Important to you

[ps1]

What is the most important aspect of training martial arts to you? Please think hard and chose your answer. I agree all of these are important. But what keeps you coming back? What makes it fun for you? Those ideas should go into your choice.

[Wastelander]

I agree with you that all of them are important, but I picked "learn a skill" because I feel that it encompasses several of the other features listed. That skill, in my mind, is self defense, but in the process of learning that skill you need to be disciplined or you won't learn it effectively, and you need to try to become a better person as part of avoiding conflict so you don't have to defend yourself, and those things are challenging .

[Lupin1]

I picked challenging as what keeps me coming back. I love learning and for me this is something that challenges me to learn in a new and different way. If it were easy, I never would've come back.

[tallgeese]

Self Defense.

What everyone else has said about overlap can't be argued. No matter why you primarily study, the other reasons listed will also be developed to a greater and lesser degree.

That said, sd has been and still is the primarily reason I go to classes. Now, it's not as preeminent as it used to be, but it is still at the top of the list. Given what I do, it's hard not to place that as the most important aspect of training.

[sensei8]

Very nice topic!!

Self Defense.

When all is said and done by the end of the day, self-defense, is the primary reason as to why I even started to learn the MA, and still am.

While I agree with tallgeese that SD isn't as preeminent as it once was; it's still a very important part. That can't be denied nor can it be circumvented across the board.

It's true that the many, many years have been very kind to me, it's the students that truly keep me coming back; they're the exclamation to my MA journey.

Edited January 30, 2013 by sensei8

[ps1]

Great responses so far. Keep em comming

[JCavin]

Self defense. Think it is a combination of being a husband and a father(and a former LEO). When you have people you love that much it makes their safety a priority in every facet of your life.

And as I see it, I can't protect them, or teach them to protect themselves, without first being able to protect myself.

[Tempest]

Self-defense is important, but I picked comraderie because that is what keeps me coming back even when I don't feel like it.

[MasterPain]

Self defense. Everything else I could get somewhere else.

[Harkon72]

Discipline, my only true opponent is myself.