# I’m getting old…and I’m ok with that…. Blog Post



## Xue Sheng (Oct 17, 2016)

I’m getting old…and I’m ok with that…. Blog Post


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## marques (Oct 18, 2016)

I feel a bit the same. And I am much younger than you. I envy the teenagers training at my side. They can master a few arts before the white hair appears.  (If you are a teenager, put time on it while you can!   )

I also started young and trained a lot, but then dispersed doing nothing (martial) or many things randomly. So now I want just to focus on one (or 2 complimentary) art(s). At least I can relax a bit instead of wanting it all, right now. Because there is (sometimes too much) life beyond martial arts...


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## Kung Fu Wang (Oct 18, 2016)

Through your life time MA training, you will see the following pattern:

1. (10 - 40) Today's you is better than yesterday's you.
2. (40 - 60) Today's you is the same as yesterday's you.
3. (60 - 80) Today's you is worse than yesterday's you.

When you feel 3, you are getting old. You start to modify your training.

- Reduce (or remove) all jump kicks.
- Keep your body in relax mode most of the time.
- Use a slow move to generate next fast move.
- Only put power at the end of your punches.
- ...

You try to design a training program that you "enjoy" of doing. You have just found out that your "long fist" training is similar to your "Taiji" training. Whether you want to call your training as "long fist" or "Taiji" won't make much different. You just hope you can continue your training until you are 100 years old.

When you get old, anything that you have not developed yet, you stop trying to develop it. Anything that you have already developed, you try to maintained it. Your training start to get as "simple" as:

- Protect your head. Don't let any striker to punch on your head.
- Control your opponent's shoulders. Don't let any grappler to get your leg or waist.


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## marques (Oct 18, 2016)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> ...
> When you feel 3, you are getting old. You start to modify your training.
> 
> - Reduce (or remove) all jump kicks.
> ...


Hmm... I started straightforward on level 3 since I were a teenager... Just the "relax mode" was failing, after my instructors. (But improving, I hope.)
To make it simpler, I doubt that definition is widely valid.

PS: When getting older, people need to be smarter to keep pleasure with the practice. Tentative of alternative...


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## Kung Fu Wang (Oct 18, 2016)

marques said:


> Hmm... I started straightforward on level 3 since I were a teenager... Just the "relax mode" was failing, after my instructors. (But improving, I hope.)
> To make it simpler, I doubt that definition is widely valid.
> 
> PS: When getting older, people need to be smarter to keep pleasure with the practice. Tentative of alternative...


The

- flexibility stretching,
- jumping ability,
- running speed,

can be the best testing for 1, 2, and 3.


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## marques (Oct 18, 2016)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> When you get old, anything that you have not developed yet, you stop trying to develop it. Anything that you have already developed, you try to maintained it. Your training start to get as "simple" as:
> 
> - Protect your head. Don't let any striker to punch on your head.
> - Control your opponent's shoulders. Don't let any grappler to get your leg or waist.


Again, it is relative to some styles (both points). But agree with "simple", not when becoming older, but as a senior student. Most of the things are already natural as breath, so one can focus on a couple of points... And probably, the partners/opponents are not much higher level, as when beginner.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Oct 18, 2016)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> Through your life time MA training, you will see the following pattern:
> 
> 1. (10 - 40) Today's you is better than yesterday's you.
> 2. (40 - 60) Today's you is the same as yesterday's you.
> ...


Eh, you can have 3 happen at a younger age, and not when getting old. I had 3 happen when the amount I was training each day drastically decreased, and also when my back (and probably for any medical issue) started getting worse.


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## jks9199 (Oct 19, 2016)

Xue Sheng said:


> I’m getting old…and I’m ok with that…. Blog Post


You may be OK with it...  I'm fighting it tooth and nail.

OK, at least I'm denying it tooth and nail!


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## Xue Sheng (Oct 19, 2016)

jks9199 said:


> You may be OK with it...  I'm fighting it tooth and nail.
> 
> OK, at least I'm denying it tooth and nail!



Denying it takes way to much energy away from figuring out how to live and train with it. Didn't say I was going quietly, but I am going, and I can do nothing about it but figure out how to best use it to my advantage


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## Tony Dismukes (Oct 19, 2016)

Xue Sheng said:


> I’m getting old…and I’m ok with that…. Blog Post


Beats the alternative.

I actually am having a different process as I move into my 50s. I'm currently learning 3 new systems in addition to my base arts. There are a few reasons I'm in a better place to do this than I might have been in the past.


I'm advanced enough in my base arts that instructors in other arts are willing to trade instruction with me.
I'm experienced enough to follow instructions and grasp concepts more efficiently than I was in my younger years.
I'm used to taking a longer term view of training than I used to be. When a new art uses a different set of body dynamics from what I'm used to I can think "I should start getting the hang of this within a few years" and it doesn't seem like a long wait.


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## Buka (Oct 19, 2016)

Bunch a old farts.


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## JowGaWolf (Oct 19, 2016)

I'll let you guys get old.   I've seen too many people in their 70's and 80's redefine what old is supposed to be.
This is when she was 73






This is her at 80





I think many people set low expectations on what they will be like when they "get old" and how it's going to be when they "get old" 
My thoughts is that as long as I treat my body good, stay healthy, exercise regularly, and keep going then my "old" won't be the same "old" that someone else has to deal with.
I'm not in denial about age, because it happens.   I understand that the stereotypes about what an "old person is" or what an "old person has to be by no choice of their own," are for the most part things we choose (provided that disease is not a factor).  As long as I "can do,"  "I will do."  and if something happens where disease makes it difficult, then I'll do my best to continue to do what I can.

