New here? How to get started in the martial arts

by Mike

We've spent a lot of time discussing martial arts from the beginner's perspective and trying to show you how the game works from a practical, not marketing brochure standpoint. While the beginners tag is useful, we thought it would be more helpful consolidate the relevant articles in one place.

Here's my series on how to choose a school and what to expect when you get there:

How to Choose a Martial Arts School

How to choose a martial arts school part II: Before your first day

Flipper wrote a great series specific to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but is worth reading by anyone whose wondering if they're up to training.

Starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Part 1: Conditioning

Starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Part 2: Goals

Starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Part 3: Injuries, Intensity and Schedule

The Staff examined the question of motivation and The Wrong Reasons to Start Training

The Rules Compendium really isn't a compendium, but if you're planning on competing, it's definitely worth checking out.

As always, if you have any questions, please post in the comments or email us @ info@whywenothithard.com.

The Wrong Reasons to Start Training

by the Staff

There are a lot of reasons to train in the martial arts. Most of them are the "right" reason(s) while there are some that are patently wrong. We're going to examine some of them below.

• Using training to fill gaps in your schedule. There are overachievers and then there are those that confuse being busy with getting things done. "Monday is knitting, Tuesday and Thurs. are kickboxing. We. & Friday are basketball, Saturday is drag racing and Sunday is guitar lessons."
  
  Trying new hobbies is fine, but overcompensating for a lacking home life by means of exhaustion is a bad idea.
  
  
• Trying to find a date. Dating and the dojo don't mix.
  
  
• "I wanna be a, uh, uh, fighter. Es mi vida." It's hard to remember all the fools who showed up and, without prompting, tell you that they're there for one purpose and one purpose only - to be a fighter.
  
  What I can remember how many of them ever finished their "careers" with winning records: 0. That's also the same number that stick around for more than nine months.
  
  
• "This is the only place I can fight and not get sent to jail." Whether trying to exorcise their demons or waiting to have some maturity knocked into them, anger management classes may be a better choice for them. Although it's good that they're trying to find some structure and constancy in their lives, be very wary of them. They may actually be the type of person described next....
  
  
• "I want to learn to hurt people better." Believe it or not, these jagoffs exist. And they belong in jail.
  
  
• "The Discovery Center said it would be fun!" Anyone whose ever taken a class from the Discovery Center will know what we're talking about.
  
  
• "Because I'm like, the best one in my cardio kickboxing class? So I thought I'd be like really good here too?" Overachievers are pitiful when they've got their parents standing over them. When they're adults, they're...still pitiful. Moreso, even.
  
  
• "Once I train enough, I'll be able to trash 8 people simultaneously, catch bullets, and boil water with my 'chi.'" Wrong. Leave that BS for the movies on 'Samaurai Sunday'. MA techniques are are learned skills, not 'Dark Arts'. Students of MA are more like mechanics than wizards.

As mentioned before, any reason can be the right reason. No doubt that there have been people who signed on with the above mindsets and ended up changing their minds about why they were doing it and have been very happy and successful in their martial arts career. If you feel the need to justify what you're doing, you're doing it for the wrong reasons.

For what it's worth, Mike got involved in martial arts because a girl he was seeing was going on vacation for six weeks and he wanted something to help fill the weekends. Being an Oleg Taktarov fan, he saw "sambo" in an ad for the school and, five years later, is still showing up.

Although he's never seen sambo advertised there since.

Meredith started classes because she didn't get a part in any of the plays she auditioned for that winter.

CP got into MA mainly because a room full of crazy people learning fight moves is way more fun than running, climbing, biking, (and whatever-that-eliptical-thing-does) on a machine that doesn't go anywhere.