Apologies for the long delay in posting, I have been very busy with work and training!

As suggested by Leatherbear, I will talk about various aspects of martial arts, and how they apply and what they mean to me

Martial arts does have a profound effect on you when you start to make progress. Besides the physical aspects, such as improved fitness and co-ordination, there are other aspects too. My personal experience has been that as well changes to your mental attitude in general, as well as a stronger sense of discipline, there is a spiritual element that for me was completely unexpected.

Now when I say spiritual, I do not mean I became a religious person overnight, or that I found that  a belief system made more sense. What happened then? After a year or so of training, I began to understand the concept of energy, and the way it flows in relation to people, and how this can affect your body. Perhaps this is because in the study of martial arts, the concept of energy is very prominent?

For example, kung-fu has a lot of techniques that move with your opponents energy, and re-direct it rather than trying to stop it, and when our Sifu showed us a more in depth look at the techniques that we were learning, it became more clear.

During our time training at the club, there have also been opportunities to cover some Tai-Chi and Chi-Soa. While people may not think Tai-Chi is very interesting to watch, and I have to admit I did not like learning Tai-Chi at first, it is a fighting art. The movements are all fighting movements, and everything has an application, which if done faster could be deadly to your opponent. Having seen Tai-Chi weapon forms at the Gay Games, I can say that when done at a fighting speed, there is no doubt as to the viability of Tai-Chi as a martial arts style. Again, their forms are all about redirecting the energy of an attacker, just done very slowly and precisely.

Now you're thinking, how does this connect to a spiritual change? Well… It's hard to explain, the introduction to, and the understanding of the concept of energy is just one aspect of the change.

Slowly over time, I have developed a more spiritual side, and have become more patient and less hectic over everyday and mundane things that in the grand scheme of things don't really matter.

It was completely unexpected, and it does seem strange that a committed atheist like myself, but it appears that it is not just me who has been affected in this manner. Weird isn't it!

Later on I will talk about discipline amongst other things!

And don't forget if you want to talk about any subject within martial arts you can send me a PM or reply to the topic!

I would love to see your handsome face as your avatar so that I see the "real" beautiful you whenever you post here.  If you are OK with that idea and not sure how to accomplish it, let me know here or via PM and I'll make it available for you.

Please keep the wonderful pictures coming, brother.

i wish i had time to start. my ex said it's a good way to build confidence.

Thanks to Leatherbear for his great post on IAGLMA. For anyone who is ineterested in martial arts at the Gay Games, they use the IAGLMA rules there, however rules are only a guideline when it comes to tournaments. What the judges call may not always be in accordance with the rules as they are only human and get things wrong too.

Leatherbears post on IAGLMA can be found here:
hxxp://community.gaytor.rent/index.php?topic=12416.0

leatherbear edit : Ant requested 1 pic be deleted from the post.

Some good multiple shots, though the heads have had to be cropped out. Unfortunatley the pics of the guys doing sword didn't come out well

Thanks to everyone for all their supportive comments, more pictures will follow when I have compressed them enough to upload.

Now that i have your attention, is there anyone out there who is also a martial artist, in any style? Surely there must be more of us!

Petpetr, you say you are an enthusiast? Do you take part in martial arts or is it a spectating only interest for yourself?

1. Per leatherbear's command I am formally saying, "WOOF!"  (Behind beercan, who doesn't seem to mind me being behind him.)

2. Your avatar does you injustice.  Now that we see the REAL you, I can only say, "WOOF!" again.

3. For some (OK, me) there is a difficult line to draw between strong/manly/powerful and soft/cute/cuddly.  Dude, YOU are a perfect combination of everything I like.

4. I applaud your obfuscating faces.  Very appropriate here.  Maybe you can get a few of your MA friends to join us?  <grin>5) I really look forward to more posts!

Hugs,
Tim</grin>

With one picture of me and the mascot in Rome after the games!

As promised, attached are some pics from the Games.

but its fun, and healthy.

Nice to see some interest in this topic, and I will post some photos of myself at the games if I get permission from tho photo owners, though I don't know if other members of the club will want to be shown here.

The picture on the left is really me at the games btw! You can't really see the pole too well!

Kinsey, my lesbian Sifu loves UFC. I do too like it too, though I don't have cable so don't get to watch it.

I will re-post later with pictures, and guys if anyone knows where I can get a kung-fu bear avatar pic let me know hah hah!

So keep an eye for further posts!

This is a great post.  I, too, know very little about Martial Arts, but having more discussions here about this would be great for others and myself.

I'd love so see some pictures of the Gay Games and/or your local workouts.

This is a great section of the forum for your posts (Gay Sports Enthusiasts).  Perhaps down the road we could have a Special Interest Group (SIG) for this particular topic.  I really like all the SIG's here at the GT.ru forum.  While I have my particular HOT interests, I really like reading from all these areas.  Every SIG leader seems to have their own style.  I, personally, love reading all of fancydude's recipe introductions – he makes us see cooking from a long-time perspective.  I, myself, tend to post a lot of pictures of guys pissing -- LOL.

I would think this kind of topic could include a lot of things -- history, announcements of country/world MA events, techniques, mental stamina, etc.

I really look forward to hearing more about this from you and other interested members.

Regards,
Tim

[off-topic]See my Gay men's favorite sport joke.[/off-topic]

don't get me wrong, i'm more of a lover than a fighter, but watching hand to hand combat is healthy for the dopamine levels. in addition i have tremendous respect for the athleticism and restraint martial artist posses.

Some pics from the Gay Games would be nice to see also.

As a gay martial artist, I am interested to see if there are any other gay martial artists on here, or whether anyone else has an interest in martial arts in general.

While it does have a a bit of a perv value, am also interested in whether anyone else out there is prepared to discuss other martial arts issues, without being a style nazi. Remember :all styles have their place and it's no good knowing something if you know not of the application.

Having recently competed in the Gay Games in Koln, it is apparent that it is fairly popular amongst the gay community.

With that in mind, if anyone would like to comment, or has any questions. Please post away