What's your martial arts story?

[Marvin Covar]

Before I started martial arts, I was a bully. I tried to get in the face of someone who knew how to fight, he dropped me with one roundhouse to the body. From there I started to train with the intention of getting revenge. As I trained I got my ass kicked in the gym a lot, which really mellowed me out. Martial arts became a lifelong thing for me and knowing how to fight made me avoid street fights. I don’t know whatever happened to that kid who dropped me, but if I ever see him again I would shake his hand and thank him for putting me on this path.

So that's my story. Why I started and why I continue to do so to this day. What's yours?

 

[ROcknrollracing]

Got a karate uniform for Christmas as a kid. Did not even want to go at first. Went and fell in love with doing it.

 

[zapataxiv]

my dad was into boxing and martial arts but not seriously
he showed me yo hold my hands up and punch and kick
but what really got me was power rangers and that led to kung full movies and DBZ

as a kid I was obsessed

plus my big brother was into UFC he had the tapes of the early UFCs he would always lecture me drunkenly about how Tank Abbot was the best fighter in the world
we would also watch the big boxing ppvs
and all the kids in my neighborhood wtestled and boxes and loved WWE


so growing up I was surrounded by it, but as a kid I as a tma nut so I tried to be different from the other kids talking about death points andshaolin shit



I didn't really fall in love with boxing until I was a teen.


a kid moved into our neighborhood from LA he had been training since he was young at some pretty serious boxing gyms.

to get respect he basically said he would fight all of us 1 to 1.

he koed a couple dudes and held his own with the big homie who was like to us

I signed up for boxing a week later

 

[Azure]

Did a little bit of Karate as a kid and when I was in my 30's and out of shape I joined a Judo club just to get into shape...18 years later I am still at it

 

[teamventure09]

It's very simple.

I'm a high-functioning autistic. Most of my social life thus far consisted of me being infantilized, treated like a problem for existing and then crucified for standing up for myself.

Didn't help that my parents were more concerned with raising "well-behaved" kids than mentally healthy and self-confident ones.

Soon as I moved out, I started looking for combat sports gyms, found a Muay Thai place and the rest is history.

I tend to get into a lot more trouble now because I'm actually standing my ground and not shrinking away from everything. In fact I have had many people lately call me things like "bully"/"sociopath"/"malignant narcissist" etc.

I take them all as compliments. Other people's feelings about what's acceptable and what isn't are no longer my concern. I'm free.

Thank you for sharing. You are an inspiration.

 

[Cole train]

Dreamed of becoming pro, got lit up as an ammy, quit mma and went to college

Happiest iv ever been lol

 

[RemyR]

Like most youngsters I was intrigued by martial arts so my parents signed me up a karate dojo at 13. I was lucky in that was a legit gym called "Koei-Kan" and emphasized full contact sparring with padded gear.

When I was 14 I joined the wrestling team because my friend's brother was on it and told us if we really wanted to challenge ourselves and get tough join wrestling. Well he was right and that became my primary focus till I was 18. I still did koei kan in my off season and around that time a then little known fighter was being talked about at my gym that was knocking people out in the UFC who also got his start from koei-kan. That fighter was Chuck Liddel, and that was my introduction to MMA.

I jacked my ankle up sprawling funny my senior year in districts before states and couldn't compete. There went any dreams I had of collegiate wrestling. After my final wrestling season I found a local shoot fighting (think Pancrase and the Shamrocks) gym. I signed up and thought it was awesome that I could do both striking and grappling at the same time. Had my first ammy fight the summer I graduated high school due to wrestling and striking already for years. Kept with it and had a 6-2 record as an amateur in some absolutely batshit crazy events due to how unregulated the sport was back then. Afterwards went 2-2 as a pro. Got badly KO'd in my final fight facing a guy who was very open about all the roids he was taking. Nice guy and not going to fighter bash as he wound up signed with the UFC and WEC for a few fights.

Called it quits because I was also going into firefighting and realized I can't have 2 jobs that are gonna fuck up my body and firefighting had a hell of a lot better benefits like a pension and actually being able to have money to live on.

