Moving On - Children of the Children of God

I've been an assistant instructor in the Shotokan Karate-ka style of martial arts for a year now since becoming a black belt and was curious as to how many of the rest of us practice some form of martial arts and what styles.

Something else I've been trying to figure out why so many of us guys in the group were obsessed with trying to learn martial arts. Looking back, alot of my secret fantasies were to kick the shit out of most of those asshole "shepherds". Martial Arts was the ultimate freedom I could think of, being able to defend myself and hurt those who wanted to hurt me in such a way that they wouldn't want to hurt me again. Those of us who were in Victor programs and remember being beaten with a cutting board with holes drilled in it know what I'm talking about. I might sound like a freak, but after those sessions I'd fantasize about what I would have done to them if I were a black belt. I guess that obsession with it while growing up is what kept me in it over the past 5 years since leaving, which if nothing else is probably what has kept me in shape and flexible.

For those who practice, has it helped you to face your fears, or whatever it was that caused so many of us to try so hard to secretly learn martial arts? The longer I've been practicing, the more I'm starting to think that, more than any type of counseling could, martial arts has helped me "move on" by giving me a measure of power to prevent bully "shepherds" from ever again getting in my face and intimidating me. I guess that's one good thing to come out of Victor programs is it gave me a face to punch when practicing katas (forms).

Lest anyone get the idea that I'm some violent person, I practice more for the exercise that out of some desire to "defend myself on the street" since that's not exactly something that happens everyday :). Martial Arts is unfortunately associated with promoting violence, and perpetually needing to enlighten misguided souls can be quite annoying, but I guess we can thank Van Damm and Segal for that.

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from figaro
Monday, March 12, 2007 - 00:25
(Agree/Disagree?)
i was always obsessed with martial arts ever since i can remember. after breaking free of TFs grip i did study and gain black belts in several styles. i would be actively fighting in the XFC right now had i not crashed my motorcycle and broken every bone in my right foot.

i think i wanted to learn when i was young to be able to fend for myself and not be helpless, when i did begin to learn to really fight, and started to take on opponents in real life fights that were larger then me it was to face my fears, and to show myself that im not a victim anymore. thats some of the reasons. i also do it because i want to inflict pain on others, so they can feel some of the pain that was inflicted on me.
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