As You Get Older in Martial Arts.

We all age. This is a fact that we can't avoid but what we can do is work hard to maintain our fitness levels to be able to continue to train in Martial Arts. Whether you are in a high impact, high energy style or a lower impact style, you are able to continue to train as you age. An excellent example is Grandmaster Chen Rong En, my instructor for the Fut Gar style of Kung Fu. He is well into his 80's now but still very well respected within the local Kung Fu community and still able to execute techniques, perform forms and show fighting applications. There are some things that naturally happen as you get older:

• Your strength diminishes - at some point, you will find that you are not as strong as before but your training should show you ways to react that do not require the same level of strength.
• It will become more difficult to maintain your flexibility.
• You will likely feel joint pain making it more difficult to execute strong low stances. This is likely at quite an advanced age so do not panic.
• You will become a better fighter (believe it or not) because your experience will continue to build and those situations that made you flinch as a younger student will now no longer cause a reaction because you are used to seeing it over the years.
• You will understand your style - you spend the earlier years of your training learning your style and forms but the repetition of the techniques is what helps you understand.
• You will come to appreciate all great Martial Arts performances.

There is no particular reason for writing this today but I thought it would be an interesting post. I believe that by continuing your training without a break will allow you to maintain your natural abilities such as speed, flexibility, strength for a longer period of time whether you are training in hard, soft, internal or external styles. When you slow down your training is when you will really start to see the diminishing of your abilities.