4, that is it and I plan to make it more. I am honest when I say I know little in the scheme of things. I am a newbie and have barely got my feet wet. From this forum I have been able to learn far more then I could by doing nothing. At this point in time in my training I am extremely happy where I am and see no need to venture out to learn from others, in fact that stuff comes to us by way of our Instructor and I feel honored to learn under him.

Later as the years go by I would like to venture out and see things for myself ... but it is a scary world out there. For now I'll stay put and live through you people, visit website and listen to others I know. As I get the opportunities to meet others I can learn from them more about their arts and already do so at work with a young lady who trains in Kenpo Karate. Working with a guy in Judo who comes to our school to learn some Taekwondo stand up and some BJJ. From taking seminars. From reading books. Baby steps for sure but moving forward.

Though many years ago I wrestled in school I do not consider this martial arts though it did give me a foundation when learning grappling. So 4 years and going strong.

23 total so far. Hoping for many more if i can find a doctor that knows their elbow from their "A" hole.

Only 12 so a novice compared to many here.
Sharon

What happened to 3 on the poll? do you want me to round up or round down?
Actually, dont answer that, i know how many hours i put in. Down it is

Ed,

I'm beginning my 33rd year, and it hurts to count that high.

Just over 16 years now.

11 going on 12 years in Feb 2007.

20...yikes, I'm old! When did that happen?

Peace,
Mike

I'm with Cord...where's 3? Or 2.5, or...

Less than three. A real beginner. But I'd like to point out that there is a qualitative difference between someone who puts in 2 hrs/day for 3 years, vs. once week (I fall into the latter category).

mine is hard to calculate. about 15 years steady and continuous, then another 15 not steady and on my own. then the past year has been steady. so what is that?

Working on my 25th year and MattJ has been practicing on my nose for most of that, lol.

11 years here.

Thirteen years in Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido and
twelve in Aikido, which I figure totals 25.
Suddenly I am feeling old.

God this makes me feel old!

Started in 1984, with a few short breaks here and there.

Not a few, just a couple.

1979-2006 and still kick'n

You guys trained for more than my whole lifetime

wow you guys have lots of years

me? 4 and counting. Yea pretty newbie, what can I say?

Hoho, looks like we've got at least one member who's spent 40+ years training? Who's the dedicated person who did that?

not me...I put down 21-25.

21st year of training, looking forward to the next 20.

1980 - 2006, 26 years

6 years with plans for many many more.
I'm impressed how long some of you guys have been training.
I hope I'm still going 20 years down the track. That's definitely the plan.

Around 5 years of "Formal Instruction" and around 6 years of a rapid culmination of MA theorems, urban application "copyrighted", Style conceptualizing, Gi devouring, specificity training, and random sparring; either verbal this Forum( )...and the old fashioned way.

Grand total 10-11 years in.

I started in 1973 with a few months of no physical practice for a shoulder injury and a few months of only doing left handed techniques for a right hand crush injury. I still read and did meditation. Plus I practised Kata in my mind. Other than that, I have continued to practice non stop, even when I wasn't supposed to.

Will be 20 yrs this december 10th.

When you walk into the class room and realize that you have stripes on your belt that are older everyone else present, that old thing hits you like a rock in the head. And I'm not talking about the kid's class.
Started in 1968. I thought I had retired three years ago but I don't think that is going to take. My wife just started Kung Fu this week and I work at a major athletic shoe company. The culture there encourages fitness and active participation.

I started in 1985, and just today I passed my shito-ryu nii dan test

I'm 41. I started when I was thirteen. I've had a few breaks here and there but I've pretty much always been training (about 27, 28 years or so).




-John

Good job bud.

Yay for all us 'old-timers!'

May we always be able to whup those young 'uns (or at least keep them THINKING we can whup them!)!



Peace,
Mike

Started in 1983. Stumbled a few times, but mostly have practiced steadily, if not completely, for the last 15 years or so. That would make it 23 years for moi.

11

1.5... give me credit, I'm only 17 By the way, you guys may be feeling old but I am feeling like the baby boy of the forum

well i will be coming up on my 5th year here pretty soon in september actually... i just turned 17 in may... as many of you know just got my shodan in shotokan...

i just got back from camp and all these people watching all these tapes of like 20 years ago and for a little bit there i wished i was older and or started earlier but my sensei heard me talking about it and told me that had i joined any earlier i probably would have quit.

so everything worked out i guess

this is my ninth year.

Matt

Almost 6 years, not even close to alot of you. I'm 17 though.

