The sickly child

[Darth Rock&Roll]

Why is it that with virtually every martial arts bio you read for someone over 60 or dead, it invariably begins with: as a child, he was sickly, or asthmatic or ill, or etc.

is this a cultural thing I am unaware of yet or haven't bothered looking at?
Is this supposed to lend credence to the Kungfu from a Chinese cultural perspective in that you go from sickly to kungfu master if you learn what so and so did?

someone cane me with this one here. It's getting weird reading it all the time, I'm starting to wonder if TCMA wasn't just all propagated by sickly manga nerd fans! lol j/k but you know what I mean...

[mixjourneyman]

here is a twist on it for ya: My teacher's grandfather was taken to his teacher as a child by his parents because they wanted to avoid having him grow up to be an opium smoker (so they signed a contract with Zhang saying that he was allowed to train him very hard)

[Chris Fleming]

I was a fairly sickly and weak child before I started training. That kind of thing can compel a person to really excel when they see how far they have come and where they can go.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

here is a twist on it for ya: My teacher's grandfather was taken to his teacher as a child by his parents because they wanted to avoid having him grow up to be an opium smoker (so they signed a contract with Zhang saying that he was allowed to train him very hard)

see, now that makes sense to me! lol

Chris-
I understand exactly what you are saying, but it seems ubiquitous is what I am perplexed with.

[Alexander]

It seems to me like it's one of those little tidbits added in after the death of a famous person. Right after the stories of shooting qi out of his fingertips, he was also mentioned as being sickly and weak.

In short, I think they are probably mostly BS. I was a short shrimpy asthmatic kid for many years.. and then puberty and weight lifting happened.

[gosao]

Yeah come to think of it.. you never hear a story like.. Today at 90yrs old... master Lee was a healthy and freakishly strong kid that would bully and beat up all the other students for their lunch money... One day he decided to increase his advantage over all the other little kids by learning hsing I cuz hsing I was for killers... He never took up tai chi because that was for wimps...and master Lee was never no wimp!

[Michael]

Lots of people give up on new habits, including martial arts and internal arts, because they are unable to readily observe the benefits and can not justify all the effort. If you are sick or weak, it is much easier to see improvement, which happens all the time to me when teaching qigong. People who are relatively healthy or unable to observe their current health problems have a hard time finding motivation to begin and maintain their practice. It's actually easier for sick people IME.

[Darthwing Teorist]

I too was a sickly child. I had a difficult birth that affected my left side, especially my leg. Also, as a kid I was more interested in reading than playing soccer with my friends. But I liked more adventurous plays: climbing, swimming, playfighting with sticks etc.

My aunt says that martial arts helped me overcome a lot of physical challenges.


PS: Maybe a lot of physically challenged kids were drawn to martial arts because they felt more insecure. I saw a video about an UK MMA fighter who said that he started because some confrontations that he had and that he wanted to get over his fear of violence.

PPS: Miyamoto Musashi did not sound as a sickly child: according to Thomas Cleary, he was the leader of a gang of kids. His dad was a samurai, he was training him. And then, he killed a man when he was 13. In his adult life he was reknown for his strength. So, at least this one seemed to be quite the opposite. But he was living in a warrior culture, so martial arts were mandatory. Same for the Spartans.

[mixjourneyman]

Darth Swollen: I think the sickly child thing has some historical veracity. People in many parts of China during the early 20th century did not have proper nutrition or very good standards of living, so it is not so outrageous to have a bunch of sickly children being able to use physical cultivation as a method of obtaining better health. Of course that is just postulation on my part and I'm prepared to be wrong about it

[jasonf]

In China it is common sense that most people who get into the Martial Arts have some health ailment to overcome.
My teacher Wang Yong Nan was shot twice in the stomach durring the cultural revolution, he lost a portion of his liver and suffered some other organ damage, he took up Qi Gong and martial arts to try and keep himself strong and alive. In his mid 60's now and damn strong.
I-mon on this board got me into standing posture to help some back problems after I met him in a hospital in China.
If its not broke people won't fix it...there is a lot of motivation to learn about your body when it doesn't feel or work correctly.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

Exercise to overcome ailment is often recommended.
I am curious as to why martial arts in particular?

Most physical ailments are treated with at least some dosage of physical therapy.
Thanks for your inputs so far. A little closer to understanding.

[Darthwing Teorist]

Well, martial arts are good package: you get good exercise, boosted self-confidense AND you can defend yourself (which for a previously weak person is an important benefit). I guess that physical therapy wasn't a widespread discipline a few decades ago in Asia: people probably looked into their own tradition for healing: Qi Gong and martial arts are closely related.

PS:

I did some physical therapy for my scoliosis as a teenager. But I much prefered martial arts.