Midlife crisis ??

[German Coach]

Dear all,

seems I am in the midlife crisis ?? :uhyeah: I am 48 and lost my interest in the Martial Arts. One raeson is that in
every Martial Arts school (except Aikido) here in Germany the oldest students are in their late 30s (btw how is that in the US ?)

I lost the "eye of the tiger" and need a wife like Adrian ) :ultracool

I am not really interested in others sports...well...perhaps running, but this is to boring.....

Do you have any suggestion how find my fighting spirit again ?

I was a successful Kick - and Thaiboxer in the past, but this style is definitely to hard for me now.

Thank you for your advice !

 

[Carol]

Hey German Coach!

Hey everyone can get a bit burned out and tired. Maybe you just need to try something you haven't done before. That will give both your body and your brain a workout.

We actually have people of all ages training in the US, but there can be a lot of variation from school to school. The school where I would like to train, most of the adults are in their 30s and 40s. The youngest fellow I've seen was college age, the oldest fellow is a Vietnam War veteran so he's perhaps in his 60s? With your kickboxing and Thai boxing background, I bet you would be a great fit for one of the many striking arts, the different flavors of Karate, Tae Kwon Do, American Kenpo, etc. You can still get in some kick-butt training, but leave the mat in good enough shape to go to work the next day

Have you ever thought of doing something like weapons training? The Filipino Martial Arts are particularly famous for stick and knife training -- very practical stuff. There is an accomplished German teacher who occasionally posts here, his name is Dieter Knüttel and he is from Dortmund. I haev never met Dieter but I have spoke with him many times online. Great guy to talk to and very knowledgeable. I would guess he is in his 40s. I am linking his web site below. I know he's a good bit to the north of Bonn but I bet he has some ideas for a good school or good instructor.

http://www.dieterknuettel.de

 

[German Coach]

Dear Carol, thank you yery much for that useful infomation about Filipino Martial Arts !! Here in Bonn is a Arnis school - I will check this out.

I don´t understand that the clubs in Germany don´t offer classes for people in the 40s, 50s, 60s like in the US.

 

[geezer]

Here's what a Chinese friend toled me some 30 years ago.

"Muay Thai, kickboxing, and boxing are arts for younger men.
In mid-life, turn to something like Wing Chun.
When you are elderly, do Tai Chi for health."

In Germany you have a lot of Wing Chun. The largest organization is the EWTO, and I know they have some older members. They also teach an offshoot of Latosa Escrima. Google them.

Incidentally, I practice and teach Wing Chun and Escrima here in the States and I'm 56. If I live long enough and my health permits, I intend to keep training at least into my 80s.

 

[Steve]

Speaking just to classes for older gents, there are plenty of us in our 40's, 50's and older who train in all styles.

 

[Tez3]

Speaking just to classes for older gents, there are plenty of us in our 40's, 50's and older who train in all styles.

Not just the gents I should add lol!

 

[Carol]

Not just the gents I should add lol!

Indeed, not just the gents!

 

[German Coach]

Here's what a Chinese friend toled me some 30 years ago.

"Muay Thai, kickboxing, and boxing are arts for younger men.
In mid-life, turn to something like Wing Chun.
When you are elderly, do Tai Chi for health."

In Germany you have a lot of Wing Chun. The largest organization is the EWTO, and I know they have some older members. They also teach an offshoot of Latosa Escrima. Google them.

Incidentally, I practice and teach Wing Chun and Escrima here in the States and I'm 56. If I live long enough and my health permits, I intend to keep training at least into my 80s.

To be honest I don´t like WT and it is also to expensive.

Perhaps I will start with PDR from Tony Blauer (I met him in 1992 in Radford / Virginia at the Karate College with Joe Lewis and Bill Wallace.

 

[K-man]

At 58 I started aikido and don't regret that decision. It has added heaps to my understanding of karate. I think the youngest guy I train with regularly is about 50 and the rest go from there to their early 60s. In fact at 48 I was taking a break from karate and didn't return until I was 52 or 53.

Having said that, I like the suggestion of wing chun. It is very similar to the Okinawan Goju that I teach. Aikido supplements those styles beautifully. Forget the "crash and bash". Leave that for the young guys. You could train for the rest of your life in WC, or Goju for that matter, and never discover all the secrets, and they contain the soft elements that we need to understand as our bodies become 'not so young'.

Good luck with your search.

 

[stickarts]

We have many very young students, however, we also have a number of students in their 40's and 50's and they have a great deal of fun training! I think that in different phases in our life we may sometimes need to set different goals and expectations and this is good since it can keep us doing different things in different ways. I hope that you keep at it!

 

[Jason Striker II]

At 50, I too, German Coach, also become discouraged now and then. I have only two ways that cheer me up considerably though: 1) I re-watch or re-read the things that inspired me when I was a kid (I have been training for 42 years now). For example old MA mags or films are great. 2) I watch or read stuff of the old masters; e.g., Funakoshi's My Way of Life, or old vids of Ohstuka Sensei (founder of Wado) doing kata when he was like 70!

In fact Funakoshi Sensei went to mainland Japan when he was 50 - and started his main MA teaching career!

Anyway, good luck, and just start again - soon enough you'll be back in the Zen of it.

 

[German Coach]

At 50, I too, German Coach, also become discouraged now and then. I have only two ways that cheer me up considerably though: 1) I re-watch or re-read the things that inspired me when I was a kid (I have been training for 42 years now). For example old MA mags or films are great. 2) I watch or read stuff of the old masters; e.g., Funakoshi's My Way of Life, or old vids of Ohstuka Sensei (founder of Wado) doing kata when he was like 70!

In fact Funakoshi Sensei went to mainland Japan when he was 50 - and started his main MA teaching career!

Anyway, good luck, and just start again - soon enough you'll be back in the Zen of it.

Thanks for your advice, Jason ! I realized I need something totally new, so last week I started with Yoga, Pilates and Cardio training to lose weight and have a breack from Martial Arts.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Speaking just to classes for older gents, there are plenty of us in our 40's, 50's and older who train in all styles.

Yepper. I didn't even start until I was 46. Isshin-Ryu works great for me; no high kicks, good physical workout, devastating power.

 

[Jason Striker II]

Glad to hear you are training!

Yoga is a tremendous supplement to MA - Yamaguchi Gogen, 2nd GM of Goju Ryu, used to swear by it.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Definitely take a look at the Filipino Martial Arts and Silat. If you were here in the states by one of our IRT Training Halls you would fit right in age wise! Good luck and keep training.