Big Bellied Masters

[Little Dragon]

Bruce Lee laughed at the thought of big bellied masters,he thought everyone he taught should keep in shape for a real life fight and too keep stamina and endurance.What are your thoughts about this?

[MenteReligieuse]

Very true. For me, a martial art is not just techniques but must incorporate a whole training (fitness) method to get the techniques you learn more effective. Someone out of condition will naturaly be more slow and sluggish.

 

But you have to take into account the age factor and metabolism. As someone gets older, they naturally get, err...think jell-o! They can still work to get fit, but it demands much more care and I think it is just too risky for older ppl to do hard training without professonal help. And metabolism, I know a guy since elementary who always used to be fat, we haden't seen each other for quite some time now and suddenly saw him again at my kwan when I started. He was already advanced at the kwan and is still a bit fat, but way more muscular and can do things that even I, who have a light build (5'10", 150lbs) have a hard time doing (like some acrobatic tricks and stuff). Some ppl just tend to be fat while others, don't.

 

Now it is not impossible for old or fat ppl to get slim and fit. But with the realities of our world (work, studies, family, etc) it is not always possible. The important thing is to be well and proud of our body!

[TheDevilAside]

Easy for Bruce Lee to say, he never got past 35 and was inredibly skinny to begin with.

 

For some people, after they've reached a certain age, it's not just possible to be slender or in great shape anymore. Especially, like MR mentioned, if your metabolism slows down. And if you're an endomorph (a person who's, basically, genetically a bit more "hefty") it's just not going to be that easy.

[foreveryoung001]

I certainly have a more difficult time blindly accepting a persons MA claims if they are not in decent shape, but after I work out with them, they either prove they have the abilities they've claimed, or they prove just the opposite. My Grand Master has put on a few pounds since I first started training back in the 80's, but even at 60+ he is still amazing. Looks can be deceiving. I myself would like to be about another 20 pounds lighter, but the weight is coming off slower as I get older. Not all of us can look like your new Avatar DA... Although, I never saw Superman throw propper side kick...

[Little Dragon]

thats becuz supermans a boxer >:]

[DLopez]

Bruce Lee is dead. I don't want to be like him!

 

All you young bucks that laugh at older, chubbier men, laugh while you can because as Mick Jagger said so eloquently once...

 

"Time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me"

 

See if you're still laughing when you hit 40!

[Little Dragon]

Bruce Lee is dead. I don't want to be like him!

Bruces body and endurance was like an athletic 18 yr old,but his mind was of a 90 yr old.Got hit on the head a lot when he sparred with challangers.

 

Dan insanto is around 67-68? hes still got a great body and can move as he could 30 years ago.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Why you young whipper snappers!!! If I could get my fat, wrinkled old butt out of this chair, I'd sure show YOU what fer!!!

 

OK..with that said...here's a reply from a nearly 52 year old (one of the oldest on this forum I think) with a bit of what we in this system affectionately call...a Shorinryu belly. Not huge..but a belly none the less. I've worked long and hard at that belly, and can take nerly a full force roundhouse kick to it without doubling over, losing my breath and going down. My students will gladly veryfy that. That extra padding is good for something!

 

A lot depends on what you are practicing the martial arts for I suppose. If you plan on lots of tournament participation, where you're going to be fighting and doing kata all day long, or doing full contact competitons where there are rounds and clocks, then yes, being in as good of shape as you possibly can is to your benefit.

 

I however, am an old, possibly archaic traditionalist that practices his art diligently for what it was intended for...and that is for the preservation of myself, my loved ones..or a total stranger in a life or death confrontation.

 

Unlike the late Bruce Lee, who by the way had trouble keeping weight on because of an abnormally fast metabolisim, I am not planning in the near future to be making movies where my shirt will always be ripped off (funny how they always seem to do that, eh?) exposing yet again my 12 pack muscles (no, that's not a typo), nor am I expecting to have to fight 29 crazed Ninja masters at one time in a fight to the death. Nor do I expect a poster company to contact me ever to take my picture and sell millions of them to eager young children to hang on their walls.

 

Now. as to my gut, and my inability to do 1 finger pushups..I am fully capable of sparring my 8-10 students, one after another without taking a break, at any given time. Can I defend myself against one...two...or maybe three opponents in a real life fight? I don't know, but I have in the past (yes, up to 3 people), and I feel my timing, knowledge, cunning, experience and reflexes are such that I could probably do it again if I had to.

 

No...I won't be making any movies, posters..or even a cardio workout video ever...but can I defend myself? Yes, I feel I can...and have...and that my friends, is what the arts...as I see them anyway...are all about.

 

Oh...and one final note. About 2 years before the late Ed parker died, I was honored to attend a seminar with him. I was surprised when I first saw him, as he looked like he was about 12 months pregnant! Yet this "fat man" was able to move quite effectively, surely and precisely with little effort. It's all a matter of training people. You teach the muscles to move..and they will move for you.

[Jbone1]

True^^ But when someone is just way out of shape because once they got they black belt they felt they could just sit around. That's wrong, just giving orders saying do this and that and you can't do it yourself.

 

My sensai is 45 and is in excellent shape for that age. Though, not in the shape he was in his 30's or 20's, he's 6'3'' say 200 something thick, but not ripped. It's inspiring because at that age and older I want to be in that shape.

[Sasori_Te]

as shorinRyu Sensei so eloquently put it, you don't need to be ripped and look like you were carved out of marble to practice martial arts VERY effectively. My students would also attest to this fact. Me and my extra padding have run many 14 to 20 year olds into the ground during class.

 

As far as self defense goes, I've never been in a situation that lasted more than 20 or 30 seconds (I've been unfortunate enough to have been in 1 or 2). It's been my personal experience that the initial action / reaction decides these situations. In all fairness, I'll say that those 20 or 30 seconds sure seemed like a lot longer while it was going on.