Well they just dont get it. Especially my parents, they think of it as seperate sports (different MA). Like when i told them i really wanted to go to America and train (and i’m currently in TKD) she asked “ohh to learn TKD from that grandmaster?” and i said no, i wanted to learn some BJJ and basicly just live at a place where i could train all day. Well after explaining to her what BJJ and groundfighting was she asked “can you do that in TKD tournements?” and i said no and she was all confused “then why bother if you cant use it?”.
They look at one MA as football and another MA as baseball, she was really surprised when i told her i wasnt planning on doing only TKD and only competing in TKD my entire life. She thinks it’s like wasting your skills, going from a sport where your good into a sport where your just starting out, like i said she sees no point in it if your good in this why study the other.
Ever notice this? I think the best way to explain this to people is to make them not think of it as seperate sports with different goals (as in scoring a homerun in baseball and touchdown in football) but wrather it’s all one sport and each MA is a different method of playing or strategy if you will to accomplish the same goal (defeating the opponent).
my favorite is when non-MA people break into a bad bruce lee imitation yelling “whaaaaaaa” and stand on one leg like that karate kid!!! It never fails, i guess its the generic universal non-MA understanding of all martial arts, whether they be chinese, japanese, korean, brazillian, its just the ultimate stereo-type. It cracks me up, i usually just join them and have fun with it too, its nearly impossible to try to explain it to people anyway…
Most people I know just call everything karate. If I correct them, I usualy get “whatever, it’s all the same”. When that happens, I’ll ask them about their soccer or lacross, and of course they’ll say that they play football/hockey, and I’ll say “whatever, it’s all the same”
I don’t do that too often though. If someone says “hey you do karate right?” I just go along with it.
i don’t have the slightest fûcking clue why people enjoy cricket, but they do, and no amount of explaining on their part will convince me …
that’s in part because i hate snobby *******s to begin with, but i digress …
basically, until you do something for a while and it gets into your blood, you can’t understand it or appreciate it. in addition, we all have different reasons for doing MA. if i sat down with my sigung and asked him why he does it, i think i’d get slightly different reasons than those in my own heart and head.
GDA is on the right track, but you shouldn’t disrespect your mama like that.
Just calmly, patiently explain that your ambition when you grow up is to be a ruthless thug feared by all, and you have to be able to kill barehanded in any situation.
Originally posted by GunnedDownAtrocity
[B]i would have kicked her in the crotch and then choked her out.
she would have understood clearly then. [/B]
I tried that since my mom keeps refering to kung fu as karate, but she reversed the choke and slammed me headfirst into the wall. There’s going to be a rematch!
chuckles
I find when people first find out you do martial arts, the women will say this:
“Oh, so can you do any good kicks?”
“Are you a black belt?”
And the men will say this:
“All that stuff is bull****”
“My father had a college roomate who had a friend who did karate”
“oh, so you think you could kick my arse?”
Or as someone mentioned, go into a sloppy crance stance and say, Wataaaaaa!
chuckles But I find after a quick rundown about what we really do and why, what is it all about, then tend to shut up. Especially after a demo if they ask for one
funny
yeah its amazing how virtually everyone has a cousin or nephew or friend whos’ like a 12th degree blackbelt in tkd or some karate style that is so supposedly so awesome and deadly that its futile to even question them and youre supposed to just stand there in awe of them…even though the person telling you this (feeling like they just ‘won’ the conversation) usually only has a yellow belt they got 5 years ago (i think just about everyone has one of those now-a days) and is completely clueless about martial arts. :rolleyes:
i usually avoid m.a. conversations at all costs, unless its with my peeps, then those are some of the best conversations, especially over a pint of guiness after training hard for 3 hours
My parents have no problem with the different styles thing. They look at me like I’m crazy evertime they see me eating a can of tuna out of the can with only a little lemon juice for flavor…usually twice a day or so… Also, they can’t seem to figure out why I don’t mind getting nailed in the head in sparring. I think the whole kungfu movie thing has corrupted them all. When I mention boxing, my dad usually says something like “have you ever known a smart boxer?” or “I just saw a show on how Ali is half braindead from getting hit so much…” When I say kung fu, parents automatically think all that bs they read in time magazine, etc. about how it builds self esteem and makes you a better person. Somehow, somewhere along the line, people seem to have forgotten that the purpose of a pheonix eye doesn’t have a whole lot to do with self esteem. It also doesn’t make you fly (i loved crouching tiger but still…) Lastly, people have got to get the HIIIIYYYAAAA, JUUUDO CHOP (where’d that one come from, don’t remember there being a whole lotta chopping in judo) and standing on one foot in a make shift wobbly crane stance trying to look intense like Bruce Lee stereotype out of they’re heads. When somebody says they are a boxer, everyone thinks “hey, this guy can fight.” When Someone says they take kungfu, most people are like “ok, hes either a nerd that was bullied in early childhood and takes weak little kungfu classes so he won’t be pushed around, or he just didn’t get the message that martial artists all suck, like that karate friend I had when I was four…”
Sheesh, people these days. I now say I take chinese boxing. It gets a slighly better reaction.
Usually if people ask, I tell them its kung fu, they usually try to push me and I usually end up with them in some kind of jiont lock…either that or I ignore the comments until they try to do something.
My parents say i do karate. I don’t know any karate but apparently my parents think i do. I tell them it’s wing chun, but the don’t listen, and i tell them to shut up.
And also, i like to wear dragon shirts, and everytime i do some ******** asks if i do kung fu, what’s with that? At least he got the “kung fu” part right, but i always say no i don’t i just like dragons
And yeah, there are some A-holes out there that say, hey let’s see some kung fu, and when i say no, they get mad, and either try and push me, try a lame kick on me, try to punch me, or do that lame karate crane stance thing. Either way, i usually hit them a few times.
If someone is truly sincere in wanting me to show them some wing chun i will, but otherwise, forget it bub
i saw somebody do that **** crane stance thing today!!12/11/01 about 12:00pm this afternoon right outside my work.
oh and i was taking a TKD class from my college for credit and there was this guy that had a roommate who was a 2nd degree black belt in tkd and was sooo awsome. :rolleyes:
my mom doesn’t have a problem with different styles, but doesn’t understand mcdojo or why i would want to changes schools, or take other styles.
I hate it when guys who feel threatened say, "well it doesn’t even matter because if they have a gun your screwed. I want to say, "you have to draw it first, but it doesn’t matter. I should stay in the living room doing crochet when I’m not cooking.:rolleyes:
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