FIND FELLOW MARTIAL ARTISTS ON STEEMIT? ENTER THE #STEEMDRAGONS!

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...