Beginning Adults: Do you feel silly?

[Kicks]

I started at age 35 along with my 4 and 6 year old sons. There were a few adults in the class so I had someone my age to play with. But I spent a lot of my time working with my kids. I stayed with it and am now a 4th dan. So is one of my kids.

 

One thing we encourage adults who are leary about joining and feeling out of place is to join with a friend, relative or family member. You might want to see if you can get someone to join and have fun training together and going through the ranks with.

 

Your school may even have an incentive program to bring new members in. You might be eligible for some sort of a reward (for lack of a better term) for bringing in a new student.

[songfighter]

Hi asynk,

 

32 yo starting MA, well your just a child I started 2 years ago, at the age of 57. Yea, I gotta admit, I felt a little strange myself, but I got tired of going to a gym and pumping iron, and needed more of a challenge.

 

After all this time in my studio, I feel I am just one of the kids myself. Actually, I can do a lot of things that a lot of the younger ones can't do, and I have out peformed some of our black belts at certain feats. Hang in there, that feeling of oddity will go away!

 

Sincerely, Song

[karatekid1975]

Good attitude asynk

 

I started when I was 24. I was falling over my own feet when I first started, and so unflexible. I felt REALLY stupid at first. But in my first school, there were a good number of adults to work with (older than me that is), so that helped.

 

We all been there, so don't let it get to you. Just train hard

[XChosen]

I'm 33 years old and took my first class last Tuesday with my wife and 6 year old son. I was so exhausted by the end I went right home and crashed. The scary part is I'm in good overall shape.

 

I got a lot of looks from the kiddies but I found everyone was pretty good about it. The first class I took with the family with the kids class to get my son into it. Tonight will be my first adult class. I'm really looking forward to meeting the adults and getting to know the community of the place. I'm mainly doing this for my son. I absolutely refuse to participate in the circus of organized sports for kids.

 

Your not alone I'm right where you are. If you don't quit then I won't either

[asynk]

[

 

Your not alone I'm right where you are. If you don't quit then I won't either

 

Your on! Now we can have accountability! My first belt test is Sept 11th, last night I got my red stripe (not a rank, just means I know the basic blocks,strikes)

 

The few months in ju jutsu seem to have helped me pick up the first few things quickly. I've almost have chon-ji nailed down also.

[XChosen]

2nd class down. The instructor took it much easier on me this time. Since I didn't fold after the beating he gave me last time I guess he figured I was serious about learning.

[torris]

Hahaha! I don't feel so bad.

 

I am 33 and just started. The only good thing about it (other than the obvious) is that there is another guy older than me in our school.

 

It really is amazing though. We have one brown belt about 14, 2 blue belts, one couldnt be older than 8, and 2 green belts, not much older than 13 or 14.

 

But, by far, most of us are white to orange.

[bluetiger]

I'm 34 and I'm just starting. We've got a purple belt that's probably 14 or so, but most of the higher ranks are late teens early 20's.

 

You can't worry about what other people think.

[karatekid1975]

I forgot to mention that my dojang has a whole bunch of people in the adult class that are 35+ years of age. There's even a group of about 5 or 6 that are 50+.

[draneym2]

Actually this really interests me too...I'm new here btw!

 

At my school they actually stick all white belts in one time slot regardless of age. So here's my sort of funny story...I just moved from NJ to GA and I always wanted to start taking TKD but something always kind of got in the way (college, no money, etc.) Anyway, I go to my first class and lo and behold I walk in and the entire place is filled with kids...not a single adult white belt. And when I say kids I'm talking like kindergarten, first grade tops. So basically I'm more than three times the age of every person there (and I'm only 23!) It was interesting to see all the looks on some parent's faces.

 

Luckily we have a really good student/instructor ratio at my school so I usually got one-on-one instruction and eventually a few older people joined the class (I was still the oldest though)

 

I'm still getting used to being around the little kids but I try to not let it bother me. I just got promoted to yellow so I'm with a lot more people my age and it helps me to get to some more advanced classes to get me in shape.