Via Martine, I found this little gallery on Wired’s site discussing the Gentlemen’s Fight Club in the heart in Silicon Valley.
“This is about self-improvement through a seemingly destructive activity,” said Gints Klimanis, a 37-year-old sofware engineer and third-degree black belt in Hawaiian Kenpo, who formed the fight club in 2000. It is meant to allow participants to test their ability to defend themselves in an attack.
Appropriately, the combat takes place in a garage.
Hmmm… seems he forgot about the first rule of fight club…
Sorry, couldn’t help it. It had to be said. ;)
John That guy who organises it is a 3rd degree black belt in Kenpo, so really he should know better. Very irresponsible.
There’s a lot of nerds into martial arts. I’ve got my brown belt in Ju-jitsu (would have had my black, but I moved out of town before my test and never got back into it). There’s a few guys with Aikido and Hapkido experience at work, as well as a guy that’s a 4th dan in Tae Kwon Do. I wonder what it is that draws us nerds to such pursuits?
John Me too, I do Kenpo and am a software developer. I find my work stressful at times and look forward to going training after work, great stress relief. For me martial arts is about physical and mental development, not competition or proving yourself (we have to deal with enough of that in the office!).
