Thank God They Didn't Have Ritalin Back When I Was A Kid...

[SteyrAUG]

Some more "back in the day" photos from about 1979/1980.









By this time confidence in our ability convinced us that we could probably safely spar with weapons because our control and technique was "that good." Thankfully we survived that period of personal delusion with all of our fingers intact and no massive brain trauma.

But yes that really is us playing real time "catch" with a live katana and sai as well as playing nunchaku "tag." We didn't come out completely clean, I remember a couple cuts on the thumb due to poor placement on the sai and we both caught each other on the elbows when the nunchaku were flying.

And if we didn't have weapons in our hands, we'd gladly spend a nice summer day just kicking the crap out of each other. Ahhh, good times.

[Kain]

More control than 99% of people when it comes to martial arts.

Doing that now and the neighbors would call the cops and you'd both being drug to jail for domestic violence or children's protective services.

[BoringGuy45]

The DID have Ritalin when I was a kid; however, I was lucky enough to still be in an era when I drew pictures of ninjas, soldiers, gruesome monsters, and weapons, my teachers just said, "He's a boy, that's what they do." When I picked up sticks and wood chips and used them as guns on the playground, the only thing my parents or teachers worried about was that I would fall and poke my eye out. Every kid played with toy guns, wrestled, played football and soccer and kept score, and watched "violent" shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Looney Toons, etc.

[Outlander Systems]

I love your old MA stuff.

I'll never forget how pissed my mom was when I was practicing nunchaku kata and destroyed a light fixture.

All weapons were thence to be stored in the garage, and used outdoors only.

Then, Christmas morning, 1994, my father ND'd my brand-new BB gun into the drywall. It was a badass, Crosman AutoAir II.

[SteyrAUG]

I love your old MA stuff.

I'll never forget how pissed my mom was when I was practicing nunchaku kata and destroyed a light fixture.

All weapons were thence to be stored in the garage, and used outdoors only.

Then, Christmas morning, 1994, my father ND'd my brand-new BB gun into the drywall. It was a badass, Crosman AutoAir II.

Yeah, I pretty much had a outdoors / garage weapon policy at my home too.

Might as well share the rest in case you haven't seen them.

I think these are the oldest pictures I have of myself practicing martial arts around 1978/79.

In the pictures, along with my roundhouse kick, are my favorite Dolan's tonfa, my first pair of sai (bought them from Merten's Martial Market), a pair of AWMA "speedchucks" (which I'm holding near the top incorrectly so I can get an action photo), Shureido red oak kama, a typical 440 stainless steel katana and a Dolan's Chinese oak bo.















Photos of myself and my first student around 1981/82.

I began my training with local neighborhood instructors around 1977 and got my first shodan grade in 1981. Almost from the first day of training I went home and showed my best friend across the street everything I had been taught so we could practice together.

About a year after testing for my shodan I put my best friend through the same test for his shodan grade. I was also teaching his younger brother who tested as high as green belt at the time.

Both would eventually be introduced to my instructors and would test again to the same belt levels. The fact that I had been teaching long before I was officially entitled to was overlooked. At the time one had to be at least a green belt to train somebody to yellow belt, brown belt to train to green belt, black belt (shodan) to train to brown belt and second black belt (nidan) to train to first black belt (shodan). Shortly after my friend got his first black belt (shodan) from both myself and my instructor, I would get my second black belt (nidan) which would make my ranking of him a bit more official.

We also engaged in some unorthodox training that my instructors never would have permitted. This included contact sparring where black eyes, split lips, bloody noses and assorted bruises were commonplace. We thought it was great fun, our parents were terrified they'd be reported for child abuse.









Photos from 1981/82 featuring myself and my best friends / students engaging in a little "contact" sparring. They could dish it out as well as take it. They have the pictures where they are getting the hits in.

I can still recall all of us taking turns on the ground trying to breath and being amazed that anything can hit you that hard and still be kinda funny. We weren't normal kids. Somehow no broken bones and only a few momentary knock outs with plenty of stars.









Good times.

[Ed L.]

Rather than taking the Ritilin prescribed to you, you could have just sold it to other kids and used the money for other things . . .

I'm just joking. Seriously, don't do things like that. It's quite illegal.

[SteyrAUG]

Rather than taking the Ritilin prescribed to you, you could have just sold it to other kids and used the money for other things . . .

I'm just joking. Seriously, don't do things like that. It's quite illegal.

Have you never seen a 1970s martial arts film? If I started selling my Ritalin to other kids, the local karate experts would have had to hunt me down and kick my ass or kill me to save the kids and make the neighborhood safe.

I mean seriously, nothing brings the wrath of guys like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris quite like being involved in any form of illegal drug activity.



Besides I was doing pretty good at the time moving cinnamon paper in school. Cheap, easy to make "in demand" product and most kids had no clue how to lay your hands on cinnamon oil. On the weekend I'd have full sheets of cinnamon paper hanging on my ceiling fan, the whole house smelled like a cinnamon broom.

[Moose-Knuckle]

For some reason when I started reading this thread the epic episode 1 of season 8 of South Park entitled Good Times With Weapons came to mind.

Enjoy!
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full...s-with-weapons

[scooter22]

The DID have Ritalin when I was a kid; however, I was lucky enough to still be in an era when I drew pictures of ninjas, soldiers, gruesome monsters, and weapons, my teachers just said, "He's a boy, that's what they do." When I picked up sticks and wood chips and used them as guns on the playground, the only thing my parents or teachers worried about was that I would fall and poke my eye out. Every kid played with toy guns, wrestled, played football and soccer and kept score, and watched "violent" shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Looney Toons, etc.

Yep, same here. We must be about the same age.

[one]

The most unique part of the GD forum for me is the fact that I know exactly which threads are yours from the titles because it's all the same stuff I always did or read.