How to convince my parents to let me learn martial arts?

Who cares if it's just a phase or not, if you wanna do it then do it, it's good to have a hobi and potentially learn something useful.
If they're concerned about it "not being for girls" as in bruises from boxing or something, then just explain how relatively gentle and safe most martial arts practice is. Also something like boxing which isn't really a martial art requires strength so there really isn't any point for weaker/smaller girls to train it. Do stay away from jiu-jutsu or judo I think, everyone I know who trained in those got a busted knee, pulled tendons or even a broken leg(not sure about that one). Wing chun, aikido, karate, tae kwan do... normally don't cause any serious injuries, even light injuries are rare.
Ofc that depends on the club and their martial arts association,some are more tryhard than others.
Lastly it's good for fitness(certainly an advantage over other sedimentary hobies) and making friends, they will also say it's a way of life blabla, I think these instructors are way into it this philosophy stuff...but then again they'd have to be I guess in order to spend so much time on that martial art and become an instructor.

 

Why do you need their permission anyways? There are no negatives and it’s good for the health. No reason not to learn it.

 

In that case say to your dad to get you a gun instead. Maybe that’ll have him rethink the learning martial arts idea~

 

Telll your dad that that's one hell of a shitty perspective. You can then inform him that you're going to stop going to school or working (w/e you're currently doing), since who knows, you might suddenly get fired or your education might not help anyway.

Hell, why even do anything? Who knows, you might suddenly die tomorrow, so whats the point in doing anything?

 

They probably think u are not serious about it. Show them how serious you are by doing it without their permission. When u get exposed later on, and they see the length u went for it, they will let u since they see how serious u are into it

 

Show them some videos like this when you are trying to convince them

 

Dude screw your parents. This is actually a serious matter! Especially if your a female. The world is getting way to dangerous, if you have the opportunity to learn, then you should.



I’m subscribed to the guy YouTube channel, it really brings awareness. Everyone should know self defense/martial arts, if not take a gun or pepper spray at least around you lol. You should watch his channel, I learn a lot from him.
Empty handed skills are necessary I think, more options to you and preparedness to handle any situation.

 

get the shit kicked out of you and show your parents

 

If you are in middle or high school, see if there are any clubs. Ask around, or form a club with your friends and see if you can get some school figures to sign off on it. One of my friends had mats that you practiced on during wrestling, and we would practice judo together at his place.

 

So are you now working in a field related to ma or fighting? If it’s not too “private” to ask, that is...


Personally I did a total of 3 hours of kickboxing lessons. It was fun. The whole exercise in a group thing. And the intensity was much higher that what I would do by myself. Oh and I loved the wrapping bandages part before putting gloves on, had the “badass” feeling.

The punching bag part was nice, I swear my arm muscle strength improved during those two weeks.

Negative: I’m easily bruisable even with shin pads and all. Also in kickboxing one needs to turn hip movement to do it properly... errr my hips and knees did not like that.

But even with those two negatives I would have persevered, but one thing which really made kickboxing be a wrong sport for me was when we had to do practice in pairs. I was paired up with a girl who looked like she would fly if I used half my strength in my kick. That made me feel really uncomfortable. Perhaps if it was a guy bigger and stronger than me I would have had less mental strain with the whole punching and kicking thing.

Apart from fighting with my brother when we were young (mainly teeth (him) and nails (me) ) I think the only time I fought with someone was when I was 7 and a 10 year old boy suggested (as a big and tough guy, right) to play fight. I was the tallest 7 year old in my class at that time so I got to fight with him (still feeling proud about it lol)

But really, if for whatever good reason you can’t learn self defense or ma or whatever- why don’t you try running long distance. That’s a lot of self discipline needed and apart from a pair of shoes (or you can go bare feet too, like on sandy beach or whatever) there are no real costs. Any time , anywhere (apart from middle of the motorway and such).

Running is great for self tempering, exercise, keep in shape, social- run with a friend/s, run with parents/ etc. Good for parents too (unless medical reasons.

Just beware, although all sports are great, but there is always a chance of injury. Contact sports (martial arts/ boxing, rugby, hockey, even basketball, etc) are all prone to have injuries. Running is also hard on those with bad knees/ hips/ ankles. Usually the least injury type sport is swimming. And chess. Unless your opponent punches you from across the board in anger (another reason to study self defense.)

 

It depends on location and gender. It’s never a waste for women to learn it since there are people actually targeting them for their body = they’ll get close even if they’re armed.
For men it’s honestly more about health than about fighting. Anyone trying to rob you would be armed and no matter what kind of martial arts you’ve learned you’d be better off handing over your wallet, calling the police and blocking your cards than take up a fight with someone armed and of unknown skill.
The place you’re most likely to use it is probably in a bar brawl or similar.

Practicing martial arts for your own safety is like handing guns out to the majority of the population for self protection. . . Oh yeah, USA already did that. Point is, you’re more likely to get permanently injured or die practicing it than you are to avoid these things in many areas around the world.
It’s maybe a month or two since one of my brothers aquaintances died from a head injury while practicing unarmed combat, he had a legit reason to learn it tho since he was in the army.

