everyone has there own reason why they take martial arts.
I do martial arts for fun.
It sucked finding out all the time I spent doing Bujinkan was damn near useless but that wasn't because I had any interest in picking fights, teaching or going pro, it was just painful to find out that I wasted several years and a couple of hundred dollars on dance lessons and still can't dance - call it a bad investment.
"The funny thing is that the most determined people to want a career out of martial arts are the ones who haven't started training yet." Attribute this to them not knowing what a teacher or low ranking pro fighter gets paid. High risk, low reward.
Excellent question. When I was growing up I never once had to worry about self defense nor do I remember my class mates worrying about having to fight. Doesn't mean we didn't get into any fights but we certainly didn't make them a priority. Kids should enjoy life and worry about doing fun things on the weekend. Noone goes outside anymore to do fun things. When they do it's all in a certain place and supervised so noone gets hurt. Paintball, whitewater rafting, hiking, all activities are done supervised for kids. That takes away a very valuable lesson of being responsible for your actions and decisions not to mention a ton of really good memories and the right to say "I did this" and be proud of it. In my mid teens I hiked the foothills of the Alps from one end to the other. It took me 7 days but I will always remember it. I took a canoe down the creek after a flood and a more than 2 hour trip took 30 minutes the water was that fast. I too will remember that. Walking to the dojo in 2 feet of fresh snow on a Saturday morning because the car was hopelessly snowed in and the roads were not cleared yet, in Michigan. I will remember that too, and on and on.
I think the media is partially to blame for the change, overcautious parents, laws to keep our kids safe and the threat to get sued over an accident.
I think why people take martial arts for many reasons. The majority of my students do it because it is fun, a couple do it because of self defense and a couple others to learn about Asian culture. When I go to one of my Sensei's dojo which is a sports school with a rather large student base then I certainly have to agree that the attitude to fight and win and maybe go pro is very much present and I really feel in that dojo that I do not fit anymore, no disrespect to my Sensei. Kokoro too does not teach sports martial arts and I think that is why he has students who do it for fun but I think the students who do martial arts and do it for competitive reasons (which is the majority of schools out there) that's when going pro becomes a goal.
The few people you know who take martial arts is hardly a good representation of the entire popoulation of martial artists.
That said, at this point in my life, I almost exclusively train because I enjoy it. But even when I was younger, I still had fun even if I had more competitive goals at the time. Some of my most cherished memories are from martial arts. It's how I met my wife. It's also how I met one of my life long best friends.
Despite how heated things can get in discussions, that doesn't mean I'm so serious that I don't have fun with training or have anything against anyone.
But don't assume having goals such as competition or self-defense and having fun are mutually exclusive.
Like others have said, you clearly don't know everyone.
And who is to say that someone can't train in martial arts for more than one reason?
I train because I love it. Is it a royal pain at times? Sure. Is it hard work? yes Do I get frustrated at times, and hate it when I feel things aren't the way I would like/want/etc Of course.
But the reality is that someone doesn't train for a dozen years and love it if it's not fun. People don't devote their lives to learning an art if it's not fun for them.
So yes there are many reasons to train and I know in my case, fitness, self defense, the social aspect, etc all are reasons. But the main one is I love it and if I didn't I'd be doing other things so to me it is "fun" to train.
That's not true, many people take martial arts for fun. The main reason people actually stick with martial arts is because they enjoy it. Everyone has their own reasons for training and continuing to train in martial arts, self defense, enjoyment, fitness, etc.
It appears that you're basing this assumption off the kids/adults (usually kids) that ask questions on here about joining the ufc or something. It's just a whim they have, you base assumptions or generalizations off them. People like that do not represent everyone, not even a majority of martial artists.
I still think that the majority of people stick with martial arts because they enjoy it and it is a part of their life that they love. So i guess it's for "fun" in a way.
Some do and many schools are filled with them as students who in turn have watered down standards and promote students based on those standards for the sake of making a buck. For me it was the opposite and I always referred a student like that to a school where the training was more a game and fun like. I always found it to be a frustrating thing to allow a student like that to join my school. I also found that they usually could not meet my standards for promotion and never wanted anyone like that to represent me and my school in some way if their skill, knowledge, and ability was lacking and they were just training for fun.
While fun can be an outgrowth of some other things in some ways my schools and classes were for the serious student or one who wanted to take martial arts for reasons other than fun.
