What is your favorite martial arts moment?

[complete]

What is your favorite memory you have that's related to your involvement in martial arts?

For me, it was in junior high school.

I was walking to a class by myself and I heard someone yelling out "Ho Chi Min". The guy who was yelling this was a popular African American kid who had like 10 other kids with him. [I'm a Korean and Ho Chi Min is the former Vietnamese president. Calling me Ho Chi Min was a racial slur to humilate me and to get a laugh out of the crowd that was following him]

I knew that he had picked on other asian kids before and none of them stood up to him before so he enjoyed making fun of them.

I don't know what came over me but I was just not going to take any crap that day. I turned around, stared right at him, and said "What did you say?"

It seemed like an eternity as I stood there, while the crowd he had with him also stood there in silence. I think he was stunned that I stood up to him because he didn't say anything. After few minutes of this, I just turned around and walked away. There wasn't a single peep out of the crowd and nobody said any more racial slurs after that.

It's my most fond memory because martial arts training gave me the confidence to stand up to someone bigger and more than one person. But more importantly, I was able to avoid any kind of physical confrontation.

[NinjaMaster]

That's an awesome and inspirng story.

I'm afraid mine isn't as nice....

I only remember being attacked by 4 guys and had to fight all of them at the same time and fend them all off. It was in a school yard and nobody got hurt. We were only in 4th grade.

[SuperCrew]

Since I am fairly new to martial arts training, I really don't have a story like the ones above, but I would have to say thus far my favorite moment has been when my son broke his first boards at his 7th birthday party. We had his party at the dojang and they had a "mini class" for the kids and my son got up and performed his form and broke some wood as a demo for the school. I was very proud of him - especially since he was breaking 10 year old size boards.

As for a personal favorite moment - I guess it would be just the thrill I get learning new techniques.

[NinjaMaster]

Watching my own flesh and blood perform and excel is something I've never experienced but I can only imagine how proud I would be when that happens. Congratulations SuperCrew.

[SuperCrew]

You cannot even imagine. Before our training began he was VERY shy and scared to talk to just about anyone. This is one of the major reasons we signed up. In just 5 months he was able to get up in front of a group of people perform Chon Ji and Dan Gun complete with LOUD kiups flawlessly. And then to have him break boards using palmheal, knifehand, sidekick, and frontkick techniques was just amazing to everyone that knows him. It has really gotten him out of his shell. His self confidence is very high right now.

[Slashmire]

This is actually quite a good story that could serve as inspiration for other people; I can truly see othe shy people taking this and overcoming their shyness using the same path.

[ungraspable]

that is a great story! To think that you did not have to use your fists or anything. Just your confidence scared the wits out of him. Did he stop making fun of the rest of the Asians too?

[complete]

No, he did not make fun of anybody anymore.

I would like to think that it was a good life lesson for him as well.

[ungraspable]

I'm sure it was, just think he could have grown up to be a complete jerk and because of your courage, he might have changed so much, i wonder what he is doing now

[BlackDragon]

I would have to say that my most favorite memory in my relation to martial arts, is the very first lessons I recieved from my instructor. It's been a while ago now, but I can never forget that very first time of doing something I really loved.

[complete]

I was way too young to remember my first class. My parents enrolled me when I was like 3. I vaguely remember anything about the whole experience except what my relatives told me later. All I can remember now is that the classroom was in second floor and receiving an orange belt.

[redranger]

i've only been involved in martial arts since July, 2006, but i would have to say that my favorite moment so far is when i got my orange belt because i have always dreamed of learning martial arts and maybe being an instructor since i was a kid but never thought i'd be able to succeed at it if i tried, so when i passed my orange belt test, i finally realized i had a chance of being successful and achieving my dreams

[The Kidd]

My favorite moment would be passing my 1st Dan test, it was hard and gruelling. I had trained for months both physically and mentally. I had stopped training for about 15 years and then started over again so it was a completion of a long term goal.

[JackG]

I managed to do a hip throw on a 6"10 in class at the end of a session we r paired randomly and perform what we have learned infront of sensei and class
i felt like rocky

[JackG]

in my jitsu session at the end of a session we r paired randomly and perform what we have learned infront of sensei and class. I managed to do a hip throw on a 6"10 guy
i felt like rocky