Your martial art (s) why did you choose them?

[Spartacus Maximus]

The first reason I started was ethnic background bullying. I wanted to defend myself but mostly could not stand seeing my younger siblings and kids of my people get abused. I had a strong urge to protect them.

Secondly would be an obsession with martial arts stories and movies. I never tired of watching anything that had martial arts in it. Name it and I probably saw it more times than I can count.

The third reasons was fate because except for a few dojos nearly all dojos in my medium sized town was Okinwan shorin ryu. I continued because I wanted to always know more and I looked up to my seniors and sensei. They could all do things that seemed amazing.

[Shizentai]

Why did I choose my martial art? Because my friend's mom researched the different schools in the area and chose the most reputable organization, who happened to teach shotokan karate, and that had a dojo next door to my high school. As a goofy 14-year-old I didn't really see why I shouldn't just train at the McDojo by my house. I'm glad that my friend's parents took an interest, otherwise I would probably never have stayed with it over the years.

I feel like when these threads start, people are expecting an answer like:

"well, I thought this style suited me in particular because of my attributes x, y and z, and the martial art's attributes of a, b and c"

In reality, for most people, it's actually more like:

"there are two dojos where I live, I picked the one that seemed to be a better fit for me. They taught style Q."

[bushido_man96]

I feel like when these threads start, people are expecting an answer like:

"well, I thought this style suited me in particular because of my attributes x, y and z, and the martial art's attributes of a, b and c"

In reality, for most people, it's actually more like:

"there are two dojos where I live, I picked the one that seemed to be a better fit for me. They taught style Q."

I think this depends on who is asking. Those of us with the time and experience in know the latter to be the case more often than the former. But you bring up a very good point here, and the context that people see MA training in.

[shinaido]

I started karate at age 14 after watching "Blood sport" as all of my friends from our neighborhood. Sadly only i have stayed with martial arts. Got involved with wrestling (Greco-Romano) by accident when we moved our karate dojo, one of my high school friends offered to speak to his wrestling coach about place to train. I was offered training session with wrestlers and fall in love wth this sport.

[RAM18]

This is a great question. I get asked this a lot especially by friends who have no interest in Martial arts.

At age 6 i begged my parents to take me to a karate class. I wish i could remember why i had a desire at that age. It was the 80's and the original Karate Kid film had just come out. i guess that may have been an influence...

I did Shotokan Karate up until about 10 as a child got bored of the repetition as it was a small school with little direction.

A few years ago i had half a mind to maybe get back into it but did little about it. I then watched a film that called Never back down. Its essentially a fairly bad US high school drama about an underground fighting ring. One aspect of it is that the main character of the story goes to train with a Sensei who does not promote fighting but trains him in dedication, fitness, spirit and the film manages to get across the core beliefs of Martial arts...just about.

That really stuck with me and i decided to look at local clubs.

Initially i wanted to get back to Shoto but i came across a local club who had the same belief that martial arts was not only for fighting or sport or self defense or fitness but all of it and more. They made you feel part of the family immediately. This was a Wado Ryu club. I joined up there and then and loved it. I have now just graded 1st Kyu...

My only regret is i waited so long to get back into it.

[Lordy]

After doing some boxing and Jiu-Jitsu I came across Shotokan Karate. I wasn't doing any martial arts at the time and a leaflet was pushed through my door advertising a Shotokan club. My friend and I decided to go along. I fell in love straight away, although my mate decided it wasn't really his thing after a couple of lessons.

[jaypo]

For me, it was a combination of things. I've always liked combat. I grew up with a bunch of hoodlums, so being able to fight was necessary. However, I was always smaller and weaker than most. I watched Enter the Dragon as a kid, and even though I was too young to understand it, it stuck. Then, when I was 13, I was at an all star baseball tourney, and in the hotel one night, I watched Bloodsport on HBO. I told myself that I had to be able to do those things before I went to the grave! The following school year, I befriended 2 twin brothers that both trained freestyle Karate. It took me about half a year to convince my parents to allow me to train, but their classes were on the same days as baseball. So I had to "settle" for the straight Shotokan school taught by a 7th Dan Black Belt HOF'er and multi time champion! Man, am I glad I did. I obtained my purple belt, but I had to stop training due to school and work.

Fast forward 20 years. I took a "self defense" class thru work based in Hapkido, and I took a kickboxing class at a local gym. The spark ignited, and one day at my gym, I noticed a short, stocky man teaching 2 ladies in traditional gis. After he was done, I asked him what they were training, and he said to come to a class and find out. It is an open style of Karate based on Shorin Ryu and Shotokan. He trained under Master Okizaki (a student of Master Funakoshi) when he lived in Philadelphia and under Master Nakazata (SP??) while in Okinawa in the Marines.

I never really lost the desire. And now, as a 40 year old father of 2, I'm a 2nd Dan in this style. I'm now cross training in Kyusho, and I'm considering enrollling in some BJJ and/or Muay Thai classes soon.

[Lupin1]

I was 8 and I knew that if I learned a Martial Art, it would increase my chances of Zordon picking me to be the next Power Ranger. So basically, it was a resume building move.

I picked the style I did because it was a mostly free ($1 a lesson) program at the Boys and Girls Club and it was all my parents could afford. I came back to that particular program as an adult partially because it was a known entity and partially because it's still all I can afford (not that I would leave now even if I could afford a fancy shmancy school).

Started Judo because I wanted some grappling to add to my striking art. Really wanted to train BJJ, but all the places around here are wicked expensive whereas Judo is offered through my town's rec department for $40 a month. Stopped Judo because it seemed like someone was getting hurt every class and I can't afford to pay for medical treatment for a serious injury. Still would like to try BJJ, though.

[AmericanKenpoKarate]

Well when I was new here in America and I was watching TV as i was flipping the channel and i saw this karate Segment on TV and the karate group was called Flores Bros Kenpo Karate Studios and they were doing forms and technique i was amazed on what their doing I said to my self one day ill joined Flores Bros Kenpo Karate and I did and im having a blast

Also Their Instructor Sifu Jesus he explained the technique or forms step by step and by detail his like poetry in Motion when he explains it

So i choose Flores Bros Kenpo karate as my Martial Arts and Ive been training with them for 1 year and 6 months im a blue belt and im also member of the Black belt club and Swat Team

[ShotokanMaster]

i choose american kenpo and shotokan their effective