Anyone here?

Anyone alive out there? I have a background of US Army, Law Enforcement, Shito ryu, Shotokan, Shorin ryu, Jee Do Kwan tang soo do. 33 years training. I enjoy communicating with folks on the fighting arts. It's a shame this board has died. A few years back, there were really knowledgeable and nice people who were on every day and communicated regularly. I'm hoping to try and revitalize it.

Glad to see you back man.

I try and check in every now and then myself.

Not much going on.

Not sure if MA in general is a popular as it was back in the day, things seem to have slowed down a bit everywhere.

I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone around here that gave so freely of their time and knowledge back in the day.

Forum has been dead for a very long time. I occasionally check in from time to time. I think a lot of folks either stopped training or migrated to other places on the internet.

Google trends show some martial arts are doing okay, other martial arts are struggling. MMA classes and MMA gyms are realtively popular search terms. Aikido is a really unpopular search term and has been in free fall for the last 20 odd years. 10 years ago there were about 25 Aikido clubs where I live. Now there are about 15.

I think people are more worried about TBI these days and have a better understanding of the long term health risks of doing martial arts. Very few people who do high impact martial arts for a prolonged period of time come out of it well.

Also consider TMA have a negative perception in the media (as someone once said on here, look at how Karate is portrayed on Friends or on the US Office. It's essentially seen as a pastime of geeky middle age men who couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag).

Then you had the economic down turn combined with the rise of budget gyms, cross fit and youtube showing people how to exercise at home. A lot of people I use to train with don't think martial arts are worth the money anymore.

Sadly true.

Even many of the MMA gyms seem to be heading downward---there used to be dozens of them in some of the cities---now there are just a few.

Its like it was before the boom, just kids and old timers.

Very general observation. Not meant to apply everywhere.

In some places the TMA are doing well.

Wow...ZERO new posts in any of the forums here for over 2 months now. If there are any of the mods about, are there any plans to wind FAF up?

It looks like this forums lost its base of posters awhile ago.. It was already on a fast decline when I registered...

Stop in time to time but yes, has been dead for quite some time. Good memories when it was booming.

I check in from time to time as well.

Agreed good memories.

Well, there is still a lot of great info here in these forums. It's good to revisit them and remember some of the great advice that was given then.

Or facepalm as you read opinions that differ from yours!

Ronin.

Yep, there is a lot of good info on this site.

Matakiant

Lot of that as well.