SaiFightsMS

Ju jitsu and judo could potientially be hard on the joints. Oh by the way Hi and welcome. I started karate in my late 30's. Taekown do has a lot of jumping and a lot of kicking techniques. But I am partial to my art of shotokan. We do an even mix of hand and foot techniques. And they are introduced gradually over the ranks. Visit the schools in your area and watch a class. They should not mind. Some will even let you do a trial class. Don't worry about everyone else being older than you are. They will secretly admire you.

Remember also to take a good look around in some of the other forums. There are several good threads in various places on sparring problems. The shotokan and kickboxing area's spring to mind. Go take a look.

Ah Angus, we all have a dark and a light side. I don't think it is the best option to totally embrace either. It would be best to be in balance but we are human for the most part and flawed. The world of literature would be much less without the depiction of the struggles of the forces. Also, I think it is remiss to not to acknowledge the existance of either side. If you didn't have a lighter side you would not try to defend girls from being struck by bigger stronger guys.

My choice of schools was also based on transportation. My first sensei was a Matsubayashi shor-in ryu sensei. My second sensei was part of a line of Hayashi Hai shi-to ryu and a bit of a corrupted line. We then became mainstream shotokan and from time to time are still making adjustments to what we do to conform more to the general shotokan standard. If I could start something new and convenient I think I would like to reexplore ba gua. You see I too have a transportation problem.

Ronryu I have learned some traditional shotokan kata's and some traditional kata's that arent' shotokan. After the Heians, Jutte, Jin, Jion, and Rohai I began to work on Tekki or Nihanchi shodan and nidan ( I am still working on nidan) Ananku and am still working on Bassai dai. As you see it is sort of an odd mix. What katas do you do? Next projects I am looking at wankan or wansu.

Well no one is born with inner strenght. It is developed over time. Maybe start with a few minutes of quiet inner meditation every day. Begin the discipline of meditations and be consistent. Many believe that is where inner power comes from. I think the first step is learning to quiet the mind. I use to do visualization techniques and was much more aware of my inner state when I did this every day. Your question reminded me of a lack in my training. I need to return to regular scheduled quiet time for inner training.

Hi Ad and I do see what you mean. You definately did not start too late. As you say the things you do in class that outclasses others will attest to that. You had a chance to develope other physical skills. Some do start too young. I believe it is never to old to start. But as for when is a person old enough it is an individual thing. One thing maybe is you are thinking about what you are doing and your classmates are just doing what they have done before. You probably have done other sports and bring a more diverse group of skills to class than they. The idea of crosstraining does not apply just to another form of a martial art it applies to another form of physical activity as well. So if you come in at a later age with say a soccer or other sport in your closet you will have an advantage over karate only people. Do I make any sense?

Hi Jonas and welcome. I see you are a deep thinker and a historian. Welcome. I hope to see more of your postings.

Thanks Gloi, your point about being stronger mentally is a very good one. I think everyone in our age group and older does have a degree of mental toughness. We do what we do because we choose to. We also know what happens if we do nothing. Something younger people don't always understand. And I know there are no couch potatoes in here. I am finding that when I do strength work I am only capable of about 1/3 the quantity of exercises I did when I was 30 and learning how to work out for real. I am wondering if this is a factor of the aging process or the ms - or both.

Congratulations and you know with the quality of some of the exchanges in some to the threads this really seems like a much older and well established site. There is a nice balance here of seriousness, fun and much exchange of ideas. For discussions of things if interest this is one of the best sites I have found. Sai

Popular topic. We accept 6 year olds but sometimes a 5 slips in. One time a 4 year old slipped in. He had big problems with left and right and 6 months later still was not ready for first test. "Dad" got mad then and pulled the kid. Wew. I taught 2 batches of white belts getting them on their way to first grading and integration into regular class. It is not necessarily the 6th birthday that is the big indicator as much as whether or not little Johnny had been to first grade yet. Spending all day in school vs half a day of kindergarten makes a difference - a big difference. It is so hard to keep the group moving forward if someone does not know their left from their right. Now I know we all make mistakes from time to time but every time? 10-11 yr olds can kind of be starting to be smart alecks. I think 7-8 is a good starting point.

