Introduce yourself
Replies
-
Glad to have you back in the sport, Don!
Don't you just love looking at the faces of people who think they can smash you, only to see them a bit dumbfounded... 3 -
Hi! I'm Kirsten, I am pretty new to martial arts I started training in Karate last November. I took karate classes on and off for 2 yrs as a teenager loving the art but not quite finding my focus and determination to train. The choice to begin again in karate has been amazing! I have lost 17lbs so far with little to no diet, and I find I have a lot more peace of mind.5
-
I ran my first Tough Mudder half this weekend and I have already signed up for the full next year!
7 -
-
Hi, I am Joe and recently earned my 1st degree black belt through ATA Taekwondo. I am near memphis, TN and trying to get into better shape. My 10 year old daughter is testing for her 2nd degree black belt and my 9 year old son is testing for his 1st degree next weekend. I originally started because my kids wanted me to and figured i'd participate with them. after being in it for the past couple of years, i have begun to love it and keep trying to push myself to perform better. I am looking forward to being a part of this motivating group of wonderful people. :-)3
-
Hi Joe! I live near Little Rock, so we have ATA folks from all over for their World Championships every summer. In fact, I drive by the new Headquarters every day on my way to my gym.
Welcome!3 -
@Bluebell2325 My story is so similar to yours! My daughter started karate about 5 years ago at age 5. She is now a black belt. I opened my big mouth and promised her that I would take karate once she made black belt. her interest was waning at the time, so I thought I wouldn't have to deliver.
well, she made black belt in December. So here I am! But it's been a lot of fun, and I've actually learned a lot just sitting in her classes listening. I've already done a tournament or two, and really enjoy kata. Not so good at sparring yet!
anyway, I practice traditional karate. On my blue belt right now, close to orange.2 -
This content has been removed.
-
This content has been removed.
-
BJJ white belt who has dabbled in judo. I want to get my judo yellow belt (mostly to prove to myself that I am over my issues with take downs thanks to a couple of concussions 18 months ago, but also because it is my favourite colour and BJJ doesn't have yellow in adult belts)
I'm 39 and started BJJ when I was 36 (nearly 37) which was my first martial art (unless you count fencing which I did for a few years before that). Sadly I had to choose between fencing and BJJ due to classes clashing (and as fencing was the cause of my torn acl - yes, surprisingly it was bjj in my case).
BJJ helped me lose nearly 25 kgs, a loss I have maintained for 18 months, but I still want to drop a bit more so I can walk around at my fighting weight, which is a healthy weight for me to be.2 -
Hey yall! Im John. Started training in Kuk Sool in 1990 before our founder created Hanmudo. Its basically a more self defense based that is based on everything from striking and kicking from Tae Kwon Do to Stand up Grappling, throw and locks from Judo(Yudo), Hapkido. We are incorporating BJJ ground techniques now to slowly add to our curriculum, as well Haidong Gumdo. I got my 1st Dan in 1996 under Dr He Hyung Kimm in Hanmudo, taught and trained until 2001. Left for about 10 years after a series of family deaths. Got myself out of the rut about 2 years ago, tested a year ago for my 2nd dan and now prepping for 3rd Dan. I also train Kickboxing and boxing, Haidong Gumdo and just started BJJ. Martial Arts has been part of my life my entire life. It led me to weight training when I was young which has been part of my life since as well. I love to share knowledge and help if I can. I love to learn and take in as much as I can from those who are more experienced. We need the "Art" back in Martial Arts.5
-
Hey family! I'm Sarah. I am a practitioner of Kuk Sool Won (traditional Korean martial arts) in O'Fallon, Missouri. Love reading about all the various arts you all partake in. Looking forward to seeing more posts!3
-
Welcome to all the new members! We have a great and diverse group growing here - and I cannot be happier about it! You all are contributing and making this community something really fantastic.
Thanks for being here!1 -
Hello
I'm Lou, I'm currently working very hard to get my First Kyu in Shukokai Karate in the hope that I will get my 1st Dan before my 40th birthday in March 2019
. I've been karate training for 3.5 years, I originally took up training as a teenager but gave it up in favour of lazing around after 6 months (plus for a teenage girl, the white suit can be a monthly source of nightmares!). I joined my current club with the plan I would do a couple of grades until my kids felt comfortable but I was hooked after the first lesson. I've recently started Kobudo training in the last 6 months (also to accompany my teenage son) and have fallen in love with my Jo and Bo staffs - I am only 5 feet tall so I'm sure I look ridiculous waiving a Bo around!
I'm pretty heavy so I don't have much in the way of speed when I'm fighting but what I lack in speed I make up for in power when we're on pad work, and the kata training I really love isn't too badly damaged by being a fatty.
