>know this boomer
>when he was a kid, he did combat sport martial arts like boxing and judo for a little while
>in his teens/early 20s, he started doing traditional arts
>he seems to have swallowed a lot of their mystical shit and refuses to question it
>even though he didn't do any of them for particularly long, and he hasn't practiced at any actual place of training in about 40 years or more, he still thinks he's a legend
>is overly critical and disrespectful of anything other than the arts he did when he was younger (seems like a common trait among traditional martial artists)
>thinks he's a deadly weapon - tells people he can kill them with his thumb, that type of shit
>one time we were discussing martial arts (his wish, not mine, obviously)
>the subject of kicking range and people kicking mid-air comes up
>he had done one of these arts that includes that shit
>if he had just told me that he's trained to do jumping kicks/mid-air kicks, it would have been fine
>instead he tells me, "i can fly"
>"i can fly"
What gets me is that this isn't even that unique. I've met a few boomers over the years who got swallowed up by the mysticism of traditional martial arts that were more popular between the 60s and the 80s. It's like they keep bragging to try and stay relevant in a world that's quickly forgetting about them and they refuse to join in. I realise it wouldn't be easy for them to spend years on this stuff, only to be confronted with the notion that maybe a lot of it wasn't what they were originally sold. But why do they do this? Despite what they say, they obviously care what other people think. Or they wouldn't spend so much time and energy arguing their point and bragging. Like the guy I know clearly wants to teach me, but they job he's done of presenting it has completely talked me out of it, and he can't figure out why. Even after I've told him.
Has anyone else encountered this?