I began martial arts in the summer of 2013, and little did I know that it would become such a major part of my life. The original plan was sole to enroll my younger brother in martial arts, as my mother believed that he needed discipline and routine. However, I desperately wanted to join, and I implored her until she allowed me to try out a free class. I still recollect the nervousness and exhilaration I felt on my first day. It began on a lovely summer afternoon, mild temperatures, clear azures and a slight breeze in the air. My mom drove through town, me in the backseat, and pulled into a parking lot adjacent to a rather plain looking white building. In the front were two windows, a neon open sign hanging from the right window, and two doors. …show more content…
For a warm-up, the instructor ordered us to do a pyramid of five, which he explained as five push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks, then four, three, etc. all the way down to one and backup. It was more arduous than expected because I was not in shape at the time. Now, I am able to complete a pyramid of ten without a problem. Following our warm-up, we did several stretches. I did not speak to anyone throughout the entire class. Next, our instructor built an obstacle course. First, a person must jump over a plastic bar and do a forward roll. Then they run up to an instructor and block three attacks with a club, for which the instructor demonstrated the hard blocking system. It presented few difficulties, and I had it memorized by the end of class. After blocking, the person must perform a technique on a punching bag. I obviously knew no techniques yet, and thus I was taught defensive maneuver one, a technique that involves defending against a person that is charging at you. The instructor of …show more content…
At the end of class everyone bowed to the flag and the instructor, and relaxed with eyes closed for a few minutes. By its finish, my initial nervousness faded, and I had a lot of fun. I am still doing martial arts to this day, and I am grateful for having been given the opportunity to do it. It was my first sport and an important event in my life. It allowed me to escape my shell and make new friends. My taking classes eventually led to my mom trying it and becoming a paid
“The NHL (national hockey league) is not in the business of comforting people, they’re in the business of entertainment, and if fighting represents a way to differentiate themselves from an entertainment stand point, then fighting isn’t going anywhere” In the 2014-15 season 1,230 games were played, and out of those games 391 fights were in action. 29.91% of games had fights, 45 games had more than one fight. Taking fighting out of the game of hockey is too big of a risk. I think the fans will be disappointed and the entertainment level will go way down. In my paper I’m going to write about why fighting in hockey should stay and why people think it should also.
The traditional view of martial arts for most people comes from the movies, either featuring Bruce Lee or possibly the Karate Kid. With those classic references, the martial arts of today would seem quite alien. What was once obscure has now become the mainstream with millions of martial artists of one degree or another. The violence of this sport is far beyond what boxing, or football could ever accomplish; while those sports often cause concussions and the occasional broken bone, some of the martial arts expect their students to break the bones of their opponents if the fight goes out of control or simply by accident. This brutality usually shunned by civilized society, instead served to increase the sports reputation. The popularity of mixed martial arts soared over the last couple of years mainly due to the emergence of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as the fast growing sport in America. With this popularity of the sport mixed martial art gyms are emerging up all across the country. I visited a local gym to study the fighters, with the intention to understand the mentality that goes along with this profession.
It was in my freshman year of high school when I discovered my potential to accomplish great things and the ability to prove myself through determination and endurance. I discovered this when I earned my Black Belt in karate. The journey to the Black Belt commences at the White Belt stage. From there you rank up through a series of tests, proving your skills of martial arts until the level of "High Red Belt." As a high red belt, you start training for your Black Belt test which is separate from all the other belt tests. When I became a High Red Belt training for the Black Belt test promptly began. First I received a personal trainer to
Purpose: Support the Army and the PRNG through the planning and execution of the finest quality education and training for all Soldiers and leaders to successfully execute local, State or Federal mission upon the call. We must be an “Institutional Training Center of Excellence “in all we do. Quality assurance is everyone’s business!
