What do you practice martial arts for?

[tallgeese]

Great question, and one that I constantly tell people to ask themselves as they go thru training. I started for the fight. Period. I wanted that. Then, I grew to love certain aspects of it, moved thru a fitness phase, into competition, back to just staying in shape.

Always keeping an eye towards to combative. My job makes sure that I always keep that in at least the back of my mind.

But, it's not really the primary reason any more. Now it's about the art of it. I think that at the core that art must inform drive your combative, but if all I were still interested in was the "fight" aspect I would have been done a long time ago.

[bushido_man96]

Initially, I got into the Martial Arts for the self-defense aspects. As I continued to train, though, it grew to become the physical challenge of performing more and more challenging techniques, especially kicking techniques.

I'm a lot like tallgeese, though, in that with my line of work, I always keep the idea of the combative aspects of the Martial Arts in mind when training.

[blade1116]

I practice my art(Hapkido) for the peace it grants me, the confidence it gives me, the love of the style, to teach my daughters to defend themselves, the fitness of practicing and the Daywalker needs to stay fit because they do exist.

[JR 137]

I practice my art(Hapkido) for the peace it grants me, the confidence it gives me, the love of the style, to teach my daughters to defend themselves, the fitness of practicing and the Daywalker needs to stay fit because they do exist.

If you were a daywalker you'd have said "we do exist" instead of "they do exist."

I started training for the sole purpose of handing out beat-downs. After a few classes, I realized there was a lot more to it. I resumed training for several reasons (in no particular order)...

Lower my blood pressure

Stress relief

Stop looking like I'm pregnant

Hand out some beat-downs

Take some heat-downs

Get an hour or so away from my beautiful wife and lovely daughters a couple times a week

There's nothin like the feeling after a good sparring session. What is it about beating each other up that's so much fun? More fun after the fact, but fun nonetheless. Ok, maybe not beating each other up like in fight club, but mixing it up.

[IcemanSK]

I do it for the chicks man, the chicks. Seriously tho.

I began in high school, in part, because of a bully problem I had in junior high. That problem went away as I hit high school (thankfully). But I fell in love with my Art. My master made me feel as if I could do anything I put my mind to. I made friends at the dojang (some that I still have 30+ years later). I love being able to push myself to do more physically. The SD benefits are nice: I've never needed to use them (the physical ones, anyway) so I consider that a side benefit from my training. I realize that for others, its a higher priority.

I love teching the next generations of students the Art that I love.

[Spodo Komodo]

I first entered the dojo because my parents thought it would be character-building. I soon gave up because I had no interest in it. I then came back to Martial Arts because I was spending up to 6 hrs a day meditating and I was starting to pile on the pounds. My time spent training my mind meshed with the traditional training in Karate and Iaido and it became a part of my life. The joy of movement - the satisfaction in simply planting a foot as near to perfectly as possible, the feeling you get when you can feel the energy transfer smoothly from the sole of the foot to the skin of the knuckles - that is why I train. It is similar to the feeling I used to get from rock climbing but I don't have to travel to the other end of the county with thousands of pounds of equipment to practice it.

[mazzybear]

When I first started karate as a child, it was because I watched the karate kid and wanted to do what he did I only lasted a few years though (got to 5th Kyu.) After going off and doing what kids do, I returned after some 26 years and I've fallen in love with it this time.

Now I do it for:

-Self dicipline

-Fitness

-The fun we have each class

-Self defence (although I hope I'm never in a sitution that requires it)

-The confidence it gives me in other aspects of life

I know a lot of you say rank doesn't matter but, a big reason for me is I WANT to earn the right to wear Shodan and hopefully next year I can do that.

Mo.

[OneAndOnly]

-fitness

-confidence

-self defence

-looking like bruce lee

-love of east asian culture

-simple love of martial arts and it's history

-being batman

Really good answers so far, but "looking like Bruce lee" takes the cake haha

i thought this kind of thread needed some humor in case everyone had the same answers like, was bullied, saw jackie chan, weight loss, etc. (but really, who wouldn't wanna have that kinda physique?)

But if you want more of a serious serious answer. I don't know how to describe it. Can I say that maybe it's also the feeling you get when you step on the floor? do you all feel this feeling or is it just me? freshly cleaned dobok/gi. you bow to your grandmaster/sensei. The smell of sweat and training equipment. you do your deep breathing exercises, and it's like you're soaking up all the history from previous martial artists that have walked the same path as you, for hundreds of years. wearing the same uniform, doing the same techniques, the same traditions. passed down, to you, and you will eventually pass it down to the next journeyman. you just zone out, get tunnel vision, and focus on the snap of your uniform at the end of every movement in your hyung/kata. That one hour, where i'm in another world, and everything is alright. that one hour of serenity and bliss, that "feeling" is why I train.

[Luther unleashed]

-fitness

-confidence

-self defence

-looking like bruce lee

-love of east asian culture

-simple love of martial arts and it's history

-being batman

Really good answers so far, but "looking like Bruce lee" takes the cake haha

i thought this kind of thread needed some humor in case everyone had the same answers like, was bullied, saw jackie chan, weight loss, etc. (but really, who wouldn't wanna have that kinda physique?)

But if you want more of a serious serious answer. I don't know how to describe it. Can I say that maybe it's also the feeling you get when you step on the floor? do you all feel this feeling or is it just me? freshly cleaned dobok/gi. you bow to your grandmaster/sensei. The smell of sweat and training equipment. you do your deep breathing exercises, and it's like you're soaking up all the history from previous martial artists that have walked the same path as you, for hundreds of years. wearing the same uniform, doing the same techniques, the same traditions. passed down, to you, and you will eventually pass it down to the next journeyman. you just zone out, get tunnel vision, and focus on the snap of your uniform at the end of every movement in your hyung/kata. That one hour, where i'm in another world, and everything is alright. that one hour of serenity and bliss, that "feeling" is why I train.

Hey, I wasn't knocking the answer. It's was funny. This post was a very down to earth description though, I hear you, the feeling is similar to what I would describe. Nice post!

[OneAndOnly]

Hey, I wasn't knocking the answer. It's was funny. This post was a very down to earth description though, I hear you, the feeling is similar to what I would describe. Nice post!

don't worry, i didn't think you were