MFP wise I have been having a hard time recently keeping my weight down so right now I've chosen to use that to my advantage and I'm focusing on building muscle in the gym to hopefully minimise the fat gain. I also swim with a masters club a couple of times per week and cycle for my daily commute.4 -
Welcome Lou! you'll find lots of like minded individuals here!1
-
Hi all, TKD practitioner here. I've practiced for the last 6 years or so, beginning with a class in college at the YMCA, and then some more with an informal club. In the past year or so I've gotten much more serious about training - my SO is Korean and his father trained under Choi Hong Hi, and it's given a new depth to my practice to be able to learn about Taekwondo's roots and ties to Korean culture. Unfortunately we don't get to visit his parents too often! The traditional style is a good contrast to the club I've joined whilst in graduate school, which focuses much more on competition sparring - not to say that the artistry or forms are neglected, it's merely a shift in focus from the practical self-defense and personal style development to speedy point sparring and flashy demos (which are lots of fun).4
-
Hello all my name is Chris. I am a 3rd degree black belt in TKD and also tournament director for the Family Karate schools in San Diego. Big thanks to Brett Malone, whom I train with weekly, for the head's up on this group. Currently caught the bjj bug and loving ground fighting. Great way to burn calories and strengthen my core. Currently training for our new testing physical requirements of 40 squats, 30 push ups, 20 hanging leg raises (knee ups), 10 no kip pullups and 10 burpees. All in10 minutes. Suprisingly losing weight improved my pull ups. Only short 2 pullups today completing test with no penalties.4
-
Welcome, @PlayerOne_! Glad to have you here!
@galactictkd
Glad you made it, Chris! Kinda fun to have someone here I train with.0 -
The men in my family carry the "Thomas Curse". Before the age of 32 we can eat anything in any amount and not gain an oz. (three lb bag of Doritos for a late night snack, no problem). After 32 our weights explode out of control.
I weighed 135 lbs when I started college, 145 at graduation. 155 at age 30. At 32 I spiked to 170 lbs and have gained steadily each year since. I've lost 40 lbs with crash diets two different times to get back down to 170 but have put it back on with interest over about 5 years each time.
I took up martial arts (Tae Kwon Do) with my 14 yr old son in July '07 hoping to control the weight without crash dieting but put on 10 lbs. instead ('muscle weighs more than fat', I told myself). On May 16, 2009 I tore my left knee ACL sparring at a TKD tournament and put on another 10 while I was waiting for surgery (put me at my highest weight, 230 lbs, and the extra weight could have been a factor in tearing the ACL). Surgery on 7/22/09 and then 6 months of recovery and, with help from Calorie Counter dot com, got back down to 174 by early 2010.
Did a few rounds of P90X and weight started creeping up. ('muscle weighs more than fat', I told myself again.) Switched from CC to MFP middle of 2011 mainly for the more accurate food database.
Fast forward to present (Jan 2016). I've earned my 3rd degree black belt (Jul 2014), got sloppy on logging calories, and somehow found most of the weight I'd lost... again.
Retired (Mar 2015) after 31 years in the laboratory. Took a post-retirement job as crew foreman on a commercial mowing crew (my best friend owns the company and has been after me for years to go full-time with him).
Unfortunately, I no longer have time for regular TKD classes... my only regret.
My weight is under control at the moment (knocks wood) in upper 180s and slowly dropping to my fighting weight of 175 lbs.
Currently planning a SCUBA trip to the Caribbean sometime this winter. Also getting the bug for blacksmithing. Turning one bay of my three bay machine shed into a smithy. Still a work in progress as we are in our Fall busy season in lawn care.5 -
Hi All
I'm Lesley, I'm 40. I've been a raving martial arts lunatic for a while now... it's been 4 months since my last confession... I mean session. I've got some annoying, permanent medical issues that have flared up due to work-office environment issues, but I'm hoping next saturday is the day I go back to kicking black belts (it was supposed to be yesterday morning
boo to migraines).
I started off at my dad's shotokan club back in year oat-cake (about 1998). Unfortunately, had to stop because I got a job where my shifts were at the same time as practice. I switched to TKD, first in my home town and then taking it up again when I went to uni. I stayed yellow belt the entire 4 years at uni, as gradings were at the weekend when I worked. So I was a pretty good yellow belt.
After uni I moved back home, I didn't take karate up again until I moved to England in 2006 and joined a Wado Ryu club at a gym next to my work. Very similar to TKD and Shotokan so I picked it up pretty quickly. I had to give that up when my work moved across town. I then found my current Shotokan club in my village, started there as a yellow belt.
I have been with them since ~2010. I love the club they're a fantastic bunch, I'm currently the only woman there, we did have another girl (11y/o black belt) but she's taking a sabbatical to try out other sports and activities that her secondary school offers. The club started off with lots of members... we're sadly now down to about 10. Most sessions there just 4 of us die hards. I was until earlier this year, the lowest belt (brown), it's since evened out a bit with 2 greens and a purple moving up from the kids class.
I am working towards my 1st Dan, I am 1st Kyu (brown and 2). I've not set a date for grading because of my health issues but I'm also taking my time as I'm a slight perfectionist; and to be honest, Dan grading's bloody expensive and I don't want to have to pay twice.
