We all get old. We all gradually age (if we're lucky) and we all eventually reach that stage at which we go grey, wrinkled, and sit in a rocking chair, trying not to spill the gin & tonic, excitedly entertained by the sound of our screeching cat as it sticks its tail under the rocker and yelling "Get off my lawn" at the neighborhood kids.
There are some things that my Sensei said that still to this day stick in my mind that pertained to growing old. They pop out once in a while so I consider them, remember their advice, and then put them back. One of them was to pick a martial art that you can train into your old age. I asked him why, in his view, that was important. The response I received puzzled me at first but then I "got it". He said, "Train so that as an old man, you don't have to fear the young man".
How many times in your life have you seen a young "punk" bully an old man (or woman). I've seen it and once I intervened. It didn't go physical but the fact that someone (a stranger, me) would walk up and tell the bully to stop, worked. The sad part was that the old man had nothing to fall back on that would have enabled him to stand up for himself; thus, Sensei' recommendation to train into old age so that you can stand up for yourself and through training, not go frail. This is one reason as to why I finally settled on Aikido and Judo and not a tough physical art form such as boxing or karate where my physical limitations would kick in much sooner and at a younger age (than in Aikido).
The second lesson he offered was to train such that you become so efficient and skilled that you can last 30 seconds. As you age, your endurance and ability to take pure physical punishment, or to last for a 5 or 10 minute sparring match simply vanishes. Your body just won't take the stress and it is very difficult to continually recondition yourself so that you can last long against a 25 year old with a 45 inch chest and 20 inch biceps who runs 3 miles a day. So his solution was simple. He said "I can't last 5 minutes or even 3 minutes so if you can live through the first 30 seconds of the conflict then you got me. But ....... you have to live through the first 30 seconds". That's the skill level you are looking for. Train into old age so that your skill sets are at such a high level that engaging with you becomes a 30 second nightmare for the other guy that he won't easily live through.
So remember Sensei' last teaching; that is, never pick on an old guy until you know what kind of young guy he was.
Originally Published October 15, 2024