Archive for November, 2011

I have fond memories of teasing my sister on my dad’s ranch as she befriended Gobbler, our Turkey. Luckily Gobbler never saw this video (and he was delicious!) and truthfully as big a propoent for self defense as I am – I hope no turkies see this video.

I’m sure you have heard all the cliches about growing older gracefully. I have always liked the more distinguished as my beards slowly whitens but what if you are a marital artist? How do you do that gracefully? I mean many martial artists that used to be in great shape when they were young and competing, now ride a desk and watch MMA!

We can still talk a good fight (as the brain is still there) but out reactions have slowed a bit (partially due to our increased stature – beer belly) and regular workouts are only in our mind. I’ve included myself in this group because as much as I hate to admit it – I’m 54 years young now and while I still work out often – I pay dearly for any injuries! It makes the next workout challenging.

In this post I will go over some issues older martial artists have to confront and some really great strategies for transitioning into that next phase of your martial arts training (and I don’t mean quitting) so you too can grow older and better!

Before I begin I’d like to consult those famous philosophers – the Beatles, take on getting older.

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Most of my early childhood years I wondered how to defend myself! I had the normal amount of bully experiences and soon learned the hard way that one had to stand up to bullies. The first lessons on how to defend myself were from Batman and Robin. It drove my dad nuts to hear me talk about how their punches would really work!

Anyway after years of learning and eventually teaching karate – do we really do a good job of teaching basic self defense? I mean there is so much fluff in the martial arts… all of that philosophy about only fighting if there is no other way out and the stuff about forms and even basics. Who ever won a fight by practicing punches from a low horse stance?

Well in this post I’ll answer the question about how well the martial arts teach self defense for the masses (most kids have had a lesson or two) and if all of the fluff actually helps but most of all I would like to say how I would teach self defense and why I would not open up a school teaching self defense.

First for your perusal is the episode of Longstreet (an old TV flick of my day) where Bruce Lee did a guest spot helping the blind man learn how to defend himself.