Greatest Inspiration

[gimmik_3]

It was a combination of things for me as well. I didn't start TKD until I was 27 and like Isshinryu_heart had some self-esteem problems. I dropped a lot of weight and really got into it once I started.

I also remember a movie from a looong time ago about a blended family (godchildren or something like that) and the shy nerdy kid defending the other sibling from a couple of bullys using jujitsu. Kind of a cheesy plot to show how the differences of 2 families could come together, but it stuck in my head. Having been bullied myself I think that had appeal.

Watching Saturday morning MA movies was fun too!

[Kieran-Lilith]

I, like many, seem to be influenced by the media. I've always been interested...but when I was younger I was just too lazy to get out and start. I "play-fought" with the boys on the street, but even earlier than that I was obsessed with Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, and Mortal Combat...so says my parents about a six year old me. Then I found out my dad used to be a brown belt in TKD, and I idolized my father (Daddy's Girl)....and, even though I didn't join then, I did join. I've been at my school for a year and a half, testing for my next belt next month.

[Taipeu]

I was inspired like many by Bruce Lee but over the years many people have inspired me and changed the course of my training.

More recently Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine from the British Combat Association have inspired me a great deal and have changed the way I train and indeed my life.

[Mr. Mike]

yeah, the usual...Bruce Lee and all other kung fu movies popular int he 70's. I used to watch all the corny ones with my Dad when I was little, and we'd have great fun mimicking the awful acting skills

Then in the 80's, I was inexorably glued to those infernal ninja movies, like Enter the Ninja, American Ninja, etc. I loved those

So, MA has been there as an entertainment medium for me all through my life...needless to say, my biggest dream was to bee good like Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Bruce Li, Sho Kosugi, Chuck Norris, Tadashi Yamashita, etc.

So I trained off and on over the years, but it wasn't until about 3 years ago when I walked into a Kenpo school that I found exactly what I was looking for in an art.

I also found the motivation I needed when I started taking classes with my brother, and I overheard him saying that I would never make it, I wouldn't get to BB because I was too fat, lazy, had no follow-through, etc. Well, he stopped going, his family stopped going, he stopped paying, still owes the school several hundred dollars, and I haven't and don't...hahahaha How's that for motivation? Get told you can't do something.

Uhh...kinda went off on a tangent there. Oh well. In a nutshell, I can call my inspiration the media and my brother

[Menjo]

I was acutally forced into MA years ago by my father because he had taken in his youth till about 30. However i often thank him for forcing me, because i loved it after about 3 weeks and i still do, but more.

[SamuraiDave]

I always wantd to get into martial arts but growing up poor in Ohio there was only one dojo in my city (in the 80's) and we couldn't afford for me to go. I have three role-models though. One real (though now deceased) and the other two fictional characters from books. Bruce Lee is one (though not for the obvious reasons, I hate his movies). The other two are John Kelly-Clark (created by the author Tom Clancy) and Raistlin Majere (created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman).

[Menjo]

Raistlin Majere (created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman).

A friend and I once read that series for awhile some time back. I remember the number of books in it were endless, he was also one of my fav characters(Raistlin).

But then I got into martial art novels and since then I havnt taken the time to read over my old books.

Edited March 22, 2006 by Menjo

[italian_guy]

Bruce Lee has a very important part in my MA inspiration I was a kid when his movies came out and I liked it so much but I lived in a small town and there weren't any MA school in my place furthermore I wasn't definitively athletic so I thought that MA was not for me.

Many years later ( 3 years ago) the Gym where I did exercise to stay fit and lose some weight opeed a kickboxing class and I gave it a try .. and now... here I am.

[AdamFieldITFTKD]

my influence was seeing a martial arts display by a blue belt in a talent contest at my school. i was called up to participate and after that i wanted to learn how to protect myself and i attended the same dojang as him and now train with him.

i was also very inspired by Jean Claude Van-Damme and Bruce Lee videos

eg Kickboxer and Fists of Fury, Crouching Tiger

[IcemanSK]

Mine was Chuck Norris. And specifically the movie "Forced Vengence." My dad & I watched that movie, & we walked over to the Taekwondo school & I signed up. A lot of good films came out in the early 80's that helped encourage me. Yeah, a lotta bad ones, too! I've seen most of em. Good ones & bad.