NaamKyun.com Discussion Forum

Ok, this a bitchin' thread. Tell or explain something that really bothers you about martial arts, the lifestyle or just plain stupid idiots that annoy you.

I'll go 1st:

1) I'm at a store and meet a guy (friend of friend) who works out allot. He himself does allot of wieght training and some modern MMA.

Then mid stream of a friendly chat he says: "So you still doing that stuff that's all about "Flowing and being soft?"

WOW, I mean wow...if only he knew just how varied Kung Fu is ... IE hard skills as well as soft.

2) You meet a person, they say " Oh you do martial arts?" "What belt are you?"

3) Another guy: "Can you make me do like Bruce Lee? "

Ok, i'm sleepy and can't type right now... I'll try to add more later.

COME ON TEN TIGERS...I know you want to add some of your own!!!! !

Obviously there are quite a few, but two that recently came up I will share:

1) When a person finds out you do martial arts in general, they immediately put up their hands in some weird double karate chop movement

2) When a person essentially rolls their eyes at the animal aspects of certain styles believing them to be useless or fairy tales.

Regarding the second point, I direct them to a piece I read many years ago about a man re-creating mantis martial arts:



Obviously it's not dispositive, but it does make the stories slightly more viable.

On a vaguely related note... another thing that annoys me is when people say either:

"You do martial arts? I can probably take you"
OR
"You do martial arts? So can you beat [X]?"

ha ha ha, very good thread seems it is everywhere the same

i usually reply by invitation to our friday saan da trainings

To add:

1) When someone introduces me to someone and says "...and he's a black belt in Karate. Don't mess with him." Makes me go crazy... Usually it's someone who doesn't know me all that well but knows something about me. Not only do they not know what they are saying, but I hate an introduction tied into my martial arts background (my close friends know better).

2) Long time ago, I found out that someone I worked with was a brown belt in Karate so I started talking martial arts with him. He didn't know I studied. When the topic of Kung Fu came up it was "Oh yeah, that's all dance. They don't really know anything." Then later in the conversation after finding out I was teaching a practical self-defense course at work he says "Does your sensei know you're doing this?" That's when I couldn't take it any more, I had to leave...

Thanks for the thread "O", now I feel better!

Cool guys!
Glad to see everyone is in a good mood and also (obviously) we've all had a few of these experiences.

Yo Wayne!! I laughed at that vid so hard. Especially the face slap.

4) Which leads me into my next one. Ever had this happen to you??
A guy is talking with you about your martial arts. He seems restless...you can tell by his Fidgity Body English that something is just not right. Even to the point where he's not looking at your face, but down allot.

... Then you hear the words begin to come out of his mouth; "What would you do if I did this? " (for example he throws and quick but half hearted punch at you to see if you REALLY have some skill.

This happen to me one time when a new student had come in to talk to me for a wihle. When I mentioned the word "Bridge", he said..."What's that?" So then I had and arm out touching one of his arms and was explaining some different concepts of bridging when I heard THOSE WORDS coming out of his mouth and he was starting to punch me.

Before he finished the sentence I gave him a quick slap to the face (not hard) just to startel him and let him know that I wasn't asleep.

He got all defensive and said; "Why'd you slap me?"

My answer was obvious, I said, you're trying to test me or at the very least embarass me. That's not cool.

Well, this sure must have been necessary, look how fast this thread is filling up...good one, "O"!



As for myself, "all of the above", for sure...

People who have legitimate business don't come off this way, so further involvement is going to be tiresome, and then pointless. Obviously, the answer here is to not get caught up in the first place, but disrespect is going to happen, and sorting it out is not always to be consistent with our goals. Also, many times a guy like this will still come up with excuses even if you put him down, so even if we can manage something relatively safe (such as a little impromptu takedown practice in a friendly bout of Tui Shou:wink:), it's probably best just to cut our losses and cut such people loose, with or without the benefit of a bit of friendly advice!



Best,

Michael