My heart was jumping out of my chest the entire time I was getting ready and I was pretty sure I was going to hurl in the toilet. The drive to the Dojo was probably the worst. I pictured every possible thing I can do wrong during the test in my mind. In the end, the nerves won over and the rest was history. I was jumpy, scared and extremely nervous during the test. Feeling like a failure I was surprised I still got my belt. My teacher said it was because he knew I deserved it, but to me it did not feel like an achievement but instead like a
Taekwondo is for those who are audacious, enterprising, and intelligent. It is a sport that utilizes the subtle art of studying, probing, and finally attacking with a complex maneuver all aimed at the goal of undermining the opponent. Back then when I was a purple belt, I never really grappled the concept because I thought Tae-Kwon-Do was just another sport to play. However, a few belts later, a shocking event occurred and it changed my whole perspective about the it. I started shaping up, improving and eventually, I would go on to graduate as a black belt in the upper quartile. Similarly, characters from the book The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, faced events much like mine. The soldiers were unfocused and
I had little to no motivation for a while and thought that maybe wrestling wasn’t the sport for me. I had shown promise in practice but as soon as I got on the mat for a tournament or duel I just drew a blank. I wasn’t executing any of the techniques I had learned after so many repetitive drills. I wasn’t the only one that had faced such miserable losses but it felt like it. My teammates helped me through my rut by giving me additional advice during practice and being in my corner while I wrestled matches. It was a great feeling knowing that I had people who had my back whenever I needed help. The wrestling team was a close knit group that dealt with all our problems together. We worked hard and played hard together till none of us could go any further. We were each other’s motivation, rivals, and family on and off the mat. If I had any doubts about a match my team thought the exact opposite and made sure that I understood why they believed so. But what made us a strong unit was the fact that we had similar goals and values. None of us wanted to lose and planned to make it past districts. We all wanted to take home hardware not only for our own self recognition but also to bring back a trophy to put on our principal’s desk who just so happened to love the wrestling program about as much as our team. All of us valued the effort that was put into every early morning practice so no one looked down on each other. The connection we had as a team made my experience wrestling all the more worth
Going to class everyday without fail, reviewing and completely perfecting the five years of curriculum I had so carefully worked through, to the point where everything was completely automatic, and preparing for the fifty push-up requirement, were not enough. The black-belt test requires creativity through my creation of a personal kata and a self-defense to every attack I had learned. Beyond this, physical endurance and stamina are required in order to spar for ten minutes straight at the end of the four hour test, with a fresh opponent every minute. The black-belt test was the most physically grueling challenge I had ever faced and was much more mentally exhausting than any academic
I was watching the action at the heart of the club. This is where the more experienced judokas practiced, all of them looking fluent in every move they pulled off. Nobody ever made a mistake by the look of it. There was an older boy, around sixteen, nonchalantly throwing people to the ground, it seemed as if it was as easy as breathing to him. That is what I wanted to be able to do, not necessarily with judo, but with interacting. My stomach groaned harder and harder the longer I watched, I was terrified. I was really nervous stepping on the mat, knowing how I would get thrown on my back as soon as I did. The instructor introduced me to the rest of the class, I wanted to be sick but continued on anyways. Looking back, I did act strangely, even though everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming I still didn’t want to be a part of it. To this day I wonder why I was awkward in social in social situations, it confuses me, but it was a major problem to me back then. When I was asked to pair up with someone a shiver crawled its way up my spine. I looked about panicking about who I was going to pair up with, no-one was to be seen but a boy of my size. A thin boy with two of his front teeth missing, it didn’t stop him smiling from ear to ear though. The instructor told me to grip his collar and pivot. The fact that I actually put my hands on him confuses me to this day, it felt weird and uncomfortable and at the time I hated
and ended at 11:30 p.m. That gave me time to tend to my daily needs and get some work done. There weren 't as many activities in comparison to the Mind Body Conference, which was a relief because too much work would have left me exhausted. The yoga activity we did was fun and well worth it; Yoga was intense at first to a point where I couldn’t keep up, but after I got settled in it was very calm and relaxing. Unlike our usual yoga practices, this one was more soothing. I really enjoyed the Workshop because it worked perfectly well with my time. On the other hand, the Mind Body Conference was very time-consuming and stressful. It was on a Thursday and that is one of my busiest days of the week. Class started for me as early as 8:00 a.m. Within every break I had before class I had to show up and partake in one or more of the activities going on, that wasn’t working well at all. The yoga session we had left me with mixed feelings. It was good because we were the first people to ever do an activity in the school grass, which was an honor since it is against the rule to walk or do anything on the grass but having the permission to practice yoga on there was a privilege. I didn’t like it because it had rained earlier and the grass was wet, even the yoga mat wasn’t helping because my stuff got wet and all types of bugs were walking on me which I didn’t like. There were other activities, but my interest wasn’t peaked since I was too busy trying to balance work and the conference
“Good job son, three more wins and you’ll have your black belt”. You don’t know how excited I am dad I’m going to work extra hard so that I can get my black belt. They soon left the karate match with such joy. While Scott was in the car staring at the ethereal stars, Scott’s dad was driving and his mom was in the passenger seat. Scott’s dad had seen a very suspicious car following them, out of nowhere the car swerves in front of them and I big buff guy got out the car with a double barrel shotgun and said “get out the car now!” Scott’s dad got out, “listen to me honey here’s my phone and no matter what you hear or what you see you stay under this seat” soon after that Scott’s mom got out the car. “You can have my wallet you can have whatever
It was a warm day in August, the cool air washing over my body as I enter the building the bell ringing as I enter the building to SA. I wave to the cashier I forget her name now, but she had kind eyes and her blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. I continued back towards A&W and picked up the brown trays on top of the trashes, as if by instinct. I pushed in the door, said my hellos to my coworkers and walked the trays to the sink. It
The mind gets plenty of exercise as you work to remember the next movement of your choreography all while propelling yourself to better fitness levels. My favorite benefit of martial arts is that it is truly a family activity. Husbands, wives, sons and daughters can learn together in a non-competitive, healthy atmosphere. It's much easier to help kids get healthy if they are having fun. The boredom is busted because the routine changes for every class.
It’s no question that the military has changed over the years. Basic Combat Training has not changed for 30 years until the millennial generation, but why? The older generation says that the newer generation has become too soft and they made Basic Combat Training easier; the new generation thinks otherwise. Basic Combat Training Is still hard and the military never did get weaker but something did happen.
6. DON'T give up your spiritual values or religious beliefs. Just because you start learning about some mysterious Chi force or miraculous feats, don't suddenly think that you have found the answers to all of your unanswered questions. While karate can provide some very enlightening wisdom and inspiration, you should always remember why you first enrolled in the martial arts. It was probably to learn self-defense, to improve your health and fitness, or to join in with a worthwhile activity together with your child. I doubt that you wanted to join a pseudo-religious cult.