Saved by Judo: Neat story...

[Bill Mattocks]

I like this story, hope you do too:

http://www.news-press.com/article/2...judo-Sport-helped-Cape-man-kick-trouble-aside

Saved by judo: Sport helped Cape man kick trouble aside


...
The show of respect and the ensuing action are centered around a mat in the middle of the room, where 75-year-old John Harwood is one of the teachers — or sensei, which also implies “master” and “gentleman” — instructing kids 4 and older in the ancient practice of judo.
Harwood got a late start compared with these kids: He was introduced to the Japanese martial art at 12, and somewhat by accident.
“I was a pretty tough kid,” says Harwood, who grew up in Detroit. “We had gangs. And you could get into as much trouble as you wanted to.”
Sitting in a folding chair at the martial arts studio Kodokan Judo, he remembers the night his life changed direction.
“There was a Sgt. Stackhouse, a policeman who controlled us kids in the area. He came into a restaurant where I was fighting and I ran and hid under a car,” Harwood says. “He came looking for me and said ‘Come on out, John.’
“He told us, ‘You want to fight? You can fight all you want,’ and took us all to the Detroit judo club,” Harwood said. “We wore our fathers’ suitcoats and started learning. He saved a lot of us from trouble.”
...
“I’ve seen him (the elder Harwood) at 74 take 6-foot throws like a 20-year-old,” Piccano says. “And he’s still ticking. Like Timex.”
About the family: Harwood’s two sons and two daughters were all active in judo.
He has been married for 50 years to Ada, 71, who is “what they call a judo mama. She was always the lady who brought the sandwiches. When the kids lost and cried, she was there. She deserves a black belt, too,” he says.

...
What staying active has done for him: “Judo is a mental as well as physical sport,” Harwood says. Being active at his age has “given me the confidence to meet people, and to know when to get away from trouble.”
Advice to more sedentary seniors: Start slow. Just start.

 

[Gruenewald]

That's pretty cool. To me that's the classic picture of what martial arts can accomplish for a youth, particularly those who are troubled.