What are your reasons for being?

I'm a fairly young man at 41 years of age. I have seen a lot and have done a lot. I've been to many places. I have a variety of experiences. But I have never met anyone that I know of that began training in martial arts because want to learn the philosophy. There are those that leave because they don't want the philosophy. The philosophy and tradition often go along with the training. Is it necessary to learn in order to defend yourself? Perhaps not. Is it harmful to learn? No. Can it help you later in life. Possibly.

I train today because I like to. I enjoy the exercise. I enjoy the stress. I enjoy learning and sharing what I have learned. I enjoy learning about cultures that are different than mines. I'm not a doctor, but I like knowing about our anatomy. I love the accomplishments. I love to see my students mature and develop.

Initially when I began I wanted to be the next Bruce Lee. I wanted to be able to beat people up, especially being a small guy. I wanted to be this super human fighting machine....LOL I didn't know any better at the time. Later I enjoyed winning medals and trophies. I enjoyed beating guys bigger than me. Everyone was bigger than me. I'm a competitive person. But as I have matured my focus has changed.

You just hit on a pet peeve of mine and I hope it is a language problem, because I do enjoy some of your answers.

The only people I have ever heard refer to practicing or competing in Martial Arts as " playing " are sport TKD practitioners and ATA members. To refer to the Martial Arts as playing infers it is a game, it is not. It should be enjoyable but on a different level than say Basketball or Monopoly.

Sorry for the side track there.

I started when I was almost 14 as a way to gain confidence, loose weight, and stop getting the crap beat out of me weekly. I was one of the biggest in the school at the time and couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper bag with a sharp knife, but every tough guy had to take a shot at the big guy. Black Belt theater was on every Friday night and I was hooked. When my therapist suggested that I needed a hobby and to get some exercise I jumped at the first thing that came to mind, Karate. Well actually it turned out to be Chung Do Kwan, Tae kwon Do, at the time the only thing I knew about the Martial Arts was from the old Kung Fu movies and the television series Kung Fu. The first class was not where I needed to be for various reasons, but after a couple of months one of the black belts opened another school that was no longer affiliated with the first. That is when i became truly hooked and dedicated to the Martial Arts. That is also when I learned that TV Martial Arts and the real thing were at opposite ends of the spectrum. In some ways that Chung Do Kwan class is the best I have had. It was by far the most traditionally taught and oriented. I have nothing against competition, it does serve a purpose. I just don't think it should be the main focus of a Martial Arts class. I competed often for a time and enjoyed it immensely.

I know that was a bit rambling but all are reasons why I either joined a class or stayed with the Martial Arts in general.

That's a good question and sometimes I will tell a new student that the reasons why they started taking martial arts may change from those of when they originally started. That in itself is not bad because sometimes a student as they become more exposed to various aspects of a martial art start to develop an increased interest in some aspect that takes them that way. I reassure them that there is nothing wrong with this but at the same time not lose site of that which originally drew them to the study of martial arts so that they can form a stronger foundation and stay a little more grounded rather than just jumping around from one style, school, and instructor to the next. This is partly based on my own experience and I have what I refer to as the core reasons why I started to study martial arts and have continued to do so for these many years. First is fitness and health for me, both mental and the physical aspects, followed by self-defense followed by fighting and competition, and lastly an interest in history and culture and military science as well as teaching and coaching. I have noticed in my lengthy career and association with martial arts that all of these still remain for me as the primary reasons why I still study and train in martial arts except for competing which really does not hold much motivation for me any more.

Well...I think martial arts encompasses it all...physical training, self defense training, philosophy, etiquette, tradition and more...with out all of the aspects, to me it is not a martial art at all...but keep in mind I am a traditionalist more than anything else.

Why do I do martial arts? That is easy because it is in my blood and has been since 1978. The evolution you speak of is nothing new to me and I have seen several circles in the martial arts come and go in my time. To this day I just do what I can, with what I got and help people learn the martial arts properly.

I was being a Martial Artist for some physical and mental exercises, fitness and fairly is the self defense; some of these things are got my attention, besides I feel the worthiness of its Art, I enjoy it a lot because it impress me the way respect and discipline adopted on some means.

The values of its tradition are intellectually exercise to feel the presence of mildness’ on some aspects, the quality of its purposes and effectiveness of assembling with others although the impact of adjustments must conceptualize but it is a test how you deal with some trials to govern the real procedure of mind posture.

That’s it

I believe in teaching the most vulnerable people and/or the good people to protect themselves from the predators. I enjoy the exercise and knowledge that comes from martial arts, they segue into History, Philosphy, Religion and other cultures. And it is a good tool for training children. You could get these benefits from other activities, but, I have chosen this one.

what's the point in martial arts if it is used for self pleasure and fame (like a lot of people view it as) it would just be a sport then. i think theory and philosophy is in martial arts for some and for some it's not. so what is the point then? does man really need martial arts to survive or just to survive well off?

at first is was a developing of combat-the simplest, in timeline: body, natural objects thrown/hammed, man made object propelled/strike, man-made objects explode/shoot.

the difference between them all is effectiveness. the later in time line is more effective which would be now with bombs and guns (explode/shoot). what brings martial arts to these in my opinion is give this warfare a deeper meaning, with theory and philosophy. thus it flops over from being merely used for fighting to now much more other things.

my choice for body over others (a sword/gun/bow) is the natural bliss of it, the oldest weapon, always there, and yet still around and used today and probably always will be. unlike guns or swords that develop with technological advances.

it's deeper for me now, not just killing things. my body is the best way to connect with myself.

physically= used for defense. mentally= used in idea,theory,philosophy

you can used theses over for each one to vice versa!

the only word to describe all this in one unit of body/mind is for me to call it Martial arts.

I started because my brother was doing it and I helped him with a little bit and started liking it myself. I was also bullied at the time, so I saw the added benefit there. Now I do it for no other reason than I love to train and compete. I also know that as I get older the competition part will no longer matter and it will all be about the training and striving to get better.

Because i wanted to duh(: