Word of appreciation.

[Tae Li]

I dont know if anyone has started this type of thread topic before but I think its necessary.

I couldnt help but smile the other day when I was reading these threads and my mate was with me. After reading one thread he was like "wtf?", in other words he couldnt understand some of the Martial Arts jargon, and I smiled at how how this forum is a comfort zone of understanding a Martial Arts system of styles we all appreciate and love.

What Im leading all this rambling up to is that we have come this far to understand Martial Arts well enough to be able to discuss it in such depth (sometimes anyways:P) on a forum.

So, who is it you would like to THANK, that inspired you to take up martial arts, either at the begining or along the way....?

We never bother to mention these people or whatever that may have triggered something thats really important in our lives, but surely they need some recognition.

Ok, so it sounds a bit d!cky, but come on people get with the program already...

There is not really a sole person who inspired me to start martial arts, it was mainly the influence of HK movies, Bruce Lee etc...mainly because I didnt really know anyone personally who did martial arts at the time. But if I was to thank someone now it would be my training partner, who is a world Champion in Taekwondo, and if it wasnt for his impatient attitude and badarse attitude and constant repeatition of " you CAN do it...hurry up!", then I wouldNT be nearly as good a martial artists as some may consider me to be right now.

Tae Li;)

ok, catch my drift? who's next?

[scotty1]

The Karate Kid, totally, when I was 8 years old. And I did, I took up Karate when I was 8.

Best thing I ever did for my MA now was learn the basics then, it just came back to me so easy.

"Concentrate! Focus power!"

[dragontounge2]

HAHA. Well when I was 5 I rember watching bruce lee ALL the time. I watched the chinese connection the first day of school. well I used to get into a bunch of fights when I was little and if it wasn't for bruces movies I would have got my arse beat. But instead won every fight. thanks Bruce!

[ewallace]

That little chinese kid Earnie from the show "Sidekicks". I thought that was the coolest kid I'd ever seen back when I was about 8 or 9 years old.

[red5angel]

Star Wars!!!! I wanted to be a Jedi knight when I was a kid so bad I could taste it! As for thanking people? I would have to thank My current instructors for helping me find the real thing, the stuff that really works and challenges me everyday.

Somebody pas me a tissue....sniff sniff.

[KC Elbows]

As a child, all the old kung fu flicks and the star wars movies started it all.

As far as people to thank, I would say Zhang Hongchao. He showed me that a martial arts wasn't about being better than others, and that being a good person is more important that anything else.

Also, a guy by the name of Garrick Palumbo. He studies with Benny Urquidez and Shawn Liu now, but he was the one to convince me to join a martial art in the first place.

And, of course, Gene Ching, Kung Lek, and the folks who are responsible for this website, as this is the place where I really started to see kung fu as more than a practice, but a community.

I'm gonna cry...

[scotty1]

I'm with you KC! Thanks god for the internet.

It it wasn't for you folks on KFO I still would be tapping the bag and thinking I was bad ass.

Who's up for a circle jerk?

j/k

[Royal Dragon]

Chuck Norris in the Octagon

Oh that and all the Kung Fu guys who kicked my as when I was a Moo

[Felipe Bido]

A japanese cartoon called "Sam, the King of Judo". Actually, it wasn't Judo at all..it was a kind of Karate/Kung Fu combination. He wandered all over the world looking for a one-eyed man that killed his father. I actually dragged my father to the nearest dojo when I was 8 yrs/ old.

Ahhh, memories. :)

[dezhen2001]

The first thing that i guess got me interested in to MA would be seeing Jackie Chan's 'drunken master' when i was a kid. Shame it was all in cantonese with no subs though :( I was amazed by the movement and agility that those people had so started Shotokan Karate training when i was 8 :p

My first Sensei taught me a lot about myself and MA - the need for a strong foundation, constant drilling to understand movements and principles etc. which i have always had with me even now i am no longer with him. I tried many other things during the 13 years of Shotokan (Boxing, Muay Thai, Aikido and Shorinji Kempo), and that gave me a greater understanding of how the body works, and the correct attitude to have for MA.