For some reason when people get to a certain age they stop doing things that are good for them.  Many of these people have a fond saying "I'm too old to..."  
My plan is to "keep going until the wheels fall of"  and when that happens I'm going to get some new wheels.

The it said in the blog "We all get older, if we're lucky, we just have to accept it, deal with it and keep on moving forward and keep on training"


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## Buka (Oct 19, 2016)

I ain't worried about getting old. I'm still doing the same thing I did as a seven year old. Getting dressed up, wearing a gun and playing cowboy. Except now I get paid for it.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Oct 19, 2016)

JowGaWolf said:


> I think many people set low expectations on what they will be like when they "get old" and how it's going to be when they "get old".


One exercise is very important for old people and that is to "swing your leg toward your head". If you can repeat that 20 times on each leg, you will maintain:

- flexibility,
- single leg balance,
- endurance.


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## Xue Sheng (Oct 19, 2016)

Yeah I could not get my foot that high 25 years ago, it ain't happen now. I can however swing the leg as you described. Although about 40 years ago I had a mean TKD axe kick

Now a clarification.... I am not complaining about getting old I am not arguing that you should stop and take it and I am not looking for a lecture on how I am doing it all wrong. But with that said there are things I cannot do today that I could do at 20, 30 and even 40. Arthritis in the hip made sure of that as did a knee injury or 2. Do I stretch? yes, yes I do, I have been told by an MD not to run, but I never ran much in the first place, i prefer a bike. I do strength training an some aerobic as well. And as soon as the MS is done I am considering a couple fitness certification as part of my retirement plan.

Also I am not saying old people cannot do anything, I am very aware of people like Ernestine Shepherd and Jim Morris (a vegan by the way) and others. They tend to keep me going, and compared to them I am a kid, old age, IMO, is relative.

I am however saying that as I age I have calmed down a bit as it applies to my wandering martial arts eye, and I am ok with that. At one time I was trying JKD, doing Wing Chun, XIngyiquan, Yang taijiquan and Chen. I no longer have any desire to do that, I am rather happy with XIngyiquan and looking very deeply ay 24 form, which has become 26 the way I do it and it also looks very much like traditional Yang, much more than it did when I learned it 25 years ago as a competition form. I am also saying there are thing I cannot do now (see running) and although I am not happy about some of these there is little I can do about it and no amount of exercise and stretching will change those things. However they are not stopping me and in some cases, most actually, I find work arounds so I can keep going, and for the most part I do. I accept it and keep on moving....

OK, I'm finished, don't mean to derail the discussion, but I was beginning to get the feeling my original point was missed.


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## Xue Sheng (Oct 19, 2016)

Buka said:


> Bunch a old farts.



Yeah....and just when I was about to make you an honorary member of the Martial Arts Dinosaurs....aka MAD


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## JowGaWolf (Oct 19, 2016)

Buka said:


> I ain't worried about getting old. I'm still doing the same thing I did as a seven year old. Getting dressed up, wearing a gun and playing cowboy. Except now I get paid for it.


Tell me that's you. lol.   You post reminds me that there is a limit to the things I used to do when I was young.  Like most young kids learn the hard way, that just because it feels like a fart doesn't mean a fart is going to come out.  I like to think that I will still have the ability to master the skill of letting one out at the age of 90 without error.  lol.


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## JowGaWolf (Oct 19, 2016)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> One exercise is very important for old people and that is to "swing your leg toward your head". If you can repeat that 20 times on each leg, you will maintain:
> 
> - flexibility,
> - single leg balance,
> - endurance.


lol.. what's up with that picture...but that's one exercise as I can check as normal everyday exercises.


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## Buka (Oct 19, 2016)

JowGaWolf said:


> Tell me that's you. lol.   You post reminds me that there is a limit to the things I used to do when I was young.  Like most young kids learn the hard way, that just because it feels like a fart doesn't mean a fart is going to come out.  I like to think that I will still have the ability to master the skill of letting one out at the age of 90 without error.  lol.



That's me.  Got beat up in those clothes, too. Good times.


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## JowGaWolf (Oct 20, 2016)

Buka said:


> That's me.  Got beat up in those clothes, too. Good times.


Because of the invention of tube socks and tight short shorts with the shirt tucked in, my childhood pictures are forever banned from the Internet.


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## Kevin__Huang (Oct 25, 2016)

Xue Sheng said:


> I’m getting old…and I’m ok with that…. Blog Post


Finally you have become the great old sage [emoji16]

Sent from my D2305 using Tapatalk


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## oaktree (Oct 26, 2016)

As I get older I look to the seasons as a metaphor, I think I am in late summer and autumn is approaching I look forward to it for health becoming more interested in conserving and accumulating vs dispersing, more introverted less extrovert 
From a martial perspective less focused on self defense more on peace and relaxing, from a technique perspective less about force more about flow, from a form perspective less about the  movement in form more about the stillness in the form.

A famous saying from the Jade emperor classic "it's not the body that one wants to live forever but the mind"


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## Gerry Seymour (Oct 26, 2016)

I have been contemplating age lately. Given longevity in my family, I'm probably almost halfway through my life. I look back at the first half, and wish I'd worked more and had more fun. Then I realize I still have a half left to do more of both. I'd love to have back my metabolism from 30 and my knees from 16, but I wouldn't trade my wisdom for either or both.


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## Buka (Oct 27, 2016)

This very moment, as you read these words - is the youngest you will ever be going forward. But right this second, is the oldest you've ever been - until now.

Somebody once told me what all that meant. Had something to do with Grey Goose, I think. Maybe I better go check. Except then I'd be older. 

Can't beat father Time. But you sure can raise a toast with him once in a while.


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## Tames D (Oct 27, 2016)

This is my inspiration:




__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=676380622526329


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