How do you fight differently due to physical limitations?

[wadorue1]

my ten pennies worth is this

I STARTED BACK 20 MONTHS AGO,I HAD A 16 YEAR BREAK DUE TO WORK! I HAD A TRAGEDY IN MY FAMILY THAT MADE ME REALISE THER IS MORE TO LIFE THAN WORK!SO I GOT BACK INTO KARATE AS I SAID, 20 MONTHS AGO, I AM NOW 49 YEARS OLD BUT MY BRAIN SAYS I AM YOUNGER! IT WAS MANKIND THAT PUT AGES ON TO HUMAN RACE NOT GOD(TRUE READ THE BIBLE),

I DONT FEEL OR LOOK 49 INFACT PEOPLE IVE MET THINK AM AROUND 35 YEARS(lol) I CAN LIVE WITH THAT!!!ANYWAY SINCE STARTING BACK IVE LOST 4 STONE,MY FLEXIBILITY WAS ALWAYS USELESS!BUT!AFTER SAYING THAT? IVE NOTICE MONTH AFTER MONTH I AM IMPROVING GREATLY,MY SPEED NEEDS IMPROVING TOO?BUT!I AM GETTING THERE SLOWLY BUT SURELY!SO ALL THOSE THAT THINK THEY ARE TO OLD OR TO STIFF GET OUT THERE AND PROVE TO EVERYONE AGE & WEIGHT IS NO BARRIER !YOUR WILL TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!IS GREATER THEN WHAT YOU MAY REALISE.....................

[baronbvp]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I would like to see if anyone else has comments on how they have modified their fighting or training technique. I can't believe it's been a year. Time flies.

[tallgeese]

Not yet, but mybody keeps telling me to start modifying my training .

[J_eremiah]

I am right handed which of course means I am fighting the majority of the time with my right leg in the rear. My front leg kicks with my left leg are horrible (working on them). I have developed a pretty mean back kick and spin kick as a result to compensate for my lack of left leg kicking ability. This way I have a solid kicking attack to my opponents right side.

[Tiger1962]

I've definitely had to modify my training so you're not alone and I'm in the same age range as you.

I think after a while folks like us start to really know and listen to our bodies. You know when you can "work through" some minor ache and when you should stop and go home and rest.

There are things I can't do that the younger martial artists half my age can, however, I find ways to make up for it - technique-wise, if we're talking about sparring.

And so what, if I can't do the "jump-high-spin-around-kick"

I'm not going to use it in a real life altercation anyway! LOL

[Grego]

I'm 5'8, 145 lbs, so I'm pretty small.

When I spar in Karate, I generally preform as a mobile striker because most people outweigh me. If I am the same size or heavier, I don't care to stand and duke it out.

In US Army Combatives (based on BJJ, kinda), we do a lot of ground work. When I grapple, I prefer to go for chokes than submissions. I don't really have the weight behind me to wrestle somebody twice my size to submission, but I am wiry and good at getting out of most holds. Because of this, I'm able to choke people out from a non-dominant position.

[Okami]

Yes well, I do all that sometimes, when I feel like it. it is good to maintain a certain condition. However as far as self defence I'm never far away from a firearm. I live in a generally peaceful community in Louisiana where everybody goes armed, and quite legal by the way, although I wouldn't care if it weren't.

[tdiedwards]

A broken humerus from arm-wrestling, followed by terrible surgery by an insane Jakarta doctor has left me in rather different circumstances from those in which I began MA (Silat). I had to quit Silat because the arm is damaged beyond repair. I still try to continue comparatively gentle training of a type. The way I have adapted my (now unsupervised) training is by

a) avoiding sudden lateral movements (no more hard karate type blocks)

b) focusing on straight punches (esp jab, coz the left arm is still happy)

c) no more back-fists. that would put me on my knees in pain

d) trying to regain kicking skills - but a long period of being sedentary has allowed old muscle rips to rear their ugly little heads)

e) the most important and difficult one - trying to stay positive and not get depressed

[bushido_man96]

e) the most important and difficult one - trying to stay positive and not get depressed

This one is even tough for me at times, and I don't have any physical limitations, really, other than being a touch heavier than I'd like. I just get frustrated at times, because it seems advances don't happen as often.

[KarateGeorge]

My biggest physical limitation is my vision. Without my contacts, I'm blind as a bat, and because of the type of contacts I have to wear, they fall out fairly easily, which can be a problem during training.

As a result, anytime we're doing any sort of contact activity, such as sparring, I just take them out. I do this for a couple of reasons. First, just because I don't want to risk losing a contact while training. Secondly, because if I'm in a self-defense situation, there's a good chance I could always lose a lens in the process of defending myself, so I figure its best to have trained with impaired vision so that it won't throw me off if I did find myself in that kind of situation.