Why did you get started/what keeps you at it?

Be interested to hear what got all you fellow unarmed combatives guys into it. Did you come to it from the firearms hobby or did you come to the firearms hobby from your interest in martial arts?

Personally, I've always been doing the shooting thing. But martial arts...or at least a real enjoyment of them...didn't begin until I was probably 24 or 25. I had done the karate classes at the YMCA and such and kinda figured I was tough enough compared to these other nerds and I'd be a real badass in a fight. That adrenaline would give me superior reflexes and power and I would just knee a dude in the head if he tried to take me down so that solves that...yeah I was that guy.

Anyways, I decided after watching a video of a nurse getting the shit kicked out of them, that maybe I might want to learn something that wasn't a middle block followed by a chambered front snap kick. It just didn't seem like the correct response to an amped up tweaker throwing haymaker after haymaker, and I'd never really done any full contact training. So I went to a place where I could find some full contact training. The local MMA gym. As I started sparring I quickly realized I didn't know the slightest thing about how to fight. My martial arts training up until that point was completely ineffective for almost everything related to trying to not get knocked out. And when I got taken down...well I realized that it was actually not that easy to defend a takedown. So I tried studying how to beat takedowns,wrestling, and BJJ. As it turns out that's...uh...a long process and involves several ass whoopings. My ego was bruised and once I submitted some random guy by just barely taking his back and applying a rear naked choke, I thought "OK, I'm probably better than most guys now and I can stop." and I stopped training. Other things, like nursing school clinicals also sort of got in the way and I was tired of continuously getting my ass beat.

Yes, I have been struggling with being that guy for a while. Eventually...I don't know if it was wisdom or age or what...but I realized that the reason I kept getting beat wasn't because the other guys were better (they were) but it was because they trained more. They kept showing up, they kept learning, they kept sparring. Something clicked in my mind and while I still can't say I make every class and seminar all the time, I definitely train more now than I did then. Add to that a friend who trains at the same gym offering to let me come to his home and train with him in his basement and I can quite comfortably say that I've become an enthusiast of BJJ and to a lesser extent, MMA.

Sorry, long post. Tl;Dr I did not always enjoy martial arts, until something clicked and now I do.

I'm no longer involved, but when I was on a regular basis, (back in the middle and late 70's), there was a twofold reason...

I couldn't mind my own business when I saw women, (and even a few men), preyed upon in the street by men who beat them...and when a young woman I had recently broken up with was savagely mugged and beaten in Brooklyn, it only reinforced my resolve at the time. (And led to my applying for positions in law enforcement, and subsequent career.)

I fought competitively at the inter-dojo level, at AAU matches, and later at the state championship...but at a low rating. Unfortunately, I failed to keep up with it after a short time.

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Originally Posted by blues

I'm no longer involved, but when I was on a regular basis, (back in the middle and late 70's), there was a twofold reason...

I couldn't mind my own business when I saw women, (and even a few men), preyed upon in the street by men who beat them...and when a young woman I had recently broken up with was savagely mugged and beaten in Brooklyn, it only reinforced my resolve at the time. (And led to my applying for positions in law enforcement, and subsequent career.)

I fought competitively at the inter-dojo level, at AAU matches, and later at the state championship...but at a low rating. Unfortunately, I failed to keep up with it after a short time.

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I'm kinda jealous. Karate back in the 70s was certainly a different animal than what I learned as a kid.

I hope that it doesn't go that way too far for BJJ.

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Originally Posted by 45dotACP

Be interested to hear what got all you fellow unarmed combatives guys into it. Did you come to it from the firearms hobby or did you come to the firearms hobby from your interest in martial arts?

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I've got the dumbest answer ever:

So Paul opened SBG Illinois and I figured I'd throw some bread in his jar and try his "Karate" class for a few months. I was ~250, 39 and just knew from all these stupid forums that BJJ should be something that I get into and do... I remember my first class: No punching? No kicking? WTF kinda karate is this? Then we learned "mount" and I was like "GAAAAAYYYY!".

I remember, tho, being tired after trying to not get crushed by Paul and needed some answers. I was just too stupid to stop paying and having too much fun, then I got hooked.

What keeps me going isn't that I have this "work ethic", it is more, I just get in the habit of doing something and it becomes what I do because that's the time to do it. Even things that I don't like doing. I'm really too stupid to quit...

I liken it to learning to shoot - before I was 29, I never really shot at all - I just figured that if you want to do something, then do that thing and you'll start to figure that shit out...

Certainly not a dumb answer @Les Pepperoni

The ol "being too dumb to stop paying for classes and therefore I have to go or I lose that investment" ploy has probably turned out more than its share of badasses.

Financially conscientious badasses. But badasses nonetheless. Like Dave Ramsey with nunchucks.

Especially because after a bit, BJJ stopped being "something you have to do" and became "Something you really like to do"

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Originally Posted by Les Pepperoni

I'm really too stupid to quit...

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That is literally my operating system and has been for 42 years of training.

Quick summary: 1) My parents raised me with a “never be a victim” mentality. 2) I got started in martial arts after a high school thug threatened me with a screwdriver. 3) I like learning how to do new things with my body. 4) Being injured has become normal... many broken ribs, shoulder, neck, random injuries, always covered with bruises, etc. 5) Getting old sucks, and staying in the fight helps me feel young.

Lived in Los Angeles..violence here is random and sudden

I have had friends and family victimized.

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Originally Posted by Cecil Burch

That is literally my operating system and has been for 42 years of training.

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So... What you're saying is there is hope for me yet?

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Originally Posted by Les Pepperoni

So... What you're saying is there is hope for me yet?

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Let’s not get crazy now........:D