Karate is a joke

[smoke]

Why is that when a lot of people you (me) meet and you say you do Karate or other form of martial art, people mock you by laughing at you after their poor imitations of Bruce Lee? wataa!

As opposed if you say you take football or basketball, people's eyes light up and they immediately ask what position you play and what's your favorite team.

And people wonder why I'm so bitter when I talk about martial arts, unless it's my close friends that actually understand I take it seriously and it's not a joke like what you'd see on the Beverly Hills Ninja or Kung Pao.

Just a rant.
I'm not completely p***ed off, it's just bugged me how I'm getting the impression that martial arts get the back seat for respect as far as sports go.

[ironcastknight]

To be fair, a lot of martial arts and a good 90% of karate hasn't done a whole lot to earn respect. If anything, waving one's hands in the air and making a whole lot of noise is actually a pretty fair description of the training.

It's just us in the other 10% that get the short end of the stick, because are training is far more than jazz hands and squealing... most of the time, but with still get lumped in with everyone else because the average person doesn't know the difference.

[GJEC]

I've lost that feeling. If people approach me to ask about training then start twatting around I just smile and change the subject.

Or offer a free class. That normally shuts them up.

Gary

[Ros]

Really? Anyone who I tell about it tends to smile nervously and inch away! ;D

[senshido]

I think this is much more of a problem in the States than the UK, I'm pretty sure there are a lot less of the big McDojo over here to give us a bad name

[wullie]

Usually people tell me they want to join but they never show up, did have one guy, who reckoned he was a boxer, say 'that jap slap stuff is a load of bollocks' after he'd knocked the instructor of the freestyle (my old club) about. He challenged me, and fair play to him, he showed up at my class for what turned out a very short visit then an over night stay in hospital

[GJEC]

Mar 24, 2011 5:28:13 GMT -5 wullie said:

Usually people tell me they want to join but they never show up, did have one guy, who reckoned he was a boxer, say 'that jap slap stuff is a load of bollocks' after he'd knocked the instructor of the freestyle (my old club) about. He challenged me, and fair play to him, he showed up at my class for what turned out a very short visit then an over night stay in hospital

;D

Funny how people do that. They come along to your club hoping to put you on your arse in front of your students, then end up taking a trip to A & E.

I used to find it funniest when they moaned about it afterwards, as if you'd somehow violated the rules of good MA hospitality by not letting them make you look a twat.

Happy days. No one bothered testing me out after about the first 12 months of running my club as word spread (in a small town) that for those that did it often went - shall we say - not as they planned.



Gary

[alan]

Mar 24, 2011 5:28:13 GMT -5 wullie said:

Usually people tell me they want to join but they never show up, did have one guy, who reckoned he was a boxer, say 'that jap slap stuff is a load of bollocks' after he'd knocked the instructor of the freestyle (my old club) about. He challenged me, and fair play to him, he showed up at my class for what turned out a very short visit then an over night stay in hospital

excellent wullie!....if anybody took the p*** out of me i just mentioned bare fist full contact, "a bit like pikey fighting" normally made people shut up.

[havamal]

Mar 24, 2011 0:56:46 GMT -5 ironcastknight said:

To be fair, a lot of martial arts and a good 90% of karate hasn't done a whole lot to earn respect. If anything, waving one's hands in the air and making a whole lot of noise is actually a pretty fair description of the training.

It's just us in the other 10% that get the short end of the stick, because are training is far more than jazz hands and squealing... most of the time, but with still get lumped in with everyone else because the average person doesn't know the difference.

I even wonder myself if I'm in that 10% of sincere karataka.
Anko Itosu wrote that 1~2 hours per day, everyday, of karate practice is about right - that's just the quantity aspects, not to mention the qualitative aspects in intensity, impact conditioning, and kumite. I'm not meeting those in a typical year, but am trying.

Judo, BJJ, wrestling, boxing, and kickboxing deserves and receives more respect as people seem to know there's more combative competition involved that relates to practical fighting.

Karate's practical fighting and sports reputation all over the place.

I would guess that nearly half of Seido karateka of my dojo are not really interested in learning how to really prevent or end a fight.

So, I understand the rep' karate gets: It's deserved.

I don't mention karate, firearms, weapons, or martial arts to people that are not friends already.

[GJEC]

I certainly think that by fiercely defending anything you end up simply amusing the questioner.

"It's not for everyone" covers a lot of bases, then if they persist in being a twat questioning them about their hobbies subtley changes the dynamics of the conversation.

Gary

[meguro]

Jazz hands and squealing-I'm going to remember that phrase. Thanks ICK.

[powerof0ne]

I've wasted a lot of my time and energy trying to prove to others that I do karate and not kroddy. I even, a bit ashamed, did a lot of challenge matches in my teens against those from other styles to prove what I did was real and what they did was "less". However, I got a lot of converts to join the karate dojo or muay thai gym in my HS years and surprisingly no serious injuries in my backyard sparring matches LOL.

With age or maybe just experience I'm content and don't typically tell people I'm involved with martial arts unless they get to know me.

I've competed enough and fought enough people in various styles and trained in enough styles to know what I do works and that works for me.
Osu!

[medguy]

yeah, I don't tell people that I practice karate unless they know me or they ask. Americans have a "wax on wax off" mentality and, as I have previously stated in other posts, think that the only martial arts worth any salt are what Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg tell them. I have had a few who were interested in "fighting" and weren't familiar with Kyokushin or Enshin. I have pointed them to Kyokushin vids on Youtube and they never show up.

I have had a few guys ask if I was the gym's MT instructor when they have seen me working out. I tell them that I teach Kyokushin, not MT. i think in their minds that they have already discounted me because MT is the be-all-end-all. Whatever. People will believe what they want to believe.

[evergrey]

OSU,
I just show 'em my arms, haha.

Little do they know, I am not actually a very good fighter yet... but a happy grin and a bit of giggling while I poke at my bruises usually discomfits people enough to not mock.

[yoshukai]

Mar 24, 2011 12:01:42 GMT -5 medguy said:

yeah, I don't tell people that I practice karate unless they know me or they ask. Americans have a "wax on wax off" mentality and, as I have previously stated in other posts, think that the only martial arts worth any salt are what Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg tell them. I have had a few who were interested in "fighting" and weren't familiar with Kyokushin or Enshin. I have pointed them to Kyokushin vids on Youtube and they never show up.

I have had a few guys ask if I was the gym's MT instructor when they have seen me working out. I tell them that I teach Kyokushin, not MT. i think in their minds that they have already discounted me because MT is the be-all-end-all. Whatever. People will believe what they want to believe.

Speaking of "Wax On, Wax Off"... Just a few years ago, a friend and I who both fight knockdown, were asked by our instructor to give an interview for our local newspaper. The newspaper was interviewing us about our up coming Superfights tournament that year.

When the gentleman showed up to do the interview, he was very suprised to see that what we were doing was quite different than what he invisioned karate to be. He was used to kroddy, I guess. Anyway, he interviewed us and was very surprised at some of our responses to the questions. We were just being our selves an trying to get across what knockdown karate and full contact competitions were about. Even though our words in the interview tell a different story. The title said everything it needed to say about how people feel about karate.

I walked in to the office two days after the interview was done to see my picture on the fron page of the paper, with the title "Wax On, Wax Off".