Bruce Lee was born in the year and the hour of the Dragon. According to Chinese zodiac tradition, dragons are thought to be powerful, lucky, intelligent — capable of any achievement...
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
When it comes to social media surfing I'm always looking for community: like-minded allies with a mutual appreciation for the posts they create and share, and engaged peers who want to communicate about their passions as well as their struggles.
One of my biggest passions — and struggles! — is studying the martial arts. I first started learning how to fight when my father gave my siblings and I #Judo lessons in our backyard when we were little kids back in Michigan. This was during the era when Muhammad Ali was still in the ring, but boxing was increasingly dominated by lighter-weight fighters like Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, and Detroit's own Tommy Hearns. I had posters and magazine photos of those heroes all over my bedroom walls, and I even got a stand-up punching bag and gloves for Christmas one year. When #TaeKwonDo came to strip malls all over America my brother and I signed-up to learn those fancy kicks, and we used to watch #KungFu films from Hong Kong on a "Martial Arts Theater" show that aired on a local Detroit station on Saturday nights. By the time I was in college I started working out at an amateur #Boxing gym where I learned how to wrap my hands, hit the various bags and spar. Later on, in Tennessee, I studied Northern Mantis #KungFu, and I'm currently training MMA at the UFC Gym in Hendersonville, TN where I've been working out and taking classes for about 18 months.
I follow a lot of martial artists on Twitter and on Instagram — my Instagram account recently won me a brand ambassadorship for the fight lifestyle clothing line, Human Weapon. And a pal and I founded the Art Fight Club Podcast where we invite guests to talk about the struggle to make great art, and the creativity that's revealed in the most beautiful moments in combat sports.
It turns out that New Media platforms and ancient fighting arts are a natural fit, and as soon as I joined the community on @Steemit I was immediately looking for fellow fighters, but they weren't exactly easy to find. There's not a ton of martial arts content here, and there's definitely more UFC/MMA news and gossip than original posts from training martial artists. That said, I've been able to find a number of you on here, and I've upvoted and resteemed your posts and commented about a hashtag our community might start using to find and support one another more easily.
ENTER THE #steemdragons
In other groups I follow on @Steemit, hashtags act as curatorial tools that function beyond mere categorizing: #photography is a constantly-trending favorite category on our site. But the relatively new #photofeed is doing the heavy-lifting when it comes to separating the images of artists from the snapshots of travelers and hipster restaurant-food pics. All of these images can be fun to look at, but serious, dedicated creative photographers are using #photofeed to zoom-in on their particular tribe. I've used #mma, #bjj and #martialarts to find many of you on this site, but I intend #steemdragons to be a hashtag for practicing amateur and professional martial artists to use when sharing training videos, competition footage, gym photographs, gear reviews, fitness tips and anything else that might help this community to support itself and serve one another. I can't wait to find out when Conor McGregor will return to the Octagon, and I'll be looking for that announcement under #mma or #ufc. #steemdragons is just for us!
Please let me know what you think of #steemdragons with a reply — share any thoughts, suggestions, inspirations, jeers or cheers that come to mind. If this is a silly idea, it can die here. If I've left out an important aspect or perspective, I want to know. Upvote, resteem and start using #steemdragons if you agree that we could all use a little help bringing the comradeship we experience in our gyms and dojos to @Steemit.
I'm tagging all the martial artists I'm currently following so they can read this announcement. If there's anyone you're not currently following check out their feeds and consider following a new brother or sister in the martial arts: @bjjblackbelt @bjjmike @cryptofighter @darbojo @evecab @jiujitsu @martiallee @patriciorayaz @zekepickleman
Respect to all of you and to all the new warriors I have yet to meet on @Steemit. All are welcome. No matter who you are, how you came to fighting or what disciplines you pursue, if you're on the path you can walk with the #steemdragons
Budo! Bow...
Dude nice to meet you and thanks! I'm out of Paducah, KY and get to Nashville often. We should hook up and train sometime!
@bjjworldtraveler, @danaedwards, @shinedojo
Really? Such a small world, huh? Thanks for the comment and for checking out this post :)
No problem. Glad we connected. I even lived in Bellevue on the west end for awhile. I love Nash, def my fav city.
I need to check out your clothing line. Maybe we can discuss a collab on a steemitbjj tee.
Glad to see people making hashtags for our community. We also currently can use #steemitbjj, but I believe it's important that we use these community specific hashtags like you suggested so we can easily identify and support each other's posts.
Yeah, man. Like I wrote, I've been seeing other groups doing this so it seemed like a good solution for us as well. When doing BJJ specific posts I'll be sure to use #steemitbjj as well!
Sweet. I'll also use #steemdragons as well.
Emailed you about Human Weapon 😎
Ok, you just gained a new customer! I love the clean style and I'm a tank top and tee fiend. I'll def be placing some orders. Hit me up at [email protected] if you'd like to discuss a collab tee for steemitbjj. I've been researching and searching for the best way to release some tees.
I like this initiative I'll use #steemdragons too!
Budo!
HI @mightyjoenolan! There''s already a tag for bjj, its #steemitbjj just in case you didn't know about it yet =). But yes of course I don't mind using an yours too. Whatever makes us get more visibility in the community. i look forward to reading more about your experience!
Thanks for reading, Eve :D
Nice.
#steemdragons
Hell yah warriors of every disipline unite! As you know, I am primarily #bjj #judo now but have great respect for some other disciplines. I have trained in Karate (SO LONG AGO!) as well as wrestling in high-school, and Kung fu for a couple years as well.
I Wonder is #steemwarriors is taken. Maybe I can get the band to hack up this Dokken tune so that we can have our own themesong! ;)
I always loved George Lynch's skeleton guitar in that video!
Great! We need people who want to create and sustain communities. Big reason why I am still posting on this platform is because some weeks ago @jiujitsu made a post about the current state of the steemit martial arts scene, mentioning more active members, both juniors and seniors. Finding my name there was just the motivation needed to explore further and gave a good example that it is not some moderator character, but You, Me, Her and We who create a thriving community.
Do we have a discord channel or similar somewhere? Real time communication could prove useful.
Thanks for the good words and for sharing your thoughts! I agree with everything you are saying here and I hope that #steemdragons and #steemitbjj and other hashtags can help us to hit the target better when seeking out our fellow fighters on this platform. What do they say: accuracy beats power? :)