Then i met my Sifu and right away i knew i had to follow him :) I immediately stopped everything else to start studying whatever he teaches me. I'm no longer bothered about 'fighting', 'winning' even competing or needing to prove myself. I just want to develop my health, attitude (which is most important) and study these skills... They say the Sifu finds the student at the right time - and i guess when you are ready you will find what you're looking for :)

david

[Kristoffer]

couldn't say it better *sniff*
My heroes? Hmm... I loved animals and I always wanted to be a monkey so I climbed every tree I could find. :rolleyes: Then it was Tarzan, same story there I guess. Turtles, then I wanted to be a ninja........... But it was in second or third grade that my dad came home from Japan and gave me a FAT ass book about Karate. With alot of tecniques in it. Then I rigously studied the book like it was the bible or something :D After that... I just thought since I never lost any fights, I was the best fighter or something. But then a friend who trained Taekwando started in our class.... And the EVERYBODY started to train some form of martial art. (mostly Karate and Muay Thai)
I was looking for something then I found Kung Fu, the reason to live ;)

[DelicateSound]

I started Judo at 14, and was never interested in MA before. Never knew anything about them.

[Yes KC, I was the redheaded kid who rolled home in the trashcan :p]

I was inspired to take up Kung Fu by Bruce Lee. I found Wing Chun through a BL documentary.

My biggest motivator though is one of my friends. Not because he achieves everything, but because he achieves nothing. He is a lazy, work-a-phobic slob with no qualifications, no money and no achievement bar the ass groove in his chair. Kind of reverse psychology.




The biggest MA influence is this board. I've learned more from this forum than from any other single source.



I love you guys...... :p

[fa_jing]

Both my brother and I had a real hard time at our elementary school. It was rough. Naturally, he wanted to study a martial art, so he took TKD in eighth grade, and my dad joined up to. Friction between him and my father caused him to quit, I joined up shortly afterward. It helped me in one or two fights I was in in highschool, but the rough part was already over by the time I got any good. Then I hurt my knee in TKD, and had to quit...
Flash forward 10 years. I'm on a plan from Panama to Miami, coming back to the States after 7 months abroad. My head is spinning, because along the line I made a bad decision. Looking for some direction...the plane is really modern inside, they have these drop-down thin screens that you watch movies on from your seat...the movie comes on...it's Lethal Weapon 4. Jet Li comes on and kicks serious ass, does stuff like stop kicks, low kicks and intercepting punches. I'm like, oh,,,,THIS is the stuff I've been looking for. So I credit Jet Li with getting me into Kung Fu. Also serendipitous...when I get back to Philly, my brother's got a room in a house full of dirty hippies for only 250 a month, I move in while he moves out. One of the wierdos there is a 5-year student of Wing Chun, in addition to being an ex-con and ex-enforcer for the roofer's union. He's got a wooden man, etc. in his room, lot's of books and Kung Fu magazines. I was hooked on KF before long.

-FJ

[MonkeySlap Too]

I'm not sure...

I remember being trucked off to a hapkido demo in the 2nd grade - the owner knew someone at the school and set it up. that got me really excited. (Hey, I was in the SECOND grade, alright?)

I think the Kung Fu TV series too - I was always a pacifist by nature and as a toddler / tween I grooved to the man of peace must fight like ten tigers thing. This also proved true when looking for a piece, but that's another story...

But I'd have to say, the number one influence had to be....Batman. Really. I was the smallest kid in my class, but I stood up to bullies who picked on other kids, because darnit, it was the right thing to do. Brains worked for a while, but out of practicality I had to take up martial arts.

Now I just train because I enjoy it. It is really fun, and I meet all kinds of really cool people, that I might not get the chance to meet otherwise. At least, as long as I don't wear the cape and cowl in public...:D :D

[Wu-Xing]

for me it was batman, bruce lee and wolverine.

[HuangKaiVun]

I have my parents to thank.

Of all the things I do in life, kung fu comes the most naturally. Training only served to SHAPE that which was preordained by my genetic code (that holds true for EVERYBODY here). It was they who gave me my genes and thus the inclination toward kung fu practice.

My parents always discouraged me from doing kung fu, but I could never NOT do it. From an early age, I was sparring against my brother with empty hands and swords and stuff. 20 years later, he no longer plays with swords but I still do. I haven't changed after all those years.