A whopping 2 1/2 years. Just long enough to get thoroughly addicted.

Laura

About 3.5-4 give or take. My experience is unfortunetely more ofa frankenstein construct of methods but what I do seems to work from me. Too many sources though.

Quote by JeffG -

Quote:

---

Started in 1968.

---

DAYUUUUUM!!! You have been doing MA longer than I have been alive!

I've been doing Martial Arts for about 13 Years now, What Wild Journey it has been so far, lol

~Scott Tracey

13 years

Started on Labor Day week 1962...

New to this board but... 25 year experience. Started at 12 years old.

The scale given has a max of 'over 40 years', so I'll leave it at that.

I belonged to the generation that USED to disagree with Bruce Lee (when he was still with us and I was a student in London) in opening up to westerners

I noticed there is one other dino around here; wonder who that is?

17 of the past 22. Started at 5 years old.

WOW! A Stampede sighting!

only 2 for me in BJJ but i plan to continue it for the a long time

also new to the board juss registered last night

Started in 1997 I think. Can't really remember.

Started MT at the age of 8 for fun. The training there seemed more interesting than other camps, so I signed up.

Then expanded into some Kung-fu. Recently got black belt in Kickboxing and jujitsu.

Tried quitting MA a month ago. Today, I signed up for a tournament. Seems, I can't quit.

-Taison out

Started February 1968....pre Bruce Lee, in the UK anyway...in fact pre nearly everything

Didn't know quite how to calculate this, but I've done it as follows...

1 year Judo 1981, 3 years Renshinkai karate 82-85.
15 year rampage of drink, drugs and rock and roll.
5 1/2 years Kenshukai karate 2000-2006.
1 years Goshin-ryu Jujutsu 2005-2006.
1 years Combat Arena 2005-2006.
8 months Shorin-ryu karate 2006.

That works out at about 12 years 2 months. Nothing to write home about.

Mine is also difficult to calculate!

I started about 1968, + did nearly 6yrs of judo

I also spent the next few decades doing martial arts on horseback.. [which I haven't counted in my tally] and I'm *still* doing it!

I started karate just on 6 yrs ago

plus add to the total a year and half of WMA/medieval MA just for kicks!

If you counted what I've done with the horse related MA the grand total would be well over 40 years.

Welcome to the 'WO40 Club' -- Well Over 40 Club.

The inaugural meeting is fixed for 31 September 2006 and the safest place on Earth at the moment appears to be MiddleEarth, partly because no body, especially the 'you-know-whos', knows where it is. I am using part of Ed Morris's 1m to go there, wherever it is at.

LOL @ Butterflypalm

thankyou!

MiddleEarth is a few kms down the road from me, well bits of it are, - the Hobbiton part anyway. Other bits are a bit further south, but you're all welcome to come.

When are you all coming?? Just so I can be there...

I regret to announce that the meeting has been postponed because I've just being diagnosed as suffering from "poithiphobia" -- fear of pointy things. Prognosis is not encouraging.

I think I'm the baby here. Only 7 months! I suck, I know, but I love it. I can't imagine stopping! It is so awesome to meet these people who've been doing this longer than I've been alive! (I'm turning 18 tommorow) I love Karate. How did I ever live without it?

Perhaps I stand corrected.

Going down the List, I've discovered another phobia which have recently being the low point of my life due to my semi-retirement which reguires a drastic down-sizing of many hitherto taken for granted activities ---- Medomalacuphobia.

Please keep this to yourself.

I feel young and ignorant.

I did classical foil fencing, weekly, for a couple of years as a teenager. Couple of terms of tai chi weekly when I was 16 (v. badly taught).

Then as an undergrad at Keele, from '95 I trained more rigorously, (2hr twice a week), in the JKA Shotokan university club. Stopped owing to pressure of academic work after 18 months. It was a very good club and kind of spoiled me in terms of looking to restart. However, after about a decade, I am restarting the karate, I am hoping to make a long term habit of it this time.

This one's rather tricky, technically I have 7 years of experience, but I only consider 2-3 of them to have been of any use.

I believe I started in 1975 and that was on my own. I bought a book , Jet ken do and read and practiced. Then that year I met a guy in school that was a BB and he helped me with some training. In 1976 I moved and ended up just gravitating to guys that did MA. When we became friends I didn’t know they were in MA but it was meant to be. The styles were TDK and Shorin Ru. I worked out with my friends until I entered a formal class in collage in 1979 and that style was WTF TKD in Moorhead Minn. I only did that for a year and I joined the USAF and was sent off to the Philippines for 3 yrs. I practiced off and on for that time, but not to serious. Then I moved again and tried to find a good school in Austin TX. I moved again and started up again in 2002 and did ATA for a while and now am back to WTF. Lots of ups and downs in between but I always studied the arts.

