What made you get into martial arts?

[KarateKen]

I did it for the money.

You were making money learning karate?

I've heard "you need to spend money to make money" so I was spending and spending and spending but never made anything.

All joking aside, no, not directly. However, training martial arts taught me respect, focus, disciple, patience, and helped me mature greatly as well as improved my physical health. So, in a way, it was an investment in quality of life.

I started because as a teenager in school I was targeted by bullies where I was repeatedly physically attacked, threatened and assaulted. I didn't want to feel helpless anymore.

[Zaine]

That's a good way of looking at it. I don't think I've ever really considered martial arts as an investment into myself, though that is what it is when I break it down.

[Drew]

The need to eat lunch when I was in elementary school.

As a second grader, I was bullied every day at school by the same group of 6th graders. Everyday they'd get me, mostly whenever I was in the boys' restroom, at every chance that they could to take my lunch money.

They'd corner me and give me a nice gut shot.

I'd get home after school and raid the fridge. Shortly, my raiding the fridge caught my mom's attention. She'd question me, however, I never told her the real reason for as long as I could.

I told my mom. She went to the school to raise all terror. Mom paid for lunches by the week; she'd go to the school every Monday. So I had no money to be robbed from me but I was still being bullied.

So, mom enrolled me into a local Karate school...the rest, as they say, is history.

.... Then what did you do?

[sensei8]

The need to eat lunch when I was in elementary school.

As a second grader, I was bullied every day at school by the same group of 6th graders. Everyday they'd get me, mostly whenever I was in the boys' restroom, at every chance that they could to take my lunch money.

They'd corner me and give me a nice gut shot.

I'd get home after school and raid the fridge. Shortly, my raiding the fridge caught my mom's attention. She'd question me, however, I never told her the real reason for as long as I could.

I told my mom. She went to the school to raise all terror. Mom paid for lunches by the week; she'd go to the school every Monday. So I had no money to be robbed from me but I was still being bullied.

So, mom enrolled me into a local Karate school...the rest, as they say, is history.

.... Then what did you do?

What did I do?? Not much. What else could I do?! I did my best to defend myself against them, but as a beginner in the MA, I was no match against one let alone against all of them.

The good news was that they'd be going to Jr High School next semester and out of my hair.

[KarateKen]

Is being bullied in school a common reason people start martial arts? I know it exists, but how common is it? I thought most people signed up because they wanted to break boards and show off, or their parents made them do it. But I don't know.

[Zaine]

One of the reasons that I joined was because I was getting bullied, and I've met plenty of people who joined for the same reason. I can't speak to how common it is, but my anecdotal experience says that it isn't exactly uncommon.

[DarthPenguin]

Is being bullied in school a common reason people start martial arts? I know it exists, but how common is it? I thought most people signed up because they wanted to break boards and show off, or their parents made them do it. But I don't know.

I would say that over here it used to be the main reason for kids taking them up - though i would also say that the training has 'softened over time' since i was little. I would say now that more kids seem to take them up for fun/exercise/parental nudge - maybe due to fistfights (even in self defence) becoming less socially acceptable and common. People used to have a little more honour i found - if someone picked a fight and got a kicking then it was viewed as cost of doing business. Nowadays they come back with 10 friends and weapons.

[Drew]

Is being bullied in school a common reason people start martial arts? I know it exists, but how common is it? I thought most people signed up because they wanted to break boards and show off, or their parents made them do it. But I don't know.

I got into martial arts because of aesthetics. There is a unique beauty in the lead leg thrust/snap side kick, and in the teep. It's something I spend some time contemplating every day. That's special.

Of course, there was always the utility.

[KarateKen]

Was anyone here inspirited to train martial arts because of the movies? Or a TV show?

[Fat Cobra]

Was anyone here inspirited to train martial arts because of the movies? Or a TV show?

Yes, I first started TKD in the 1980s because of the karate kid movie. I only took it for a year, but I really liked it. I was later inspired by the Steven Seagall and Jean Claude Van Damme movies (and are still inspired by them, even though the type of karate I do now is much different than their movies).