In the quest for me to be respectable, my parents taught me about hard work. More importantly, they taught me the dangers of trying to be something you're NOT. The goal was for me to be a physician, and I was groomed to that role from the day I was born. And it did not come to be despite all our best efforts because I didn't have it in me.

All that rigorous training and brainwashing my parents put me through for medicine couldn't turn me into something I wasn't. Now I'm at a point in life where if I DON'T embrace my kung fu destiny, I will be DESTROYED. Starving is not an acceptable option for those who wish to live.

I know that once I get myself firmly on my feet and embrace the kung fu reality (in a matter of weeks), things will get much better not just for me but for my parents as well. I'm doing this as much for them as much as for myself.

[Tae Li]

Fa_Jing...thanx dude, someone had to give J et Li some credit:D

and NO, this is not a Jet thread in disguise, lol, seriouslly.

Tae Li;)

[Kristoffer]

LoL @ Tae...
Anyway, ****!!! I totally forgot. My number one influence was SPIDERMAN and just about everyone in the Marvel universe :D This shaped my violent behaviour hahaha

[diego]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kristoffer
[B]couldn't say it better *sniff*
My heroes? Hmm... I loved animals and I always wanted to be a monkey so I climbed every tree I could find. :rolleyes:

LMFAO ~ Indiana Jones Sure,:cool: but a Monkey; lol

[Gabriel]

Hmm, I'd have to say GM Rho. Even though Im not in TKD anymore, its what sparked my experiential interest in the MA.

Who's GM Rho you ask? (or maybe not :p )

GM Rho (http://www.worldtaekwondo.com/gmrho.htm)

oh, also gotta give some credit to Bruce. :D

[Gabriel]

Stumblefist

Hmm. good question. He never went around advertising his age. We can do a bit of detective work though. All the dates on his site are his US credentials, dating back to 79. Before his US history, he went through college, and instructed in several countries. So to break it all down.. well 23 years in US.. and college and high school would be another..oh 20 years. plus he instructed in other countries, so my best guess would be late 40's early 50's. He could be older I guess.


As to being in the same city, yeah. He's the thing in St. Louis. I attended his Chesterfield location for about 1 1/2 years. Couldn't go there anymore when we moved though..who knows? Maybe if I hadn't moved I'd still be a TKD'er . :D

Gabriel

[joedoe]

My father. He was a brown belt in Tang Soo Do, and inspired me to take up MA.

Other people I would like to thank are the late Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong, and his son (my instructor of 15 years). Not only have they shared their art with me, but they have also had the most amazing patience in teaching a talentless student like me.

[Gabriel]

Well I don't want to go off on how good he is/was or anything, but he was very skillfull back when I attended. He did a demo once, where he had an advanced student stand straight and he ran up a wall, did a flying kick off the wall, and rolled to a perfect landing off the students back. What use this would have in a real situation, im not sure. He also did that silliness where a buncha guys go out to some fields and watch each other's fists get run over by trucks..He could also hit the top of a bottle and blow out the bottom...blah. Ill stop. :D Im really not doing the "hahhaa my (former) Sensei" thing, really! :p

As to whether he can destroy GLW's guys with a super saiyan flying kick, who knows? ;) Its all speculation, but, I guess I would cheer for GM Rho if it came down to it. Loyalty and all...

Gabriel

[PHILBERT]

Mine was because I got the **** kicked out of me when I was in 2nd grade by a gang of kids who did Karate. Mine was the story of the Karate Kid, minus the chick, puberty, and Mr. Miyagi. So I kept getting myass kicked all through school until finally I was able to start training in MA. Then I moved, and then found a Kung Fu school I liked and took up Kung Fu (of course after I graduated, so I couldnt go back and kick the **** out of the guys who picked on me). Though I sometimes see them (I moved from Town A to Town B, then back to Town A), though now they are more mature (most) so I havent had the fun to pay them back.

The one person who really inspired me though is a girl, who I liked alot, and hated her exboyfriend. I took up MA so if her exboyfriend ever touched her again I would beat his ass. He had no martial arts training, but he was and still is stronger than me and knows how to use a baseball bat (was on the baseball team).

[dezhen2001]

wow, those are some good posts guys :)

david