 

Self-Defense. Better than nothing. If they have guns, you are dead anyway. If not, you can at least put a fight. So you won’t regret it later. Tell him that.
Or you can try to influence your parents, like recommend them some good movies related to martial arts (that may make it easier to have an favorable answer later)..
Or ask them if they know someone who teaches martial arts, maybe they will feel more reassured to have someone they know to take care of you.
Or again, bring some friends and pleads your parents together. They will feel pressure in this way.. and if your friends have the same problems you can do the same tricks to their parents.. step by step, one by one, you can surely convince them all if you have your skin thick enough.
...
I think tell him the truth is the best though.


Good Luck.

 

well all the good advice are already been giving the only thing I can tell you is read this manga
Karate Shoukoushi Kohinata Minoru so your passion for martial arts stays high or goes down XD

 

Boxing is very useful for getting used to confrontations. You learn how to take a hit, guard yourself and throw a decent punch. You also typically do far more body conditioning than most other martial arts - since it's more of a sport than a martial art. For a high schooler, a few months on serious boxing training is enough to deter most high school fights. I'd think this would be especially effective for girls because of the element of surprise.

If you compare the number of punches you throw to a body bag and exchange with an actual person, you'll probably do as many spars in a boxing gym in 6 months as you will at a dojo in the 2 - 5 years it takes to get most black belts taking casual martial arts classes. Also you build crazy stamina so you can run away much better.

For actual self - defence, grappling martial arts are good, especially something that deals in strikes as well. The reason being that, it's very hard to knock a person out in real life with a strike. It just makes people angry. A throw, even if it doesn't hurt them (which is rare) usually gives people pause because it's psychologically damaging to be thrown.

Full contact martial arts with a lot of sparring give you practical experience with free-form fighting. Other martial arts teach you katas and another theoretical fighting. I've fought with black belts and they are usually so shocked when you hit them in the face that they forget all their learning. That's because real fights are sudden and unexpected. A person hits you in the back of the head at a party, a person jumps you while you're laughing on the phone, a person jumps you as you're getting in your car, etc. The more fights you do where a person is free to punch and grab and choke you out, the more prepared you are for real-life fights.

Most martial arts classes are to concerned with people being comfortable that they don't push their students. I see so many self-defence classes for women that are so gentle that they are useless. A rapist will pull hair, punch the face, they are willing to get scratched and bitten, they might carry a blade. It is so terribly frightening. I've met so many confident female black belts who turn to mush when a fight breaks out at a party.

As far as injuries go, it depends more on the club you go to rather than the martial art. If you stretch and do as you're instructed you rarely get seriously injured - kinda like exercising in the gym.

 

I like Holyland myself

 

yeah Holyland is better just that I was read the other right now so that's why I recommended it

 

If you want to learn martial arts so that you can beat up someone if they tried to harass you, that's already the wrong reason for learning it. If you have said this to your parents, then Ai-chan fully stand behind them: You do not need to learn martial arts. Why? Because it will do you more harm than good.

Why does learning martial arts in this mentality will bring more harm than good?

First reason, it gives you the wrong kind of confidence. Instead of running away from a fight that your body will instinctively want to run away from, your confidence that you're better than the other side will make your priority all confused. You will think that just because you have a black belt, you can beat the other guy who only has muscles. This is the wrong way of thinking. Unlike in the movies, even a guy who has never learned martial arts can beat a black belt one on one if the condition favours them.

Second reason, overconfidence breeds arrogance. You will start thinking that you are better than everyone because you're a black belt. You will start thinking that you can beat anyone and they need to fear you because you can just beat them up whenever you want. In reality, a fight is not always one on one. As you are a girl, your biggest fear is being raped (or gangraped) by people whom you picked fights with even if their skills are way beneath you. There are plenty of ways to beat up arrogant black belters, a baseball bat to the back of the head is one. Chloroform is another. Or if they feel insane enough, by throwing rocks at you, and no amount of karate can block a cock and if there's enough people throw rocks at you, it is impossible for a black belter to avoid all of them.

Third reason, overconfidence and arrogance will cause the third problem, which is stubbornness. You will feel like as you have power, you should not need to run away from a fight. This is wrong. There is plenty of reasons to avoid a fight, to lay low or simply to run from a fight. Your world is not a shounen jump world, where kids fight and become friends afterwards. Chances are, when you fight, you create a grudge, and this will not be extinguished any time soon. So learning eloquence and self-control is much better than learning martial arts in this case.

However, that is not to say that martial arts have no value, unless you're looking to join fencing class, which is a fucking useless skill. Kendo class is fine, but not fencing class. Please do not join fencing class, only snobs who think they're better than other people join them. The things you learn in fencing class will also not help you in a fight in any way.

Despite that, martial arts can indeed make you healthier and more fit. This in turn makes you more confident in your daily interactions and if you persist long enough, it will be able to teach you discipline in perseverance. Ai-chan learn kendo (specifically naginata) not because Ai-chan wants to kill people with a glaive, but because it toughens Ai-chan's body and trains Ai-chan's reflexes.