Now at the age of 40 I still do BJJ and striking but mostly stick to grappling. Help train some of the younger fighters get ready for their fights or comps. Been a long fucking road.

 

[DoctorTaco]

I fought all the time as a kid. At school, in the neighborhood, I was a little shit head. I loved power rangers, ninja turtles, Surf ninjas, all the martial arts ninja stuff from the 90s.

I stopped getting in fights in high school but didn’t start training combat sports til I was in my early 20s. I fought mma and then started coaching kickboxing for that gym. Eventually I moved to the city and started boxing. Same
Path, had a couple fights and started coaching there and at an mma gym.

Eventually I was as able to hustle enough private lessons to quit my day job. Overall I
Spent 5 years training and working at the boxing gym until I was offered a head boxing coach position at the mma gym. I Took that gig and I’ve been there ever since.

I’ve been a full time coach for 6-7 years now, part time for a few more than that and collectively training for 20 years.

 

[Patrick Jane]

My parents forced me to do one sport when i was a child, but i could chose which one. I didn't like team sports because they were full of arguments and people blaming each other, so i didn't want to play team sports. That left me with only 2 options: Judo or Kickboxing. I chose Judo and didn't like it but stuck with it because it was the least terrible option. At age 12, i was taught a hold called Waki Gatame which i loved and that was the start of me enjoying Judo.

 

[Tuvatuva]

Before I started martial arts, I was a bully. I tried to get in the face of someone who knew how to fight, he dropped me with one roundhouse to the body. From there I started to train with the intention of getting revenge. As I trained I got my ass kicked in the gym a lot, which really mellowed me out. Martial arts became a lifelong thing for me and knowing how to fight made me avoid street fights. I don’t know whatever happened to that kid who dropped me, but if I ever see him again I would shake his hand and thank him for putting me on this path.

So that's my story. Why I started and why I continue to do so to this day. What's yours?

Interesting story because most people seem to get into martial arts because they were bullied, not because they want to be better at bullying haha. Good that you mellowed out. Training also seems to have that effect on a lot of people. I've seen tough guys come into the gym and they either chill out after getting beaten up, or they quit because their egos can't handle it.

I got into it because I was bullied and felt weak most of my life. My parents didn't want me to learn martial arts because they thought it was too dangerous but my dad didn't teach me to fight despite getting mad at me for getting bullied. When I had the opportunity to learn judo at 14, I jumped on it and told my parents I really wanted to do it no matter what. That was a big change in my life. Through judo I also got into general fitness and lifting. I used to be a fat slob before. My parents still don't understand how important that a fat, antisocial, loser kid who was getting bullied learned a sport/martial art. I tell them it was one of the biggest turning points in my teenager years and they laugh lol. Like they thought I was going to magically toughen up and lose weight all by myself.

I still wanted to learn how to fight "for real" so the advent of MMA in my late teens and early 20s captured my imagination. But there were no MMA gyms at the time so I took BJJ, Judo, and boxing separately. I wanted to learn kickboxing or muay thai for striking but there were no gyms for that either. I eventually just fell in love with boxing for some reason and ditched everything else. I slowly lost interest in MMA as well. Ironically now I'm in the place for muay thai (thailand) and I'm not that into it. Boxing is my one true love with judo being my first crush.

Now I'm older and injured and other things in life started to take more prominence so I'm not really into martial arts as much but I still think about boxing as sort of a mental exercise.

 

[Adamant]

Got fat and out of shape and the only thing that interested me was BJJ. Not only do I get to lose weight and get back in shape, I get to learn some BJJ. So I feel I'm getting something useful out of it, unlike say, Crossfit. To me, I see the gym as a waste of time (by itself). I actually want to learn something I can use if need be.

I also seem to have a lot of pent up aggression so BJJ helps me with that. And, I don't know if it's weird to say this but I almost hope there comes a day where I get to fold somebody up like a pretzel. I don't mean training partners, and I don't mean as a bully. I mean either in self defense or to someone talking shit.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

And yet, if you saw me exercising my new mentality, I'd probably have to badly hurt you.