Ive been involved in one art or another which puts me at 16 years. Amazingly small percentage there but only half way down the list. Interesting. Just one more thing to show me that I have a long way to go.

As a kid, i did 3 years of karate

As a teen, i did 3 years of boxing

I've now been doing jkd for 7 years

So 13 years in total, but it's only been in the last four or five that i started practicing every day, so i feel i've only really been a MAist for that long.

I am 41. I started training at age 13 in Kyokushinkai (a lot of which I liked very much). I stayed with that until age 17 when I began studying JKD. Later on would come boxing, wrestling and everything else.

I haven't trained consistently of course over the length of time (13 to 41). Occassionally things would get in the way. Things like education, marriage, children, jobs, etc. But I always managed to get some training in.

At last count, I've been training very consistently for the past 11 years (Brazilian jiu-jitsu/submision wrestling, boxing, savate, muay Thai and some things that some folks might call combatives. Personally I think it's ALL combatives.)

Now I've suffered a shoulder separation that will put an indefinite hold on any further training. It sucks not being able to get on the mats folks. Always train safe and smart.


-John

Wow! That's funny.

What's funny?

Wow...compared to some of these people I feel extremely inexperienced...but okay, I'll answer the question. I am 17...and I began taking Judokai Kan Ju Jutsu about 5 and 1/2 years ago...and then I was forced to quit at blue stripe because my shoulder couldn't take the takedowns and extremely rough sparring and grappling, so I joined TKD and I ahve been doiing that along with a little BJJ on the side for 2 years. It's great

Wow John. I knew you were more experienced than me but I had no idea that it was by so much.

16 here. Sheesh. Never thought about that before. 16 years and I still feel as if I knew nothing.

Started back in 1963 when I was 18. Now I'm 61 1/2 and still training and teaching. Time flies when you are having fun.

Welcome to the forums, sungjado.

Another immortal has revealed himself/herself (more likely the former)

Started Aikido when I was 12,
did that for about 5 years
then when I was 16, I started Karate too.
but after a year of karate
I quit both aikido and karate for soccer,
[which I hated, and hated myself for doing]

...oh and I also did about 2 months of foil fencing, but that doesn't count to me...

I am still hoping to get back into some martial art,
but am no longer near my old dojo and have yet to really do much research about any local dojos.
exept i'm pretty sure that one is a mc dojo.
Oh, I also think that an other one only exists in an alternate univers.
There must be some kind of glitch in the matrix to make it show up in the phone book,
because I drove by about 4 times and didn't see it.

Suggestion: Walk by and ask if there is a martial arts studio in the area. Some of the good ones hide pretty well.

That was the case a couple years ago in the Adirondacks where I was spending the summer.

13 years, the last few have been crushed by work and study.

Starting a new training binge soon.

I started TKD in Feb. 1991. I have dabbled in a couple of other arts (Tai Chi, Kali, Eskrima, Arnis) but my main focus is TKD.

13 years here. One style only.

20-21 years. One art. One teacher. No breaks.

J

Hello Mr. Morris:



Any chance the poll could show the Usernames of folks in the different experience categories? Seen that done on other lists/sites unsure if possible here???

J

39 Years of MA-not my age

Daang ;-)
I would have liked to add my vote to the 36 to 40 year group but the past 2 years my workouts have been so seldom....I decided to stop my count at 34 years.
Still waiting for the new hip replacement procedure because maybe it will allow me to get back into it when it is fixed. SURE HOPE SO....I miss workouts like crazy.

Nice to be able to chat with you all now and then though.

I'm in my 20th year of formal training in Okinawan Karate after 2 years of wrestling. I was fortunate enough to have been able to gain a solid foundation for several years before that since my father had trained in Okinawan Karate many years before. He taught me how to protect myself as a child and we both began our formal training in my teens.

17 years completed working on the 18th.
Been training in only one style, thinking of starting up a supplimental track, will never quit my original style though!

I have 17 years total. In sept it'll be 18 years of training. Haven't slowed down a bit "theorectically speaking"

Old thread, but I missed it before.

24 years training. I started when I was 10.

Page

almost 4 years. I'm just a baby. Aww....

I attended Karate lessons between the ages of 10-14, and then quit as i was more involved in Rugby league. I started Training Wing Chun about a year ago and am planning on sticking with that as long as possible.