I'm also not that bothered about getting my black belt quickly, because I've surpassed my original Shotokan goal... get a higher belt than father (brown). I'll get 1st Dan eventually, but I'm enjoying learning the advanced kata at the moment.
I do 6 other sports: mountain bike, triathlons, olympic (foil) and hema (feder) fencing and roller derby. I also need to start lifting again, as I'm a such a weakling just now.
I just started Hema (last monday) and am thoroughly enjoying pretend decapitating people, it's a different sort of fun than stabby-stabby fencing. It's my husband's fault I do either fencing, he loves them and wanted me to try... I did and got hooked on both.
I find sword swinging very relaxing, and it makes a nice change from ninja-punching/kicking husband when he's not paying attention (not now Kato!). Just so you don't think I'm a spouse abuser.. he's much better at fencing than me and he does no karate so it's a very balanced and healthy tit-for-tat relationship.
All my sports are amazingly good cross-training for each other. They all use elements of at least one other sport and they all benefit from the others either in strength, endurance or flexibility. Oh, I also do Yoga and Pilates.
I am, weirdly, the size of a whale, so I'm attempting to get my svelteness back by not eating all the pies and seriously restricting my intake (binge eater, less bingey the less i eat). So far I've lost half a stone.
To balance out my brazen 'i-should-have-been-born-a-boy' ish-ness I also knit/crochet, am a mad cat lady (have 3), and have a small collection of Louboutins and Brian Atwood shoes which, quite handily, compliment the various bruises, welts and grazes I carry on my being most weeks.
In case you're interested, I'm currently crocheting some monkey's for next-door's kids.
It's nice to meet you all, and read your stories.4 -
Hi
I'm a 6th kup in Taekwondo. I joined with my 2 boys after seeing how much fun it could be. I was going to wait until I'd lost all my weight but decided to just go for it and it was the best decision I ever made. Still a long way to go on my journey but ill get there. Thanks for inviting me 4 -
Welcome Flo!0
-
Glad you found us Flo!1
-
Hey guys. My name is Abdul. Been doing Thai boxing from the age of 12. Now I'm on my early 30's.3
-
Nice. did you go for competitions?0
-
Matt - 45, a no-stripe relatively new BJJ purple belt. Just starting (tomorrow) a new job in a new city so I've yet to find a new BJJ school - but I will as it's my exercise, social activity, and, in general, "sanity maintenance."4
-
hi I love my karate and train 2-3 times a week plus I am a sempai twice a week and help teach low grades4
-
0
-
Hi there folks!
I'm CriticalDog,I turn 43 in December and I'm a long time student, off and on.
My first martial art was Kuk Sool Won, starting in 1994 in Northern California, which I loved. I trained up to Brown with 2 Black stripes, and was set to start my black belt testing when my instructor left to found his own art. That ...didn't last, and I found myself without a school.
I took up a pretty stylized form of Medieval Combat (SCA fighting), and cross trained with friends when I could, but my job eventually put me behind a desk staring at a computer screen for 8 hours a day, and kids and life made it VERY hard for me to train.
I put on weight. A lot of it. Managed to stay a full year at a WTF TKD school that also had some Hapkido, and did well, but then it was time to move.
2006, we moved across the country. I worked nights, doing IT stuff, and got even fatter.
After a few fits and starts at the local Y with generic "Martial Arts" classes that didn't do much for me as it would be me and a bunch of little kids, About 5 years ago I finally found a TKD school that was close enough to get to, the teacher was old school, and we spar, a lot.
But, I was still fat. I remembered how to do a jump spinning heel, but the flesh is weak. And flabby.
3.5 years ago I read up on a fairly radical diet (Ketogenic), and jumped into that hard core. Fat melted off. I went from 260+ (and I'm only 5'6.5"!) and at the beginning of this year I was at 172. I have since put a LITTLE bit of that back on, due to both a lack of some exercises and due to an uptake in my alcohol content this year. Long story. Working on that now too.
As the fat left, my ability increased. As my abilities increased, I got more dedicated. A year and a half ago, I got my 1st dan, WTF TKD (Chang Moo Kwan). I was recently informed by our instructor that I can test for 2nd any time now. I'm excited, and nervous. Doesn't seem real.
I also have been running and lifting the last 2 years, but that has all stopped recently as something (unsure what) is wrong with my lower back. It's beginning to impact my TKD classes as well, so it's time to get it checked out.
I also cross trained in Aikido for 2 years while I have been doing my TKD, but the Aikdio school was just to much of a commute to get too from where I live.
And that's my story. If I ever have an opportunity to resume Kuk Sool (Won or non-won) I would jump at the chance but alas, there is no Kuk Sool in Pennsylvania.
4 -
Hi there, I have been taking karate for the last 3 years. I am currently have my green belt. I started taking it when my kid was taking karate, he has since stopped going but I am still doing it when I can get out.
3