Don't pretend to support me. You fucks love hearing about these self-development stories until you see the results, then you think you get to try to be "heroes" or someshit.

You need to grow up lol

 

[WDSTK]

Saw Rocky. Wanted to be pro boxer as I had low self esteem. Drove 1 hour to and inner city boxing gym instead of college classes and almost flunked out of Engineering. Spent several thousand $$ I earned over several years working after school jobs on college classes that I had to repeat. Took me an extra 1.5 years to graduate. Mixed up priorities.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Why? Because I understand how things fucking work? Because I'm not a moron?

You see people putting others in their place because they fucking can and you think you get to try to do something about it. Suck it up.

You’ll understand when you’re older. You seem to have a lot of pent up anger and frustration.

 

[zapataxiv]

You’ll understand when you’re older. You seem to have a lot of pent up anger and frustration.

but he's in the right place
slightly autistic, pent up rage, chip on your shoulder
welcome to the internet what do you think about the jews??

 

[NoSmilez]

My brother Eric is an American kickboxing pro, helped by Kurt(me) in his quest for glory. But when we went to Thailand to take on legendary fighter Dong Go. The opponent viciously beats my brother and leaves him paralyzed. Swearing vengeance, I tracks down master Chan and begins learning the sport by myself while also getting caught up in criminal intrigue involving thuggish crime boss Freddy Li.

 

[4daLuLZ]

Trying to act cool with a bunch of friends, I broke into somebody’s house looking to jack some stuff.
Homeowner and his kid caught me and thrashed me.
As his foot was repeatedly bouncing off my skull, I thought how graceful and powerful he looked. How loving and encouraging his father looked as he foamed from the mouth yelling “Kill this bum !!!”

After I finished my rehab and a court mandated stint in juvie hall, I approached them again and begged to be taught their family martial art.
Over the years, it was a win win for everyone involved.
I learned the martial code and they saved a bundle in training dummies and heavy bags.

Tragedy struck when Tanaka Jr. slipped on the stairs and somehow shot himself in the back of the head 5 times while overdosing on a fistful of sleeping pills.

After I returned from a grief stricken sabbatical to Daytona Beach and New Orleans, I was then elevated to chief representative of Tanaka Do and their heir presumptive.

I then joined the army and then went AWOL for shits n giggles to Hong Kong……..basically yeah. That’s how I started.

 

[listrahtes]

I tend to get into a lot more trouble now because I'm actually standing my ground and not shrinking away from everything. In fact I have had many people lately call me things like "bully"/"sociopath"/"malignant narcissist" etc.

I take them all as compliments. Other people's feelings about what's acceptable and what isn't are no longer my concern. I'm free.

You are not free, you are just a high functioning narcicist romanticising his bully behaviour because he is "autistic".
Its the new gig of this generation. Make yourself a victim and look for oppressors to fight against. Its a 5year olds mindset who has a chip on his shoulder and others will have to pay for your abusive behaviour.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Trying to act cool with a bunch of friends, I broke into somebody’s house looking to jack some stuff.
Homeowner and his kid caught me and thrashed me.
As his foot was repeatedly bouncing off my skull, I thought how graceful and powerful he looked. How loving and encouraging his father looked as he foamed from the mouth yelling “Kill this bum !!!”

After I finished my rehab and a court mandated stint in juvie hall, I approached them again and begged to be taught their family martial art.
Over the years, it was a win win for everyone involved.
I learned the martial code and they saved a bundle in training dummies and heavy bags.

Tragedy struck when Tanaka Jr. slipped on the stairs and somehow shot himself in the back of the head 5 times while overdosing on a fistful of sleeping pills.

After I returned from a grief stricken sabbatical to Daytona Beach and New Orleans, I was then elevated to chief representative of Tanaka Do and their heir presumptive.

I then joined the army and then went AWOL for shits n giggles to Hong Kong……..basically yeah. That’s how I started.

 

[4daLuLZ]

Senzo Tanaka’s the shid !
His daughter, Mai Lee……good fuk !