I met a few other guys into martial arts as well - one was training in tkd, one was training in snakefist from an old guy in his neighborhood, and another trained kendo and sai. We trained together up through 9th grade, when I transferred schools.

 

I'll skip over high school - I played football and ran track, but that was it. I wanted to wrestle, but my mother was against it - she saw a report on 20/20 about an insurance company that went out of business without telling anyone. One of their clients was a kid who wrestled on his school's team. He got his neck broken and the insurance company wouldn't cover the claim - that story scared my mom sh!tless, and dad didn't want to override her decision. Alot of the guys that played football were on the wrestling team though, and the coach lived around the corner from me - he used to let me work out with the wrestling team when I had time.

 

My first year in college, I took karate for an easy PE credit. through that class I met my next teacher - yuichi kurokawa. He was friends with the guy teaching the class and was the instructor of a martial arts club that was on campus. yuichi was raised in kumamoto, japan - I've never heard him name the style he trained in - he merely calls it "traditional japanese karate" but he is one of the fastest fighters I've ever met, and had amazing power for his size, so I never questioned him. Training with him was awesome. It was all drills and fighting. He knew shotokan kata and several kata from other styles, so he would help me when I was learning kata in the karate class I was taking. However, the only two forms he taught were sanchin and taikyoku shodan. He liked taikyoku shodan for enforcing basics. Other than those two forms, it was all drills and fighting. On fridays, a judo brown belt came in and taught grappling. It was during my time in this club that I fought a challenge match - some marine ***** came in talking about how great he was. I got picked to fight him. I beat him, but afterward, he checked his face for bruises then started kissing himself in the mirror...go figure. He never showed back up. I wish he woulda though - the ***** BIT me during the match. I also competed in several point and forms tournies during this time. I would win in forms, but usually took second or 3rd in sparring because I would get penalized for excessive contact. With yuichi, we sparred hard, and that's what we were used to.

 

in 1996, yuichi ended the club, because he was traveling back and forth to japan. I continued to train with him when he came in town, but wanted a place to train regularly. This is when I found a thai boxing school in the city. They taught muay thai, jun fan, taiji, wing chun and kali. I trained in muay thai, jun fan and kali. I did that for about two years - this is where I had my first two ring fights. At this time, there was no sanction in the city. The matches were held by a local instructor (coincidentally, it was the same guy I took the class from at the university) I won both fights. my head gassed up, and I invited pretty much everyone I knew to my third fight - by the time this fight happened, we actually had a sanctioning body - I got my * handed to me... In front of everyone I knew. to this day, a few fo my friends still rib me about it. Not too long after that, the thai school went out of business. this was 1998.

 

I needed a place to train, and found a longfist school not far from where the thai school was. I had always had an interest in kung fu, so I trained there. I loved it at first, but it eventually grew old to me. I thought there was too much of a focus on forms. We only competed in point and forms tournies. In one particular tourney, I hit a guy and knocked him down...excessive contact... point taken away. I ended up getting beat by a guy who jumped in the air and hit me ON TOP OF MY HEAD with a backfist. I was like wtf? because if that were real, that technique would not have helped him. It was at that point that I decided to stop competing in both point and forms tournies.

 

We did continuous sparring and grappling at the school, but not as much as I would've liked. I ended up running into some shuai chiao guys (but they were 8 hours away from me) so they recommended that I work the SC things they taught me and in the mean time took up judo, as it seemed like the style in my area that would help with SC the most. So, after four years I left the longfist school and started judo. I decided to go the extra mile and started bjj as well. The judo coach at one school was a three time national champ. The coach at the other was like 3rd in the world at some point. The other has competed at the world games - they were all very competitive. I loved it. My first shiai was the state championships and I took 2nd in my division. I've entered several shiai since then. A short itme after, a thai boxing coach began teaching at the judo/bjj school, and I began training it again as well. This is where I am now. I've been fighting and entering shiai, and plan on making an mma debut this year, probably in the ffc.

[ncole_91]

Well I started Shotokan Karate at the end of November this year. I choose this style because there was a dojo right beside my house, so transportation was not a big problem.

 

I also had a cousin and his friend who did karate. During the summer, I saw them both sparring and I totally fell in love with it. I knew i wanted to do a Martial Art. I started to look around at some dojos, meet the instructors and everything and I finally choose the dojo by my house.

 

I am enjoying MA so much and I don't think I will quit for a very long time, if I ever quit. I am very glad that I saw my cousin and his friend sparring. Well that is my story, not very long, but yeah.

[Master Jules]

In 1973, my dad took me to see Enter The Dragon. After coming home from the movie, I immediately stuffed the laundry bag with pillows and began punching and kicking it, making all of Bruce Lee's noises.....mom though it would be a good idea to put me in a program......31 years later....Im still punchin' and kickin'.....and everything else too.

[pineapple]

After being mobbed, sucker punched twice, and robbed, I wanted to learn to fight so I took up Taekwondo in the early seventies. I am currently and will continue to be a Kajukenbo stylist. I love Kajukenbo (Karate, Judo, Jujitdu, Kenpo, and Chinese Boxing) because the practitioners are open to all styles and it is street oriented.

 

Pineapple

[battousai16]

i got into the martial arts for more or less the same reasons as myst, and am at my current school because it had the best teachers around.

[Thaegen]

Wing Tsun

 

It's effective and fun.