Informal Interview with martial arts practitioner James Snyder:

Question: How long have you been practicing martial arts?

Answer: “I have been practicing martial arts for over half of my life.”

Question: What was your initial reason for joining martial arts?

Answer: “I just wanted to do what I saw in the movies because I was only a kid when I started.”

Question: Do you feel that martial arts has contributed to your health and fitness now?

Answer: “Oh no doubt in my mind. Martial arts has pushed my mind and body to a whole new level. I am more disciplined in my everyday life and the physical demand that martial arts puts on your body forces you to be in shape.”

Question: How do you feel about your body now?

Answer: “I am comfortable with my body, there are always things that I could work on when I’m not practicing martial arts, but I still feel in shape.”

Question: Is there anything that you would change about your body?

Answer: “Well like I said there are always things that I could be working on aside from martial arts, but if I had to change one thing it would be my cardio. I feel like my cardio isn’t very good at all. But as far as physical shape goes I don’t have any complaints about my body right now.”

Informal interview with Roy Cruz

(Martial arts practitioner)

Question: What was your initial reason for joining martial arts?

Answer: “At first I just wanted a new way of working out, and after a while I found that martial arts provided much more than I thought it could.”

Question: How do you feel about your body now as opposed to before you started doing martial arts?

Answer: “I would have to say that my body is in its best physical shape than ever before. I owe much of it to martial arts, but I also workout outside of karate and I watch what I eat.”

Question: Do you think the environment in martial arts is different from the outside world in the way of physical fitness?

Answer: “Well honestly I believe that there is a much higher standard that men have to live up to outside of martial arts than inside the martial arts world. In here you’re accepted no matter what shape you’re in and everybody works together to get into shape, but outside of the martial arts world I felt much more pressure to be ‘lean and mean’ and be the world’s buffest man, to look good for the ladies. But after I started martial arts I knew that I was getting in better shape because I felt better about myself, even though I wasn’t the ‘buffest’ guy out there I had loads more confidence about myself.”

Question: What would you change about your body now?

Answer: “Absolutely nothing. I feel great, I mean don’t get me wrong I am striving to get better and better because God knows I’m not the greatest athlete, but I don’t have any complaints about the way I feel concerning my body, and overall health.”

Interview with Casey Proulx:

Martial arts instructor/practitioner for over 12 years

Question: What qualifies you to be a martial arts instructor?

Answer: “Well for starters, you have to be a student for a few years just to grasp the basics and then you have to enroll into an instructors academy for a little while and just do very simple training exercises with beginning students. Then after all that is complete you become a certified instructor and start teaching more and more students and so on and so forth.”

Question: What is the most common thing that you have noticed people joining martial arts for? (Adults)

Answer: “I would say most of the time it isn’t an actual need to learn how to defend themselves, but more so to help push themselves, whether it be pushing themselves to just get out more often and escape from other parts of their life to just getting in a good workout. Occasionally we’ll get the law enforcement guy in or the die hard karate man who just wants to learn martial arts but usually it a much more personal reason for joining rather than this social norm.”

Question: Would you say that people discover more about themselves after they join? And if so then how?

Answer: “Definitely. There is a lot of people that join under the idea that they’re naturally gifted physically, but then they realize just how much more demanding it is than they originally thought, and same goes for the opposite person who comes in thinking they can’t do much and then realize they can actually perform at a much higher level than they themselves thought.”

Question: Do you think stereotypes about martial arts are broken when people come in, or supported? Mainly the stereotypes perpetuated by movies and the new MMA culture.

Answer: “Well it depends on the stereotype. I feel the stereotypes from old martial arts films are much different from the MMA cultural views. But I think most martial art schools don’t promote the idea of just fighting to fight as some movies depict, but rather defending yourself when needed and pushing your body and mind to limits beyond what you thought you could.”

Question: Are there any stereotypes for men and women in martial arts?

Answer: “Well predominantly there are a lot more men than there are women actually practicing martial arts, but there definitely are female martial art practitioners and instructors. Most women are actually involved with the self-defense aspect and the workout aspect more so than the other aspects of martial arts. And for instance, in MMA schools there aren’t as many women simply because most of the time MMA schools are geared towards fighting which is more of a male based stereotype, although there are women involved in that too.”

Question: Is there any common factor among the women that come in to join martial arts that you yourself have noticed? Men?

Answer: “Mainly among adults I see them coming in to try to build a better sense of confidence for both men and women, but with the women more so than the men. Women don’t usually come in to learn how to fight or spar, but they do come in to build better confidence in themselves so they can walk down the street comfortably and know they could defend themselves if necessary. I wouldn’t say there is a dividing factor from the women that are involved in martial arts to the women who aren’t, but I do notice huge changes in self-confidence and overall mental health after women, even men, have been involved in martial arts for a little while.”