Do you know what I love about Karate?

[AngelaG]

Ok while I am on a post-grading high I'm going to wax lyrical for a bit. Please feel free to ignore me.

For me, the massive bonus to karate is that you are always judged on your own merits. I used to play a lot of football back when I was at school, both for the school and in an outside club. As I tend to do with anything I take up I threw myself into it whole heartedly and was probably amongst the highest amount of training put into the club, and yet due to club politics and the need for the team to win every game I very rarely used to get a game. I was a subsitute 99.9% of the time; even after people who didn't train on the Saturday had been warned that they wouldn't get to play on the Sunday; they'd turn up on the Sunday and they'd still be first team. This was either because a) they were good and the team may lose if they weren't playing b) their parents put money into the club, or drove people around etc. It meant I would end up with hollow victories when the club won a game, as maybe I would have played for the last 5 minutes. With karate I don't have to rely on anyone else for me to achieve the best I can.. it's all down to me... I have no one else to blame if I suck, if I don't train enough, if I don't give 100%, but conversely no one can take away my achievements.

Anyway, a bit rambling, but that is one of the things I love about karate!

[Aefibird]

The best thing that I love about karate is that you get to be violent and beat people up... *cough*

Just kidding, obviously... ;D



One of the reasons that I love martial arts is the huge self-confidence boost that karate gave me when I first started training.

As a child and teenager I was a painfully shy and inward-looking person. I was also prone to bouts of deep depression and suffered from an eating disorder for many years. Now, I'm not saying that a little karate cured all that overnight ('cos obviously it didn't), but it sure helped to transform my life around.

I'd always thought of myself as inagequate and useless and no good at anything. Well, the day I went for my first grading and got my orange belt was one of the best days of my life. I think I was more pleased to get my 9th kyu than my 1st dan. Earning my orange belt was one of the ways in which karate (and my other MA training) has shown me that I can do things and achieve results in my life.

being asked to be the assistant instructor for my club was also a major turning point in my MA 'career'. The knowledge that my instructor thought that I was good enough to teach classes and help out the other students and be a role model for them...well, it was another amazing moment, thanks to karate.

[AngelaG]

Aefibird said:

The best thing that I love about karate is that you get to be violent and beat people up... *cough*

Well duh!! That's obviously a bonus! ;D

[Aefibird]

Of course!!

So, what do others love about karate (or their chosen MA, as we no longer just have karateka on here)?

[random]

I enjoy using that part of the brain and personality that society frowns upon, although no one actually goes home bleeding.

[random]

I enjoy using that part of the brain and personality that society frowns upon, although no one actually goes home bleeding.

[random]

oops did that twice

[miffersy]

What i love about Karate is when you are having a s**t day at work and you convince yourself that there's no way you are going training that night, you get home from work throw your gi in a bag and of you go. 2 hours later you are on top of the world and glad you made the effort

[andym]

miffersy said:

What i love about Karate is when you are having a s**t day at work and you convince yourself that there's no way you are going training that night, you get home from work throw your gi in a bag and of you go. 2 hours later you are on top of the world and glad you made the effort

I have a fair few s**t days at work and really look forward to training, lets me vent some of the anger I've built up during the day!

[random]

I haven’t been to the dojo for a week and will not get there this week either…which means two really busy s**t weeks. I really need to let off some steam and vent little of the frustration that is building up…should be fun when I can get there again.