No one hear of your Art Form?

when i tell people that i train in muay thai it seems like no one in the world has ever heard of this aside people that fight.

when i told my dad(who usually watches UFC) that i started doing muay thai he asked if it was a drink... i sed no... its like kickboxing.. and ur thinking of a "MI TAI" (probably spelled wrong)

and people in general would say how was ur kung fu/ karate class.. :bang:

man it gets annoying constantly repeating this so i just tell people its kickboxing.... how many others have expericanced this type of problem.

 

Say "Thai Boxing" instead. People've heard of that.

 

not even KF stylists generally know about my style. don't care; I do it because I like the style.

 

I was taught a style my old instructor termed Jayuseshinkai which was a mix of traditional karate and freestyle karate Jayseishinkai meening "freedom of spirit" I still teach the same form but have also mixed kickboxing techniques in I just call it freestyle now because it's easier to explain.

 

yeah I usually just say thai kickboxing or kickboxing. the majority of people have no idea what muay thai is.

 

I've been training in karate for more than 30 years. My mother still asks me if I'm going to do my judo - she's interested, but she doesn't understand at all. It doesn't matter.

 

The conversation usually goes like this

"I do escrima"

"What?"

"Basically Filipino street fighting. We hit each other with sticks."

"Right" *backs away smiling politely*

 

I've had to do that one.

Explaining Hsing I or Pencak Silat is not easy either. Generally, people just refer to it as that "Karate stuff" anyway so I rarely discuss it.

 

Me: "I do brazillian Jujutsu."

Them: "huh?"

Me: "I roll with sweaty men."

Them: "So you're gay?"

Me: "... yeah sure, why not..."

lol, it doesn't matter really - Captain Kebab, if you did Judo your mother would probably ask if you're still doing Karate... atleast we know what we're doing.. most of the time

 

Me: "I do kickboxing"
Them: "That's like K-1?
Me: "Yeah"
Them: "Who's your favourite K-1 fighter? Mine's Ernesto Hoost!" <= Everyone's here is!
Me: <Name's a fighter>
Them: "Who? Anyway, why isn't your face messed up?"

Conversation carries on.

 

Oh yeah there's this one too

Him: "What you do martial arts"

Me: "Yeah, Filipino stickfighting. It's really good fun."

Him (laughing): "So you learn loads of moves to kill people in one hit right hahaha."

Me (deadpan): "Yes"

...

Him (stops laughing)

 

Its easy to loose sight of the fact that MA is a minority interest, and martial artists are generally seen as a slightly more dangerous version of the anorak wearing train spotter.

They know that you learn how to hit people, that's about as much detail as most people are interested in.

 

I normally say "chinese martial arts."

kung fu sounds like cheesy movie stuff, martial arst too general, so yeah.

never use "choy lay fut." People then think i'm on drugs or something

about Muay Thai > Thai boxing works well. However, "Muay Thai" just sounds so much more brual and sweet . . . . . .

 

When I mention TKD, I often get the response "what, you mean like kickboxing/karate/kung fu etc.?", me, "yeah, whatever".

When I then mention hapkido, I generally get a blank expression, so I say "well, it's kind of like a Korean Jujitsu", only to be replied with another blank expression! I've tried to explain a couple of times but most of the time, unless the person you are talking to is genuinely interested, I just avoid the subject.

 

My favorite thing to do here is to say, "It's Korean" after they ask me what is kuk sool. I never get tired of the fact that people invariably respond to this statement as though it explains everything they want to know about kuk sool.

Them: You do martial arts?

Me: Yeah, I do kuk sool won.

Them: What?

Me: It's Korean.

Them: Oh.

Funny stuff.

Of course, there was that one time when a friend of my roommate's thought that I was saying "cooking school" instead of "kuk sool"

:bang: :bang: :bang:

 

Dude/dudette: "So you are into karate stuff?"
Me: "Yeah, kempo."
dude: "Is that like TKD, but with less kicks?"
Me: " . . . . . . . . I probably could explain it to you, but it would take awhile."

 

''So you do karate?''

''Yes, well, kung fu actually.''

''Oh! Its all the same to me!''

''Yes there are quite a few differences. Kung fu is Chinese and Karate is Japanese (bit about KF history and how it differs from Karate)...so you see they're quite a bit different.''

''I see........so, have you ever used your karate to defend yourself?''

:bang: :bang: :bang:

 

Yeah that's how it is for me aswell...

me: "Im doin Muay Thai"
them" "May Tey??"
me: *sigh*

The worst is explaining it to my parents...

me: "its kinda like kickboxing but you get you use your elbows and knees to attack"
them: "i dont want people hitting you..."
me: "...." *walks away*

 

Me: "I do Hapkido."

Them: "Hap-keno, what is that, some kind of lottery?"

Me: "No, this is what it is."
*Proceeds to lock them up forcing them into submission*

Other than that my fiance always says, "so how was kung fu?", even though I haven't done kung fu in 5 years.

 

I never get that here. TKD must be the most popular style around here and even if people don't practice the style they've probably (most likely) met someone who has or they've seen school signs or whatever. There are like, 7 TKD schools (possibly McDojo's, who knows) alone in my area (driving distance).

But yah, don't mention things like "I do White Crane". They'll think you're nuts or just plain dirty. It's even worse when you use a Chinese name, sure some people have heard of Tai Chi but what about "Baihequan"?