One main reason that someone does any type of physical exercise and continues to do it, is the waking up of the endorphins. (Some people call them the hormones of happiness:))
In that sense, a main natural reason is basically happiness, (the happiness after the shower for example is a good example). Plus the improvements in fitness, health e.t.c, so one reason by nature is a type of fun, or well being, not only at the moment of practice, but also later on.:)
Your assumptions are totally wrong. In the 1960's a larger percentage of students were studying martial arts for self-defense than today. Today I believe that more people are in martial arts for fun than ever before. I began my training for several reasons. Those are: 1) Desire to be able to defend myself against bullies. 2) To understand the martial arts which I thought were very interesting and mystical. 3) To have fun. Those were the basic reasons for my starting my training, but not necessarily in the order I listed them...
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Define "fun".
Martial art is not a sport. Some people participate in tournaments and such, but the reason for being for martial art is not for sport. Soccer, hockey, basketball and even boxing were all created as a sport and remains as such. The purpose of martial art is self-defense. In order to do it effectively requires both physical conditioning which also happens to be good for your health and mental discipline that also is useful in other areas of your life aside from fighting.
The goal of learning self-defense is not for "going pro". It is not for sport fights or showing off how tough you are. It is not for accolades, trophies, titles, or status. Serious martial artists study martial art to improve themselves, to challenge themselves and for personal edification. They could not care less if no one else in the world knows they study martial art.
I think it is good to be better than what I was. I think life without challenge is not fun. I think to live life well, means to understand it well. I believe it is better to be able to defend yourself, than to trust to the tender mercy of random chance and kindness of strangers which would not be fun when things go wrong.
There have been students of almost every motivational variety under the sun come into our class. In one case a guy had been attacked recently, and he actually had a roll of quarters in each jacket pocket when he came to his first class he was so paranoid. We've had women after being assaulted by men in their lives. I currently have two new teenagers who go on and on about samurai grandmasters and other fantastic stuff, but if it got them interested in coming to class then so be it. We have federal agents and police officers who wanted to get more training to use on the job and we have car salesmen and accountants who just have a passion for the arts. We have retirees and a couple of pre-teens. We have a sub 100 pounder and a dude who is over 3 bills. I've had kids come to me at break or after class and tell me about how they have been bullied at school. I've had parents tell me that they are taking the class with their child who they want to see become more self confident or to be able to focus better. There are so many reasons that folks come into our class. I teach a traditional art, however, so perhaps this is the reason why I get less people trying to become pro fighters, but we occasionally get folks looking to add some techniques from what we teach to their fighter's bag of tricks. And I love having them in class, too.
Whatever a student's reason for coming to class, I am just happy for them that they showed up. We have a saying in class that "Nobody gets worse in here." I hope that each night spent in class is one step further towards whatever goal a student carries with them.
I would like to say that it's only kids who want to make a career out of MMA, boxing and so on but unfortunately it's not. Adults too for that matter. But no one does it for fun. I know plenty of people who do soccer, hockey, basketball and so on for fun. The funny thing is that the most determined people to want a career out of martial arts are the ones who haven't started training yet.
You also have the ones who are preparing for some unlikely street scenario that may or may not happen. So they jump styles to prepare themselves for all sorts of things. Cover all the bases so to speak. But again that's not for fun either.
I'm not saying that people are not doing it for fun. Some are, but the majority seems to be doing it for other reasons. Why is that?
And when does that mindset change? Because I believe it has to change. The people who have been doing martial arts for many years have obviously given up on going pro, they don't care about self defense in that way. It's not like they go around eyeballing people hoping someone will do something so they can prove themselves.
I took a sport style because I wanted to compete. That was fun (and to some degree, it still is). But I also took a non-compete style and focused on hard-core self-defense. You know what? It's still fun.
Just because there are other reasons why someone takes up a style, doesn't mean they aren't having fun, or that they can't have fun.
But if the reason you take up martial arts is for fun, then, I'd say you're probably wasting your money.
EDIT: I'm curious about what you meant in about your last sentence:
"The people who have been doing martial arts for many years have obviously given up on going pro, they don't care about self defense in that way"
I've never dreamed of going pro, and while I've been practicing it for many years, I've never given up on anything. And in what way would someone practicing martial arts for many years not care about self-defense?
It sounds to me like you think martial arts is ALL about sport and competition, and the only way to self-defense is through competition. Both ideas are hardly true at all. But maybe I misunderstood what you meant?
I think it’s just taken as somewhere between being a given and being not good enough reason. Even people who play other sports will list hanging out with friends or being a good work out as a reason over just flat out having fun.
Because it is a serious matter and most people who are ambitious about it then they do enjoy it
If it wasn't fun people wouldn't do it. Silly question
Who says they don't?
