[scottie pippen]

this is probably been done before, but what inspired you to take a MA?

there's a couple of reasons why I started training, but the one that comes to mind is a video I seen of Andy hug,

the video was a highlight reel posted on strength training forum, in one section andy is dead-lifting what looked to be an absolutely massive amount of weight, which was impresive by itself, but his axe kicks blew me away, so I Joined kickboxing about a week later

[yomchi]

This man and this film, in 1987 aged 10.

[scottie pippen]

Originally Posted by yomchi

This man and this film, in 1987 aged 10.

I think I prefer Uma Thurman in that jump suite!

[Jonah42]

Friend got me to watch this Pride fight:



Started Judo and BJJ that very summer

[Zen65]

Originally Posted by scottie pippen

this is probably been done before, but what inspired you to take a MA?

Probably this guy in the 70's, though it was a decade later that I actually started my training. I chose karate rather than Kung Fu as the college club looked better.



Z

[LordChessington]

Joe Rogan UFC commentary . Due to his explanations of the ground aspect of MMA, i found an appreciation for all the aspects of BJJ and decided to try out what interested me.

[Peetrik]

Street fighter 2... and ninjas

[SaoriseBiker]

Originally Posted by Zen65

Probably this guy in the 70's, though it was a decade later that I actually started my training. I chose karate rather than Kung Fu as the college club looked better.



Z

Yes indeed, good old Grasshopper Used to come on about 5.00 on UTV on a Saturday after the football results if I remember rightly. Growing up in a country town in the 70's there was no martial arts club, so we used to improvise by getting martial arts magazines and books. Whatever we could take form it, say a Judo sweep or Kung Fu punch or Aikido lock, it was always referred to as a " Karate trick " regardless

Here's what really mad me a life long martial arts nut. Baz Ruttin in one of his books tells how he and his brother when on a family holiday in the south of France as a nipper, snook in through the toilet window of a cinema to see Enter the Dragon in French and was hooked on martial arts since !!!!! Those were the days -

[scottie pippen]

Originally Posted by Peetrik

Street fighter 2... and ninjas

Sagat was your fav character?

[Peetrik]

Originally Posted by scottie pippen

Sagat was your fav character?

Nah Ken, my mate always got Ryu first... bastard

[pearsquasher]

I saw Seven Samurai around 1987 - age 13 - which caused me to join a kung fu club. (The first MA I encountered)

Meanwhile I read everything i could find in my local library on martial arts and I
realized that there were so many differences. I discovered that Japanese classical traditions were the ones I saw used in Seven Samurai - no high kicks, no trying to mimic animals, no somersaults, no breaking bits of wood.... just good guys using weapons against bad guys in the mud and rain... with a sense of noble justice that made all the hollywood ninja/kungfu crap I saw look like cartoons.

Then I found a book on the ninjutsu of Hatsumi Masaaki and realised this was the stuff to do - pragmatic, use of weapons, non-competitive and zero silliness (despite the crappy ninja films out at the time)

Then............ I saw an ad for a "Togakure Ryu Ninpo Taijutsu" club opening in Blackrock. Turns out it was Bujinkan, Hatsumi's organisation and I left kung fu in 1989 and never looked back.

Ok, ok.. i admit I thought the arcade game "shinobi" was bloody brilliant too

[JG009]

This...


And I didnt want to be a fat kid anymore. Lost 3 stone in a very quick space of time!

[RoboRat]

Honestly, I could say Van Damme movies or King of the Kickboxers but in reality it was getting the ****e knocked out of me every day in school, resulting in being hospitalised for a month when it went way too far one time.

A lot of other factors contributed to why I was the target of bullying but I took up Karate for that reason... not that it did a whole lot of good at the time as compliant classmates in a dojo are not the same as the school psycho who doesn't play by the rules and throw a punch in a specific way!

But in fairness, one night when I was attacked many years later, all of it kicked in and I found a new love for it coupled with K1 & MMA becoming more popular. Then when I smashed my knee and I wasn't able to play football anymore I was looking to fill the void and I got back into MA.

Kind of wish I never gave up as I always loved it but my passion for football was always bigger... plus it put me through college!

[smacl]

Inspired, nope, told more like! A director in the company I worked for was mates with a local Karate instructor on Gardiner street, and all the young lads in the company were rounded up and told to take up Karate. I stuck with it for a couple of years and loved it at the time, but only got inspired after I'd already been there for a few months. I did like the opening scene from the Karate Kid though, where the little dude gets attacked by all the beefy dudes, and it turns out not only are there more of them, and they're bigger, but they're also all Karate heads and beat the living crap out of him. Priceless!

Wasn't particularly inspired to take up tai chi chuan either, more a bit drunk on the way home from the pub with the GF and convinced her it would be a few laughs and a bit of relaxation. A few laughs it was, with wrestling thrown in on the first night, and full contact sparring a couple of weeks later. Relaxing didn't kick in until we got to the pub after class. To be fair, the GF kept it up for six months, but it wasn't quite what she'd signed up for. I loved it, and while I don't train nearly enough any more, still do.

I tend to be inspired by people who are good at what they do, particularly those that are much better than me (most of 'em), and this more often than not happens on the mats. I also get inspired by the sheer effort some people put in, and their willingness to carry a fight to someone much bigger and more skilled than they are, in the full belief that they will totally destroy their opponent. I'm further inspired on the those occasions it works for them

[Raging_Ninja]

parents were worried about me when i was young with regards to bullying and since they found out a karate course was going they brought me to it - but then that ended after a few months and that was that.

When I went to college I signed up to the karate club there and stuck with it for a few months. During the summer the head bouncer at the bar I worked in started teaching some judo to staff, and I fell in love with it.