“What motivates us to start practicing martial arts?” by Grasshopper

This has been a year of reflection for me. I have been thinking about how everyone around me started the practice of martial arts, and how the dojo became my second home. Over the years, I have been fortunate to meet many incredible practitioners and teachers.

I can’t truly remember the exact year when I started my practice. My initial exposure came from friends practicing for demonstrations of various techniques, not affiliated with any style or dojo. I was barred from practice after a few sessions because of my gender. I was told to dance instead of practicing, do something that a girl should do. Being stubborn as I was, I have done just the opposite, although not immediately.

Early on, I got into a few fights to protect myself. One of these was most significant. For some unknown reason, a female teenage gang member decided it was my day to get a beating. As she pounded my head against the wall, I kept thinking in a haze about why this was happening. She pulled me away and tried to punch me in the face. At that moment, I saw my own hand moving towards her face. Internally, I was screaming “No!”, but my hand kept moving slowly on autopilot, independent of my thought. Everything slowed down. Then, all I saw was blood running down the poor girl’s face. She was rushed away to the bathroom to get cleaned up and stop the bleeding. This took nearly an hour. I spent that time in the classroom with my schoolmates. The teacher dismissed me so I could go home, just to keep me safe, because once the bleeding stopped, the gang member would have come after me.

I remember standing in front of the building where I lived, waiting for the inevitable to happen, for her to arrive. Another gang member came to me and told me to go home to protect my life. I didn’t show up to school, and hid at home for two days. But eventually I had to go back. It was hard. I went to the girl I punched and apologized. Surprisingly, she accepted!

However, I didn’t start practice even then. I began thinking about what had happened. Then, some of my friends joined a Kyokushinkai Karate dojo far from where we all lived. After their practice, we all went to spend some time together in the area. I sat and watched my friends practice for six months. Finally, the sensei got tired of me just sitting there next to the dojo in the waiting area and pulled me into class.

How did you start? What was your motivation?