Thursday, December 16, 2004
Martial Arts History - Part One
Hmmm. I claim martial arts on my profile, but I haven't written anything about them in a while. Time to start from the beginning.
My background? I'm the old guy you find in the martial arts schools where all the young guys wonder "what's he's doing here?" Without stroking my own ego, luckily I can still mop the floor up with these youngsters.
First of all, I need to mentioned that I have been incredibly blessed with the teachers/instructors that I've had over the 21 years that I've been fighting. There are a lot of bad teachers out there. I've been fortunate to have trained with some really good ones - no large egos, no trophy hunters. Just teachers who love their arts and had a desire to share and develop good fighters.
I'm 40 years old. I've been banging heads with people "officially" for 21 years, not including my boxing experience.
In reality I started fighting when I was a kid. I started boxing in the 5th or 6th grade (maybe that explains a bit) where I fought for a few months.
When I was 19 I started studying the martial art Bando - Burmese Kick Boxing. I was young and could take the punishment back then. The beauty of it was I learned I could be pounded almost to a pulp and still have the fortituted to get up and give it right back.
Bando is tough. You can't be afraid to get hit - hard - because if a Bando fighter senses it, you'll be eaten up and spit out. It isn't the fists and feet you need to fear. It's the elbows, knees and shin kicks that will destroy you.
And if the fighting doesn't take you out the training will. Especially the conditioning, like toughening up the shins. To this day I can take a hard shot to the shins without feeling any pain. Kind of a nice surprise to my opponents.
Those were good times now that I'm starting to look back. Lots of training and fighting. College classes. Beer and parties. College women. My Bando instructor would always tell us to enjoy those days because there is nothing in life that will come even close to what we were experiencing back then.
And he was right.
Part II to follow some time when life will allow me write about it. Stay tuned....
Hmmm. I claim martial arts on my profile, but I haven't written anything about them in a while. Time to start from the beginning.
My background? I'm the old guy you find in the martial arts schools where all the young guys wonder "what's he's doing here?" Without stroking my own ego, luckily I can still mop the floor up with these youngsters.
First of all, I need to mentioned that I have been incredibly blessed with the teachers/instructors that I've had over the 21 years that I've been fighting. There are a lot of bad teachers out there. I've been fortunate to have trained with some really good ones - no large egos, no trophy hunters. Just teachers who love their arts and had a desire to share and develop good fighters.
I'm 40 years old. I've been banging heads with people "officially" for 21 years, not including my boxing experience.
In reality I started fighting when I was a kid. I started boxing in the 5th or 6th grade (maybe that explains a bit) where I fought for a few months.
When I was 19 I started studying the martial art Bando - Burmese Kick Boxing. I was young and could take the punishment back then. The beauty of it was I learned I could be pounded almost to a pulp and still have the fortituted to get up and give it right back.
Bando is tough. You can't be afraid to get hit - hard - because if a Bando fighter senses it, you'll be eaten up and spit out. It isn't the fists and feet you need to fear. It's the elbows, knees and shin kicks that will destroy you.
And if the fighting doesn't take you out the training will. Especially the conditioning, like toughening up the shins. To this day I can take a hard shot to the shins without feeling any pain. Kind of a nice surprise to my opponents.
Those were good times now that I'm starting to look back. Lots of training and fighting. College classes. Beer and parties. College women. My Bando instructor would always tell us to enjoy those days because there is nothing in life that will come even close to what we were experiencing back then.
And he was right.
Part II to follow some time when life will allow me write about it. Stay tuned....
// posted by Bladeblog @ 12/16/2004 
