Hey Sifu,

Good topic! I'd have to agree the "exotic nature" of martial arts is a
strong pull for me. I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies mostly, then
later (shortly after high school) was introduced to Jackie Chan
(Rumble in the Bronx) and Jet Li (Lethal Weapon 4) and was completely
enamored. Actually I'd have to say Street Fighter 2 was another big
influence as I was a huge Nintendo gamer at the time. When I got to
college (UW) I would spend my lunch break many times in the arcade
watching people play Tekken just to see all the array of moves.

I always held a belief that some martial arts masters out there had
the ability to focus energy like Ryu or Ken do in Street Fighter 2
with their Hadoken or fireball, it would just be invisible to the
naked eye. So I like to keep my senses peaked for any evidence of such
occurrences.

The precision that can be achieved with martial arts is amazing to me.
The ability to strike an opponent at minute pressure points with
dramatic results, although may take years to master, is part of the
"exotic nature" that intrigues me. After watching Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon and learning a little more about the martial arts I was
fascinated by the ability to not only inflict pain, but also to heal
the body with knowledge of these pressure points. I believe in jujitsu
they call it atemi.

I also enjoy the ability to control an opponent/adversary/uke with
minimal effort. I naturally lean toward the pacifist side of things,
but take comfort in the knowledge that I could defend myself if backed
into a corner.

I started in Tae Kwon Do when I was a pre-teen, only for a few months.
Tae Kwon Do later felt too 'flashy' with high flying kicks that look
cool, but don't seem all that effective if faced against a grappler.
In middle school and through high school I wrestled. Ever since I am
always seeking an art that involves grappling to some degree. I
believe wrestling really forms the base from which I identify myself
now, although I've noticed sometimes that can be a detriment when
trying to learn a new art. I soon realized I wanted to learn more
about joint locks, so started searching for a style that incorporated
them.

Around this time (mid-90's) is when I was introduced to the UFC
(Ultimate Fighting Championship) I thought this was a great idea, put
masters in their respective arts face to face and see which style is
superior. This also shaped my belief that any style is ineffective if
some knowledge of grappling is not taught. The early UFC's were much
more beneficial to understanding which styles were superior compared
to the current UFC's which have too many rules now.

In college I did about 6 months of Aikido, a quarter of Judo, and a
quarter of Tai Ji. Aikido was interesting with the flowing moves, and
I liked the concept of redirecting force rather than meeting it head
on. Judo felt similar to wrestling but I didn't have much time to
devote to it with school and work. Also didn't have much time to Tai
Ji, although I enjoyed it, however it didn't give me much chance to
grapple or practice moves on a person, mostly doing forms. I could see
the benefit of it over a long time, but I was impatient at the time.

In 2001 I went to a meditation retreat called Vipassana
(www.dhamma.org) in Onalaska, WA. It was 10 days of meditating for 11
hours a day, eating vegetarian, and no talking, no media (TV, music,
movies), and no conjugal enjoyments... Although there was no cost
involved, so that was good. I really got a sense of how important
focusing the mind can be in anything you do, especially in martial
arts. I remember thinking after the 10 days that it was like Jedi
training. Shortly after I started to connect how so many martial arts
derived from China and Japan, and ultimately from India, all of which
have deep roots in Buddhist tradition.

I later moved to California while working at Lockheed Martin joined
the Aikido group through work and tried that out for another year or
so. Also found a group during lunch that practiced Escrima and
Kajukenbo, but only joined them for about a month before moving back
home to Seattle. That was fun as I got to jump right in with
practicing knife fighting with rubber knives and such.

Also while at Lockheed Martin, I formed a grappling club which
combined collegiate wrestling and submission wrestlers. I was really
getting more interested in the submission wrestling as my interest in
the UFC was continuing strong.

After returning to Seattle I decided I should just go for it, and try
a style that would be right along the lines of the UFC. So I joined
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) at the Tully's warehouse. I was enamored
with the workout and was having a great time, however I started to
realize it was satisfying the part of controlling an opponent, but not
the esoteric part of martial arts that I was originally drawn to. All
of the spiritual connection with the world around you seemed to be
stripped from this, and just put into a logical framework of getting
the job done. Effective, yes, but still didn't quite have what I was
looking for. That and I got injured, hearing a 'pop' in my knee,
thought it was a torn meniscus, and was out a few weeks. When I
returned, my old knee injury from high school wrestling reared it's
ugly head again and forced me to stop practicing.

So I decided to try a style that would use less time on my knees and
joined Sifu Dejesus in Wushu. I was always drawn to the style from
watching Jet Li movies and seeing how graceful he was, yet the amount
of force he could generate was astounding. I stayed with Sifu for
about a year including a quarter of private lesson in staff (go
Donatello!!).

After watching what was going on in the room next door, the Kajukenbo
or Taikabudo class, my desire to 'spar' or practice against a partner
got the better of me and I joined the class. So for the past five
months or so I've been in Kajukenbo and loving it.

A big part of learning a martial art, to me, is finding the right
teacher/sensei/sifu/guro etc. I feel part of why I've jumped around in
so many styles is I never found a teacher I connected with. I believe
I have now with Sifu and Guro. They understand the esoteric side of
the arts as well as the practical application of it. I'm looking
forward to continuing my studies with them for years to come.

Thanks Sifu and Guro if you read this, for being such great teachers!

Joshua

--- In seattlewushu@yahoogroups.com, "Restita" <restita@...> wrote:
>
> The board is kind of slow as of late....so I'll start a topic to get
> some discussions rolling....
>
> What attracts you to martial arts?? You don't necessarily have to be
> currently studying one, as alot of people are interested in martial
> arts and not actively taking a class. So...what floats your boat
> about martial arts?
>
> For me, I was attracted to Martial Arts initially by the "exotic
> nature" of it. (hey, I was just a kid!!). I was a huge fan of the
> old "Kung Fu" TV series back in the 1970's, and I thought it would be
> cool to be able to learn stuff like that.....minus the smouldering
> cauldron to brand forearms with! ha ha ha!
>
> I started in Karate, and immediatley fell in love with it. I ate,
> breathed, and slept Karate. I think I checked out every martial arts
> book in my local library, and begged my parents to let me subscribe
> to "Black Belt" magazine.
>
> From there, the addiction kept on. Kajukenbo, Eskrima, Tai Chi,
> Wushu, Iaido, Kyudo.....I gobbled up these arts just as fervently as
> Karate, and still practice/study them. I can't even imagine not
> doing martial arts.
>
> So there you have my story.....what's yours??
>