While maturing through the 80’s, I was fascinated by almost all the remarkable martial artists I came across on television and in the movies. Since I was born in 1979, the days of Bruce Lee had ended and the most celebrated martial artists on the big screen were Seagal, Norris, and Van Damme. These karate masters were so pleasing to sit down and watch simply because of their great speed, agility, and their ability to show us self-defense techniques that we had never even imagined feasible. It could have been the special effects, but there was a mysticism about the way they battled and moved that helped you believe they were interminable. To me, these were the best years of karate.

I began attending Karate lessons during the middle nineteen eighties. Soon after watching the nineteen eight- four classic movie “The Karate Kid”, my mother and father signed me up at the community dojo in town and I instantly fell in love with the sessions. Despite the fact that I did learn a great deal about self-defense, the most beneficial elements that Karate taught me were respect and self-discipline. As I grew older and far better at the martial arts, my self worth increased, but I was taught to be humble and not battle except for in protection. While I watched nearly all of my teen childhood friends indulge in illegal drugs, partying, and alcohol, my dedication to the martial arts kept me outside of trouble with the police. I’m a firm believer that kung fu is the perfect endeavor to get your child engaged in.

Go forward to Nov 12th, 1993, the day the Ultimate Fighting Championships hit pay-per-view for the first time. The Ultimate Fighting Championships was made to be a battle of individuals from a number of martial arts in an endeavor to help determine which style or teacher was the toughest. From this competition, a very important factor became very clear….ground fighting is something that shouldn’t be under-estimated. Previous to this competition, the martial arts were characterized by men and women karate chopping, punching, and kicking to gain victory in a fight. Immediately after watching Royce Gracie win fight after fight by choke or submission, it grew to become crystal clear that the martial arts would most likely never be the same.

After the 1st UFC, things have transformed immensely. While there are actually still dojos that mainly train punching and kicking skills, most schools that I have a look at now teach submission wrestling or ground fighting applications as well as their standard routine. Martial arts are entirely about adapting to your competitor, and I believe that it is incredible what percentage of the conventional karate dojos have accepted these techniques. We only need to be very careful that we never lose the integral principles presented when discovering the martial arts disciplines in a conventional class.

Currently at age 31, I have invested a great many years working out in mixed martial arts schools, and while I like the unconventional atmosphere a great number of mixed martial arts dojos adopt, I miss a lot of the past traditions like bowing to your instructor and memorizing the philosophies of the martial art you are pursuing. Even though the mixed martial arts may appear to be the path everything is changing to, I will still always hold a great respect for the traditional arts I was raised with. Due to my fascination with martial arts of all variations, I currently am the owner of a martial art gear website where I stock a gigantic assortment of martial arts DVDs.