I've been absent from the forum for a while, and the truth is I've been taking a break from teaching, and to be honest, from practicing much...
Here's the picture: Back before the pandemic, I closed my little "public" school, resigned from the association I had been paying some very steep "school operator" dues to and continued teaching a very small group privately. Of that core group, most have moved on, and I'm not actively recruiting new beginners. It's just too much of a headache to pour a lot of attention into teaching good basics to somebody who only has a passing interest. My most serious student, who actually came to me from another group, has now learned enough that he's more my training partner than just a student. And right now he's travelling to visit his family in Europe.
As for myself, I started kung fu in '76 and started the Wing Chun system in 79, and added Escrima in 82. I trained and taught these two arts for over a dozen years and then marriage, family, a new career (and some nasty martial arts politics) made me choose to take a break. That break lasted about 15 years. Then at age 52, with my life more settled and my weight steadily creeping up (!) I decided it was time to start again. That was the same year (2007) I joined this forum. Now, some 17 years later, I'm 69 and realized that there is a lot of other stuff I really want to do while I can.
So, am I done with martial arts? No. I'm just making some changes and doing other thing. For example, I'm flying again. As a young man I had a pvt. pilot's license, a glider license (sailplanes) and I flew hang gliders 50 years ago. I took a couple of days flying hang gliders again over in Cali and the instructor was kinda surprised. He said he wouldn't have thought so, but after nearly five decades I had retained a lot of my instincts. He let me solo again. It was a great experience.
Life is too short to limit yourself. So I will be back, but maybe not for a bit.
Here's the picture: Back before the pandemic, I closed my little "public" school, resigned from the association I had been paying some very steep "school operator" dues to and continued teaching a very small group privately. Of that core group, most have moved on, and I'm not actively recruiting new beginners. It's just too much of a headache to pour a lot of attention into teaching good basics to somebody who only has a passing interest. My most serious student, who actually came to me from another group, has now learned enough that he's more my training partner than just a student. And right now he's travelling to visit his family in Europe.
As for myself, I started kung fu in '76 and started the Wing Chun system in 79, and added Escrima in 82. I trained and taught these two arts for over a dozen years and then marriage, family, a new career (and some nasty martial arts politics) made me choose to take a break. That break lasted about 15 years. Then at age 52, with my life more settled and my weight steadily creeping up (!) I decided it was time to start again. That was the same year (2007) I joined this forum. Now, some 17 years later, I'm 69 and realized that there is a lot of other stuff I really want to do while I can.
So, am I done with martial arts? No. I'm just making some changes and doing other thing. For example, I'm flying again. As a young man I had a pvt. pilot's license, a glider license (sailplanes) and I flew hang gliders 50 years ago. I took a couple of days flying hang gliders again over in Cali and the instructor was kinda surprised. He said he wouldn't have thought so, but after nearly five decades I had retained a lot of my instincts. He let me solo again. It was a great experience.
Life is too short to limit yourself. So I will be back, but maybe not for a bit.