I have seen students helped in learning to control their anger through traditional martial arts. I myself have been helped tremendously. Anger can become a form of energy. A fuel for things both positive and negative. For many of us the negative escapes verbally before it boils over into any physicallity. Believe it or not I find the indiscint sound of a kiai or a low growl to be a way to channel the verbal overflow without saying things innappropriate or of 4 letters even when I am alone. When I initially read this thread I saw one thing but after reading and beginning to understand the thought processes of some of you I see different things in here now. Maybe i am learning something?

Q. What happened when the computer fell on the floor A. It slipped a disk.

You may not think of them as particularly masculine but I think they look very interesting. And if you need to attain that rank to start working with them there must be a difficulty factor.

Ok Ronryu, Tobias I am allways working on form and better technique. I enjoy working with the tonfa but find them very challanging. I think I find them the most challanging of the kobudo weapons I have worked with.

Hello and welcome. It might be an interesting note that Bruce Lee started teaching while in college. Some colleges even offer martial arts courses for credit.

We seem to have a lot in common Ronryu. I have been spending a lot of time doing research since I have had internet access. Many katas I work on segments of over and over. It totaly mystifies the kids when I am warming up before class.

I have seen a few people do this stretch then roll over in total amazement at how "hard" it was. Yes I can see how it would be tempting to tense up doing this when unfamiliar to the technique. It probably doesn't look as silly against wavemasters as it does to find a group of people lined up against a racketball court.

A lot of talk is given to training routines and how much time is spent doing them. So for us olders (approaching 40 or over) BEING HONEST how do you adjust your training? Do you train for shorter periods of time? Do you allow more recovery time? How much more time to you spend stretching and warming up than you did as a 20 something or younger?

Angus I respect your opionion and I do see your point. You sound like someone with a great deal of natural physical ability and you are young. For the lesser physically endowed and the older muscle memory plays a greater role. Also some people think much faster on their feet than others. While you are on your feet and thinking fast others have slower gears between their ears and need ways to learn to react without thinking. It takes many many repititions of basic moves for some to even begin to develope that. The more of your posts I read and think about the more I begin to see a that you aren't just responding off the top of the head like some post may appear at a superficial first glance. I am starting to look forward to reading what you have to say on one had because you view things so opposite as to the way I see them but also because you make me think about why we each see things the way we do. You must be one heck of and interesting fella.

I do wonder quite a bit about how to improve my agility and ability to move. I have been working drills back and forth across the room cross stepping in and out of kosa dachi into kiba dachi. Some times I and in a side kick coming out of the kosa dachi. I am still working on the most basic's of barely being able to jump. I do not have the physical ability to run but I can skip. Does anyone think just skipping across the room would be helpful in this area? You know I have heard Micheal J Fox say the same thing but as a result of his parkinson's.

That my friends is scary. I would think a truly quality program would not only require prior training but would be tailored to fit the legal system of the area of the officers being trained.

That may be a good choice for you Jimmyprince. I remember reading an interview with Steven Seagal about how he chose akido. It seems he wanted to learn something but not really something about just beating the crap out of someone. He found an attraction of using the energy of their attack to divert them attractive. Best bishes in what ever you choose.

Not really McGee many have learned to block with the assistance of padded sticks. Having a friend toss bean bags at you also works. An instructors bo is also useful in class to really demonstrate to a student that their head block really didn't protect their head. (With the bo in the padded case of course.)

I have noticed something really odd in my upper body work. I can to a tricep push down on a pully with as much as I can bench. But I am having one heck of a time gaining bicep strength. I think the disease damaged some of the nerves that run through them. I know I have a tad bit of spinal cord scarring at C5-6.