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Has anyone picked up a martial art?

380 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Blue Dino, 
A
Did it help your social anxiety? Thinking about picking up boxing.
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Shy extrovert
I started jiu jitsu. I was sort of thinking it might make it worse, I mean, having people on top of you is pretty embarrassing. But when you're doing the martial art you really aren't focused on any of that. You're too busy trying to comprehend the moves, how to make a move work, how to get the advantage over the opponent and stuff like that. I've only been doing it for 4 months. I think the worst was taking a belt test in front of everyone, but even that wasn't so bad
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WillYouStopDave
I picked one up once but it was really heavy so I had to put it down.
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WillYouStopDave said:
I picked one up once but it was really heavy so I had to put it down.
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Practice lifting heavy things and try again :)
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WillYouStopDave
AlternativeTreatmentsGuy said:
Practice lifting heavy things and try again :)
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It wasn't in the lifting. It was in the strapping it to my back and carrying around with me everywhere for life. I just don't need to know how to kick someone's butt bad enough to have that much time invested in it. There might have been 2-3 times in my entire life when I might have had to defend myself but in the end, I got by and survived.

Seriously though. I think I might have gotten to brown belt in Shōrin-ryū when I was a kid but I kinda think they just let me climb the ranks because they felt sorry for me.
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A
I get where you are coming from. I just think I would be more confident if I knew how to kick someones butt and especially how to avoid getting mine kicked. You also learn to dodge punches in boxing of course. Plus I really need some cardio and there are nice people where I want to go. A friend of mine was there until recently.
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Omni-slash
I did for a few years. Was initially a very emasculating experience as I realized how weak I was, but I did get better. I'd say developing any skill can help your self-confidence, even more so physical ones (maybe?)
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Blue Dino
I did jiujitsu for about 2.5 years in my teens as I was pushed to do extracurricular activities. I got up to a yellow belt. And during high shcool, I then joined a dojo that was run/owned by a friend's parents. Although there for the most part, most of us just hung out and didn't really do much. Right when I joined that dojo, they learned I was a yellow belt and instantly gave me a quick 10min "test" on the very basics and instantly awarded me a purple belt afterwards. Which was weird and I didn't think it was correct for them to do so. But the dojo doesn't wear the traditional gi/uniforms, we just go in with spandex. So maybe their system is different. For the most part, I will just go there once week in the weekends for 2hr lessons, where only the star pupils will roll. The dojo instructors and the owner is very biased and has favorites. I was nowhere close to being one of them. Most of the others like me were just sat around to fill the dojo, I think to make the dojo looked filled. I stopped going there around 16-17 when the social environment became more and more toxic.

Nowadays, I think I might've forgotten most of it aside from the basics. And I doubt I can do it again now without my upper back flaring up.
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