Attitude survey - all answers welcome!!!

[amedia]

I'm trying to get a handle on how people feel about martial arts - it's one of the ways I can become a better ninjutsu teacher. If you can take a minute and answer these questions, I'd *seriously* appreciate it!

If you are into martial arts...

Before you got into martial arts, what did you think about it? What kind of positive/negative ideas or impressions did you have of it? What was the positive idea that finally prompted you to become active?

If you're not into martial arts...

What's your impression of martial arts? Both good and bad impressions are valuable to know about. Is there anything you've heard/seen about martial arts that makes you want to try it? Is there anything you've heard/seen about martial arts that makes you not want to try it?

Comments

[twistedchick]

I'm into tai chi (when I have room) and tai chi sword (when I have more room, and non-freaked neighbors). I've had good impressions of people doing tai chi, aikido and judo, less good of karate people. Some of the karate people have tended to want to show off a lot, and in some cases to try to pick fights.

I got into it because I was in grad school and desperately needed something to do that was active but not high-impact, and it has been very helpful. I would have liked to learn aikido, but haven't found a local dojo whose sensei I know well enough or have heard enough about to trust. A friend broke her ankle badly at aikido by falling between the mats; I'm just clumsy enough to do worse than that.