Are you the only MA hobbyist within your friends?

[JazzKicker]

In a word, yes.

I have a few far-flung training buddies who are still at it, some I keep in touch with on FB.

Most have aged out of it, 'retired'. My brother, in his 60's, does a little Tai Chi.

I only know one guy locally, a spouse of one of my wife's friends, who's a Shotokan black belt.

Honestly once MMA came along, I think arts like karate were no longer of interest to adults. More than ever, especially with TKD, it's a kid's game.

[DWx]

Reading this thread makes me feel odd that all of my closest friends also do Taekwon-Do. I guess it's because I grew up doing it rather than coming to it in later life so I have probably known my TKD circle longer than anyone else except from a handful of friends from primary school.

[DWx]

I had this problem a lot when I was younger, I did have friends that joined, but none of them seemed to last very long... as mentioned above, I did also become friends with people I have trained with.

Now that I am older and run my own class its harder to become friends with the students and maintain the instructor-student relationship, don't get me wrong I'm friendly with them and we do have a type of friendship, but I will always be their instructor. Only exception is my first student, he became one of my best friends and is now the second instructor in my club.

I totally get that regarding the student instructor relationship. Though I find myself becoming friends with other instructors from sister schools rather than the students. Admittedly we don't see each other that often but I'm pretty close with some of them now.

[KarateKen]

are you the only martial arts hobbyist in your circle of friends/family?

Do you feel that you can only share the interest with people that train with you, or do you have friends that share same interest?

most of my friends are fanatics of Football and Basketball. I am pretty much outkast from their conversations once they get on a roll of talking about their sports (which can go on for hours lol) they are still my good friends, but its what can keep me the black sheep of the group when discussing hobbies.

Outside of the people I train with I don't have any friends who currently practice. One who used to but stopped years ago. A few others who like watching UFC but have never trained. No immediate family has any training though some distant relatives took Karate as children.

[karatepastor]

As a pastor, I am the only one in my church besides my own sons who train with me. So I kind of stick out like a sore thumb in that way as I use martial arts analogies and sermons occasionally. Then I have a secondary friend group that is made up mostly because of the martial arts training. There are a lot of really great spiritual analogies that come from the Martial Arts, though I try to use them someone sparingly because a lot of my congregation do not have a background in the Martial Arts.

[sensei8]

As a pastor, I am the only one in my church besides my own sons who train with me. So I kind of stick out like a sore thumb in that way as I use martial arts analogies and sermons occasionally. Then I have a secondary friend group that is made up mostly because of the martial arts training. There are a lot of really great spiritual analogies that come from the Martial Arts, though I try to use them someone sparingly because a lot of my congregation do not have a background in the Martial Arts.

I hear what you're saying because I've trained quite a lot of Pastors, and not just Pastors and their kids that I wasn't a member of their church, but Pastors and their kids that I WAS a member of their church. I once even had a satellite dojo AT one of the churches I was a member of until the Pastor moved away. I never sought them out, they came to me of their own volition, and I didn't teach all of them that came to me because, imho, they weren't serious in their tone.

[Spartacus Maximus]

Personal experience has taught me to avoid the subject of my training, keep to a strict minimum those who are aware of it and keep it completely secret from everyone and anyone else.

That sounds really lonely. What experiences have lead you to that conclusion?

It may seem lonely, but martial arts has always been something very personal Thant only those who train as seriously as I could possibly relate to. It didn’t take long that mentioning or discussing it with anyone else was just a waste of time and could even give people impressions that I do not need. I go as far as avoiding the subject, denying any involvement and even knowledge beyond what the average person thinks they know about martial arts. It isn’t too far from the truth that for the average person, the martial arts are either a children’s game or entertainment to show off and appear in cheap things shows or movies. At worst they’ll think you must be not right and ridiculed for it, or that you’re some kind of thug begging for the opportunity to beat someone up; worse still that your “fancy nancy” moves won’t work on them. I have no time to waste correcting that kind of idiotic thinking and not at all Interested in changing anyone’s mind or convincing them of the “good” it gives me. It’s none of their business, dagnamit!

[karatepastor]

As a pastor, I am the only one in my church besides my own sons who train with me. So I kind of stick out like a sore thumb in that way as I use martial arts analogies and sermons occasionally. Then I have a secondary friend group that is made up mostly because of the martial arts training. There are a lot of really great spiritual analogies that come from the Martial Arts, though I try to use them someone sparingly because a lot of my congregation do not have a background in the Martial Arts.

I hear what you're saying because I've trained quite a lot of Pastors, and not just Pastors and their kids that I wasn't a member of their church, but Pastors and their kids that I WAS a member of their church. I once even had a satellite dojo AT one of the churches I was a member of until the Pastor moved away. I never sought them out, they came to me of their own volition, and I didn't teach all of them that came to me because, imho, they weren't serious in their tone.

It was a pastor who got me doing karate specifically. He had amassed a really large group of homeschool kids, including 2 of mine. He said to me one day, “You we’re a Marne rght? Didn’t you say you did Aikido or something? You’rea boxer? Can you help me teach?” … he did a bunch of privates to get me up to a level in Tang Soo Do where I could help with the younger kids.. then I was hooked and took it further.

[Spartacus Maximus]

As far as discussing training the only of any value was with family. A distant relative but still close enough to trust and his involvement with Chinese martial arts was quite similar to mine. Both of us began or got involved in martial arts around the same age. Him in Chuan fa, mostly Hung Gar; and I in Japanese and later Okinawan karate. Never met often, but whenever he was around, we talked about martial arts. If there is one thing I can take away from this is that those who don’t train don’t know and cannot ever understand. The ones who do may have something to share or worth listening to, but always, always let them mention the subject first. Everyone and anyone else will just be dumbfounded by what they cannot understand and respond with ignorance and stupidity or awkward silence. If you want to go through that, good luck. I’m not loooking for students and Life’s too short to try to convince anybody I haven’t gone completely in insane with what I love to do with any free time I can get.