Standard Responce

[Spirit At Choice]

I mentioned to someone that I do MA and got the, "Can you beat *me* up," response. Well, I guess I failed to mention that I'm a relative beginner, so I said, "Only if you hold as still as a Wavemaster; if so then FEAR ME!"

[pepto_bismol]

Most of the people that find out I take MA try to challenge me, the whole "so u think ur tough" comes up a lot. I have a habit now of making my lips move while no words come out then I say "So, you think you know kung fu, eh? What style do YOU know?!" then I keep my mouth moving. I actually use that one, it ussually makes the other person laugh, if not they kind of shake their and walk away. It's not like I make a habbit of telling people that I do martial arts, it's just that I have been forced to be in a few fights, used osotogari and some centerline punches and then all of a sudden everybody is like "theres the karate kid"

or "hey ninja, sup?"

gets real annoying after a while, esspecially since those nicknames lead to trouble.

[DragonMike]

Yeah,

I tend to avoid telling people that I study martial arts until they are true friends. I don't want to have to deal with the stupid stereotypes.

[MartialArthur]

Since I own a full time MA school, I take a different approach. I make it a point to wear shirts and jackets with my school logo because I want everyone I meet to know that I teach MA. Personal contact is a great form of marketing, and my shirts often draw inquiries. I've even had people come up to me in church and ask about training for their son or daughter.

I typically get "Are you a student or do you teach?", to which I say "both", and that opens the door to a conversation about the great benefits of MA training. A person is much less intimidated walking into my school to meet me after we've already met and talked than it is to walk into a strange place where you don't know anyone. There are vast numbers of people who like the idea of MA training but never get the nerve to walk through the school door.

Of course if I'm going into the city or out drinking I do not wear logos.

[nathanzc]

Your good friends sometimes can get you in a bad situation too, last month In High school I was trying to convince a guy not to fight one of my friends and to walk away, and the guy I was trying to watch out for was like Ya, try and hit me now Nathan Knows Karate and can kick all your *! aha It actually calmed this guy down, but sense then I had to back down from a fight because some punk wanted to have a rep of fighting a Guy who knows Karate. Ps When the guy was trying to get me to fight in the court yard and a crowd gathered, I was like man, I don't want to fight you, I like you, I was hoping to be friends! ahha It was priceless, Kinda threw him off balance.