While your father was totally right in that martial arts will never match guns, martial arts provide something more than just fighting skills. Martial arts teach you how to think quickly when facing an opponent. It teaches you to see the viable actions as it trains your reflexes to identify the real threat and trains your body to better react to threats. A clear-headed martial artist knows when to make a stand or when to run. A clear-headed martial artist will not show off because it invites all kinds of trouble, and this is an issue, because kids often think that learning martial arts give them a reason to beat up other people, which is not the purpose of martial arts.

This is a very dangerous thinking. Guns shoot at a range, so unless you can close the distance within the 1 second it takes to shoot a gun, using martial arts against a gun is foolhardy. Considering that even a revolver has 6 bullets, the person holding the gun can shoot at you with all 6 bullets by the time you can get close enough to deal actual damage. Unlike in comics, no human being in the whole wide world can cross the distance and deal damage in one second, unless the person has a range extender such as a metal pipe or a length of wood, but it's still dangerous.

Knives are also very dangerous. Steven Siegal made it look easy, but in the real world, even judo masters will be wary of knives. You do not fight knives with bare hands. You fight knives by beating them with something longer, such as a metal pipe or other people's corpses.

 

I can see where you're coming from. That's a sensible argument but, I think there are certain important things you aren't considering.
Knives, bats, guns (my booty) and other deadly weapons escalate a situation. I agree that it is unwise to engage in a risky situation. It's far better to run away but, there are times when you can't run away but, still don't want to use lethal force.

For example, if a guy is all up in my partners face, invading her space and won't leave her be. I want to stop him but, that is not enough to kill him. Engaging him until the authorities can come requires some skill. One time a teenage thief came in through my st floor bedroom window (while I was napping in there) and tried to run off with my wallet. It was in Australia (not many guns) and the kid was 15, my partner wasn't around and I have no kids so I didn't fear for my life but, I wanted him caught before he ran off with my wallet. That takes skill to stop a person without killing or seriously injuring them.

Any time you initiate force on another person, they can assume you mean them deadly harm and can end your life. However, there are many situations in between where you have the right to defend yourself but, you don't want to use deadly force. If you pull out a weapon, the other person is either going to flee or try to use deadly force against you. You have to be prepared to kill whenever you brandish a weapon and sometimes that's overkill.

Another time a guy came to my house and started beating his girlfriend in front of me (while I was trying to study). It wasn't a deadly situation but, I wanted it to stop so I engaged him and he cooled down and left. Had I pulled out a knife or gun, who knows how it would have gone down. There are many cases where a weapon is taken from the victim and used against them.

I think guns and weapons are necessary. The alternative is to entrust your life to strangers (the police) and they are far from perfect. My house was broken into 6 times in my 7 years there. Fortunately, my partner was never home alone when it happened but, can you say to a person who has been raped and given an std that they shouldn't own a weapon? That's seems like bs from a person who is safe and doesn't have to deal with any actual threats. The world can be dangerous and people should be allowed to arm themselves. There just need to better control for automatic weapons and carrying firearms in public spaces. More investment in law enforcement at home and less on military spending. Taking away the means of self-defence from people isn't the answer because people still can and do get raped, kidnapped, murdered by unarmed people or people with knives.

That being said, martial arts is a practical halfway point where your life isn't in danger but, you want to stop a certain action. As a former bartender that happened every other day. You can't be pulling out guns in a bar.

 

>Story Time!
>Me just walking by
>Girl Gets harrassed by thugs.
>Gone towards them and tried to be help the girl.
>The leader started boasting that he's a boxer.
>Me wasn't fazed but try to be a pacifist.
>Thugs started attacking me.
>Didn't fight back since i was still a pacifist.
>The leader didn't join and just started to rape the girl.
>Me decided that pacifistifism is stupid and one punch the thugs.
>Leader gets pissed off by knocking his guys.
>Starts beating me up without using his boxing skills.
>Me defended his attacks barely.
>Me starts slowing grappling the guy.
>Gets pissed off and started using his boxing skills.
>Me gets helpless.
>Me barely knows any martial arts since too poor to learn one.
>The guy gets cocky.
>Starts cussing me
>Me wasn't faze.
>Starts talking bad about my mother.
>Gets pissed off and delivered a solid punch to his face.
>Broke the guy's teeth, gets a nosebleed and is knocked out.
>Girl snaps out of it and tries to thank me.
>Me finally snapped out.
>Me gets scared.
>Me didn't want to go back to jail to meet with the uncles again.
>Me runs away.

And thats why i never learn any martial arts.

 

No, I mean if the person is close enough, not by a distance, then that person can disarm the attacker. Obviously it's over, the moment the attacker successfully aims the gun at you within any acceptable range. As for knives, I never knew that. What the fuck? If that's the case, why are our instructors teaching civilians how to disarm or parry against civilians that use knives? The lessons were a lie... It was a lie!