Who are your Martial Art Heros/Idols/Mentors?

[Hatori]

Following on from a thread about Bruce Lee in UFC, who are everyone's Martial Art Heros/Idols/Mentors etc? Who inspired you to start, who still inspires you to this day? Whom do you admire?

[eYoon]

Bruce Lee

and also... as nerdy and geeky as it may sound... (please don't make fun of me too much) goku and vegeta. it was what i grew up watching, my fav childhood cartoon, and just as a child is very easy to influence, it inevitably had an effect on me haha.

[sirdarksol]

Not gonna make fun of you, eYoon. I started martial arts because of numerous martial arts movies/shows (like ninja turtles, which I happen to be watching now), as well as because of the Akashic Brotherhood from Mage: The Ascension.

Now, however, my biggest hero is Dombeck-Sensei. There may be times that I disagree with the man, but he is constantly surprising me with things that he knows.
Yamashita-Sensei is another hero of mine.
In the world of show martial arts, Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh are my heroes.

[disgruntled]

i got to say that Jackie Chan is high up on my list of people that inspire me. Jet Li is right up there and Tony Jaa.

but originally, buffy from buffy the vampire slayer (the movie not the show) was a big inspiration to me as a kid..... so it kinda sucks watching it now and seeing how bad the technique really is!

my Ajarn inspried me to get into fighting. my hapkido master inspired me to make martial arts a part of my everyday life, and who ever the person that taught me my first taekwondo lesson at a community gym, inspired me to get into MA and later to teach. it is funny that a such a big mentor is someone that i do not even know the name of.

[nmy66]

definately bruce lee