Just how long have you been a martial arts geek?

[Juan]

When I was about 6 I saw my first ever martial arts movie on television and I was hooked. I remember the next day play fighting with a neighborhood friend, he picked up a stick and I said fine that makes us even since I know karate. And I totally thought I knew karate. Well this kid proceded to whip my ass without mercy with said stick until I went home crying to my mom. Still, I fell in love with MA ever since that day. From there I took up ninjitsu when I was in the 5th grade with famed Grandmaster Frank Dux. I did that for a year and then stopped only to start again in '98 when I discovered Capoeira.

[Juan]

loved the HK movies and still enjoy them, but my dad, who was into taiji and other MA, would always say something about that's all fake that kinda ruined the fantasy for me. instead, i thought pro wrestling was the REALS for a while. Tony Atlas and Andre the Giant were probably my favorites. my brother and friends and i did countless hours of fake wrestling because of that for a couple of years.

Yeah, WWF was the bomb. My favorite was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat because he was supposed to be a martial artist. Well, he was my second favorite after Hulk Hogan of course. Back then it was all about Hulkamania.

[Dmitri]

When I was 10 a guy stopped by our school and said we could go to this club after school for some sports classes (it was all free those days I think) - it was a choice between a few things like basketball, fencing, volleyball, etc., don't remember them all now. I went with fencing (rapier) and stuck with it for about 1.5 years IIRC. The "martial nature" of it attracted me I guess -- the Alexander Dumas' books were a huge influence in my childhood...
Then I discovered there was a sambo/judo classes near my house (sport only; the combat stuff was forbidden to the mere mortals in the Soviet times), unfortunately I don't remember how or why I got interested in that... Remember going to the sports store and buying that heavy double-weave judo gi...
So, did that for about 2 years and then found out there was this tough little Chechen guy teaching Kyokushinkai underground (it was illegal then; I still don't know where he learned it) -- and by then I had watched Enter The Dragon and some other smuggled flicks of similar nature (on VHS), stuff with Chuck Norris, the Rambo movies, etc. and so, of course, I just had to "do karate", because it had punches and kicks and judo/sport sambo didn't. The first two or three classes I did nothing but hold a stance until the weighted leg would shake, then 20 knuckle pushups, then switch legs and stand again. I was completely hooked, that was the coolest thing ever, to persevere and stuff. You know, just like in those movies...

[chud]

Heh, heh. I started in '78. For me it was the old "Deadly Hands of Kung Fu" comic/ magazine and the Count Dante ads...

Me too, and anything and everything to do with Bruce Lee.
I was definitely a victim of the kung fu craze of the 70's.

[Chris McKinley]

Since 1975. I was 6 and started TKD for basic bully prevention. Anybody know which office I go to to get my time back?

[shawnsegler]

Hey, Jules. Zen in the martial arts by Joe Hyams was one of my first martial arts books too. I still pick up a used copy everyonce in awhile. It's chock full of teh wisdom.

Best,

S

[everything]

I picked up a used copy of Zen in MA once. Good read. Come to think of it, I think a friend loaned me his Tao of JKD book and that's probably what sparked my more serious geeky interest, much more so than the movies. Bruce's terse, fascinating notes that seemed to also apply to my favorite sport (soccer/football) and pretty much anything else really got me intellectually curious about all of it. After that, I read some of his little books "basic skills" or whatnot, and wanted to really know for myself what he was talking about.

Then, getting in a little too much of a shoving match playing soccer seemed to come into it as well. I was pushing some giant dude a little instead of just playing the ball, and he shoved me right down. Afterwards he apologized but that ticked me off. I figure I should look into all that balance stuff from taijiquan. Now I think soccer players seem so ridiculous selling the fouls all the time. Doesn't happen in hockey with slams against the frigging boards.

[cerebus]

"Zen in the Martial Arts" is one of my all-time favorite books. And yeah, the old "Kung Fu" TV series was another major influence on me. I was all about the peaceful, non-fighting, but-I-can-kick-your-ass-if-I-have-to thing...

[tdprater]

Am I the only one to have learned about Bruce Lee from "No Retreat, No Surrender"?

Watching as an adult made me realize that it was just a huge coca-cola commercial. The fights were still better than Karate Kid. Plus, film debut of JCVD!!!1!

[H2O]

When I was about 8 or 9, this bully started picking on me. Right after that, the school had a bookfair, and I picked up a book called for, "Karate for Young People". I practiced the hell outta that shit for about two weeks, then challenged the bully to a fight. He came at me and I did a high block and reverse punch to the nose. I dropped into a deep ass Karate stance and everything. I bloodied the kids nose and he never messed with me again. I was hooked.

Of course, when I tried the same shit two years later I got the living shit beat outta me, but that's a different story.

[cerebus]

When I was about 8 or 9, this bully started picking on me. Right after that, the school had a bookfair, and I picked up a book called for, "Karate for Young People". I practiced the hell outta that shit for about two weeks, then challenged the bully to a fight. He came at me and I did a high block and reverse punch to the nose. I dropped into a deep ass Karate stance and everything. I bloodied the kids nose and he never messed with me again. I was hooked.

Of course, when I tried the same shit two years later I got the living shit beat outta me, but that's a different story.

LOL! Ha ha! I did the same thing! "Karate for Young People" by Russell Kozuki (who was kind of the "Bruce Tegner" of the 1980s). I'd already done some basic Judo with a friend's father and wanted to learn how to punch & kick. This kid who outweighed me by about 15 lb (which is a HELL of alot when you're 9 or 10) picked a fight with me and I side-kicked him in the face! Then we were in punching range and it turned into windmilling til the teacher broke it up. But for about a second there I felt like I was the second coming of Bruce Lee...

[H2O]

Yup, that's the book.

[Ron Panunto]

Started when I was a preteen back in the mid 1950's with Judo and Juijitsu adds in the magazines and then the entire Bruce Tegner series - been at it ever since.

[shawnsegler]

Were those the ones where the one guy gets sand kicked in his face by a bully who precedes to take his woman?

[cerebus]

Were those the ones where the one guy gets sand kicked in his face by a bully who precedes to take his woman?

Those were the Charles Atlas ads. Sometimes around the 70s Atlas jumped on the martial arts bandwagon and added short "courses" in Boxing, Wrestling & Jiujitsu to his bodybuilding course.