The hardest thing I've ever done

Oh ... I read that wrong Matt, I thought you say "World Ass" and then I was going to say that not to worry you are on track. Just kiddin'!

I don't like sparring very much, particularly when sparring a number of hyped up 20yo blokes who are 30 years my junior during my Shodan grading ...!

I'm "relishing" the thought that my next grading will be over 30 rounds of sparring against those same blokes. <sigh>

I think my toughest time in Martial Arts has been dealing with the deaths of the friends I've trained with over the years, and the "icons" of martial arts. Shogo Kuniba, Richard Baillergeon, Toyoda Fumio, and Nakayama Sensei's deaths hit me particularly hard. There have been others, but these guys were real masters of their arts, and damn nice guys to be around and train with. They might beat the crap out of you, but never in an offensive way... it was training, and learning and sharing.

Great men who deserve memorials...

The toughest part of MA?

1) Realizing that no matter how high in ranks, no matter how much skills you got, you won't be 'special' to normal people. They'll either think you're weird or you're a show-off. They don't really understand the whole 'learn to fight, live in peace' thing, they think I'm either violent, or that I'm just trying to show-off. Kind of sad really. But then again, I think it may just be a cultural thing I've encountered. Basically, if you're into MA for an ego boost, wrong place to go.

2) Realizing that my skills will never be of any importance when compared to the rest of the MA world. Sure, I've got a lot of training, but someone like Chuck probably could 1-hit KO me. World class flew out of the window.

3) Realizing that there is no 'style', just that there are limits. Then realizing all the propaganda spoon-fed to me over the years, and then actually taking the step to break those 'limits' but ultimately ending up conflicting with what I've learnt over the years. That first step to walk out and never look back, that was really hard to do.

-Taison out

What's the hardest, most challenging, most frightening, biggest obstacle you've had to overcome (or are working to overcome) in your MA life?

first of all i started doing tkd like 2 months ago and for now i am ok with how it's going but it's has begun to feel that my progress is slow actually with regards to the level and the time it should take to achieve that, so i will be doing something about that . so coming to your question
for me as i think

the hardest thing -: to keep on working no matter what happens to reach my goals, in my tkd class for the moment i am like the most junior guy , but in few months time i wanna be as gud as anyone in fighting.like what they learn over the years i got most of them in months not years.

the most challenging thing:- to keep on sticking to what i have passion of achieving in tkd while doing other things like studying , my hobbies , job (yukk i dont like the office for now ).not loosing the spirit even when in everyday life you will find so many obstacles to achieve that.also i believe if i say i will achieve this , then i must do that , for myself only i give no excuses.after all if there is no challenge life is not interesting or lively.

most frighting thing :- to loose interest or just not doing as i want cos of something .it's like being kind of a looser.i hate that and i would rather die than being so.

biggest obstacle :- hmm for me at the moment i will it's my job.it takes so much of my time for that while i find comparably little time to do things i love and want to do like music , tkd , studying (i feel like doing only studying,tkd and my hobbies not the job for now ,hmmm i dunno )


well that's it hmmm and hope i didnt utter too much lol. hey by the way menina do not give up , everything will be fine

When I was a young man I studied TKD for a year or so, then studied Wado Ryu and Shoto for another year each (more or less). I eventually wound up in grappling. In my 20's the hardest thing I had to learn/come to terms with, was NOT fighting a person on the street. I din't really want to "live in peace", I wanted to whip some jerks ass (whoever that jerk might be).

I was raised that you don't walk away from a fight, even if you were going to take a beating, you took it like a man.

I am thankful to say that as I grew older I was able to put this thought process behind me and mature into someone who would prefer a peaceful resolution rather than a violent one.

K

Accepting that I have -7 eyes and that they will get worse