People ever stare at you?

Question

Have you practiced martial arts outside and people would like stare at you? You know the wtf is he doing face? or just stop and stare? any stories you like to tell

Answer 1

Bahahaha! Yeah, man.

I would do kata and what-not in the night time in my back yard. Well, these two guys didn't go for it, and so they jumped the fence and came at me.

But there's no great story to tell. I subdued them without violence. Wuces.  They come in- then chicken out!

Answer 2

One place I used to go to would have us take our belt test outside in the parking lot.

Not only did we get dirty and bruised up, but we'd have loads of people driving by and honking/making fun of us.

Plus there was a coffee shop next door and people would just stand there and watch...

Answer 3

i used to do tai chi in public gardens

lots of people stare and completely don't understand but oh well

Answer 4

While I was in college my dorm was incredibly small so I would practice outside, for some reason, joggers gave me a lot of trouble, and then there were these idiots who went to a McDojo MMA gym (after stating their school, I looked it up, classic McDojo) that wanted to fight me for no reason (I'm sure many people can relate to this....) there's really no way to react to that, if you say yes, you're a horrible person to stoop to that level (hurting a disillusioned person), if you say no and continue with training, you're ridiculed and called a coward... I just continued training and when they resorted to insults, I incoroporated more Wushu into my form and they went away, apparently, the more flashy and useless the technique is, the more likely someone is to get afraid of it..... my worst experience though, is when someone asked me if I was doing Karate (nice guy though, he didn't avoid me like a madman).... while I was doing a Long Fist Form (pretty much the opposite of Karate, Long fist is like.....anti linear)....T_T ah well, I suppose every martial art is Karate in the eyes of an everyday average normal guy....

Answer 5

As a rule, I don't do martial arts outside however there have been exceptions.

When I was doing training workouts for my black belt test, we did some of our workouts in a sandy dry river bed.  Our test was going to be on the beach and we wanted to get the feel for how different it was going to be to do our thing with shoes on in the sand versus barefoot in the dojo.

Well, a few people did stare but from a distance.  A group of girls happened by who knew one of the teenage boys in the group and cheered for him when he did just about anything.  I was smart enough to alert the local police that we would be there just in case someone though it was a gang initiation or something and one cop stopped by just to check it out, he thought it looked cool.

One other time I was rock climbing in a national park and felt a lot of great energy once I got to the top of one formation.  So I broke out in a Tai Chi form.  That was an incredible feeling doing that form on top of a rock overlooking the desert with no one else around.

Answer 6

I rent an apartment and don't have enough room to practice, so I go to the part.  I use the racketball courts for forms, because no plays on them and then you use the basketball court for kicks, I have a rubber ball on a string that use for target pratice and I use the basketball court hoops to tie my string around.  The police and sheriff's department have both stopped by and asked what I was doing because they have people voice concerns and the amblunace was once call because I was doing sudometrics and someone thought I was having a seizure.  I live in a small town in Iowa so everyone knows everyone's business but they don't come out and talk to me about what I'm doing they just call the cops.  

Answer 7

I've had that happen and I don't like the attention it gets me. No matter how old I get or where I go there is always at least one insecure bozo who will want to prove himself and want to try me out. I don't need that. Therefore I usually train inside and outside only when I'm convinced there is no one else around. Sad but true.

Answer 8

Well, I am extremely attractive.  So people stare at me every time I go out in public whether I'm training or not.

However, if you do choose to train in public you have to assume people will stare (martial arts are still exotic)

You also have to consider that at least 10% of any population are @$$holes (that is a socilogical fact)  So be prepared to be challenged

Answer 9

I generally don't practice technique outside the gym or my garage, so I rarely ever get noticed - with one exeption:

I was jogging last fall and wanted to switch things up a little, so I started doing a little shadow boxing as I ran, and when I paused at street crossings.  I was at a street crossing and a little kid (maybe 7 or 8 yrs old) comes running out of his garage in full Karate Gi with those blinky tennis shoes and starts doing kata "at me" - loud kiai and everything.  I guess he was on his way to class or just got back.  The lighted shoes and the kids tough guy face were so comical I can't jog past the house anymore without laughing.  

Answer 10

I tend to work on conditioning outside of the dojo, no real need to practice it in public or anything.

I have done demos to drum up new students, and I sometimes draw a small crowd, or at least a good bit of attention when I work the bag at my local gym.

In the Army we did Submission wrestling in the gym, and got a lot of attention, probably because they were wondering why these dudes were wrestling and stuff in the ab room lol.

But in general I don't practice Martial Arts out in public, I think a lot of times the people that do that are wanting attention. I would rather as few people as possible knew I did Martial Arts, unless they are truly interested in getting into it, or knowing about it.

But on average, in the street, at the beach, anywhere aside from the places I work out at, I tend to stay pretty chill, I will even be very quiet around a group of people talking about Martial Arts.

When I go to bars to watch the fights, and I hear all the people around me misidentifying moves, or being general fans, I don't say anything or correct them, I just let them enjoy the fights.

I used to get annoyed at all the people wearing Tap Out stuff, but I came to terms that in order for it to be a legitimate sport as I hope it to be, there has to be fans. I wear football jerseys and don't play professional football, so I view it as the same way.

I do know that every single Martial Arts place that I have worked out with that has a big window in front always causes passerbys to slow down and watch for a little while.

But as far as doing kata on the beach, or practicing stuff in the public, I haven't done that since I was a kid. Whatever reasons I may have given it at the time, part of it was to show off, kind of like the guys that chose a public park to play guitar, all in some effort that some curious person will either be impressed, or some chick would be.

Besides as I grew older, I realized chicks dig puppies way more than anything else, so I stopped playing guitar in parks, doing weapons work, or doing Shadowboxing while jogging, and just stuck with walking dogs or puppies.

Some of it is a maturity or different mentality as you get older, as I said I prefer people not know that I practice or fight unless I know them pretty well..  just not as ego driven about it anymore.