What to do......

[Manny]

What to do when age does not allow us to perform flashy,jumping,spining,flamboyan kicks?

It's sad to me see the young kids perform nice high kikcks when I can not do them, some times I wonder if I am doing TKD cause mi kicks are the basic ones at hogu level with a few kicks to the head level (the axe kick for example) only. I can not jump and spin at the same time to deliver tornado kicks or hook kicks.

Manny

 

[granfire]

Pick up the book 'Zen in the MArtial Arts' I think the author's name is John Hyams.

To give you a short caption of the book, it is a collection of short anecdotes of the Instructors and Masters he encountered in his studies. One of them being Bruce Lee.

The deal is, you have to work with what you have, your assets. As luck will have it, you are a big guy, well into your journey of life. Not a young guy, maybe Asian with enough gummy in your step to make a kanguru green with envy.

There is a nice story in the book where the author complains to no other than Bruce Lee how he (author) can't do the kicks to the head anymore without lots of stretching and warming up. Lee advises him to work on the mid section kicks....to work with his limitations, not against them.

As it has been mentioned in many other threads, old and sneaky wins!

 

[ralphmcpherson]

I often wonder the same thing. Unfortunately I didnt start tkd till I was 30. Now , going on 36 , I am still limber enough to do all the jumping and spinning kicks but realize that because of the age I started I will probably have a limited amount of time that I will be able to jump al over the place. Fortunately my club focuses more and more on hapkido as you go up the belt levels and less and less on "flashy kicks" , so it provides a natural progression which will work well as I age. I am also finding that the longer I do tkd the more emphasis I want to put on the kicks and strikes I could actually use in a real life self defence situation and less I want to work on the showy kicks. It all seems a natural progression to me.

 

[igillman]

Having started TKD a couple of years ago and being in my late 30's I know what you mean. I want to relate an incident that happened a little while ago at our school...

We had been practicing back kicks for about 15 minutes and the instructor stopped us. He made us get up in front of everyone else and perform two back kicks (one with each leg). He then judged if they were good enough or not and told us so. After my first kick he told me to make it higher so I redid the kick and barely made the height requirement. That was my left leg which is much more flexible than my right leg due to an old rugby injury. I knew I could never make the height with my right leg so when I kicked I unloaded everything I had on the bag. I know I hit it at a point lower than he wanted but I managed to kick the bag over. It went straight over too, it didn't pause in the middle waiting for the water to catch up and tip it, it just slammed into the ground. I got a round of applause from the people who were watching the class. The instructor said it was a good kick. Nobody else that night managed to come close to kicking the bag over.

What does that incident show? It shows that a lower but more powerful kick can be just as effective as a high kick. It shows that a good kick does not have to be a high kick and that you can still impress people with some show of power.

You are at a transition point, you have been there for a while but you have only just noticed. You are transitioning from speed and agility to power. No more showing off by jumping and spinning, instead you can show off by breaking equipment. They still will not let me to flying side kicks due to structural damage from the last time I did it

Let the younger crowd jump and spin, that is what they can do best. Your best is changing, use it to your advantage.

 

[Manny]

Pick up the book 'Zen in the MArtial Arts' I think the author's name is John Hyams.

To give you a short caption of the book, it is a collection of short anecdotes of the Instructors and Masters he encountered in his studies. One of them being Bruce Lee.

The deal is, you have to work with what you have, your assets. As luck will have it, you are a big guy, well into your journey of life. Not a young guy, maybe Asian with enough gummy in your step to make a kanguru green with envy.

There is a nice story in the book where the author complains to no other than Bruce Lee how he (author) can't do the kicks to the head anymore without lots of stretching and warming up. Lee advises him to work on the mid section kicks....to work with his limitations, not against them.

As it has been mentioned in many other threads, old and sneaky wins!

Thank you very much, I really apreciate your words. Even I am not a fancy kiker anymore I can tell you that I try to do my best in my TKD Classes and I think sambunim sees my effort, he continusly pushes me in a polte way to try to bring the best of me, when doing high kicks he step by mi side and cherish me and demand me higher kicks and also when doing crunches he encorauges me to keep going till the end.

The fact is training MA keeps me alive.

Manny

 

[Manny]

Power.... yes, like Rocky in the last movie (Balboa) when his trainer talk to him in what he does not posses but tell him wath he does posses RAW POWER to try to hurt the Champion.

Manny

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

What to do when age does not allow us to perform flashy,jumping,spining,flamboyan kicks?

It's sad to me see the young kids perform nice high kikcks when I can not do them, some times I wonder if I am doing TKD cause mi kicks are the basic ones at hogu level with a few kicks to the head level (the axe kick for example) only. I can not jump and spin at the same time to deliver tornado kicks or hook kicks.

Manny

Just focus on being great at what you can do. A competitor's life cycle is fairly short. You are in super executive class at forty in WTF TKD. Seniors in FIK kendo at 45.

There is more to any martial art than just competing. Cultivate the other aspects and maintain your skill in what you can do.

Most of all, have fun! It will keep you younger longer.

Daniel

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Power.... yes, like Rocky in the last movie (Balboa) when his trainer talk to him in what he does not posses but tell him wath he does posses RAW POWER to try to hurt the Champion.

Manny

That was one of the best movies that I have seen in recent years. My expectations were fairly low when I went to see it, but I was so pleased with it that I bought the movie.

Daniel

 

[granfire]

Having started TKD a couple of years ago and being in my late 30's I know what you mean. I want to relate an incident that happened a little while ago at our school...

We had been practicing back kicks for about 15 minutes and the instructor stopped us. He made us get up in front of everyone else and perform two back kicks (one with each leg). He then judged if they were good enough or not and told us so. After my first kick he told me to make it higher so I redid the kick and barely made the height requirement. That was my left leg which is much more flexible than my right leg due to an old rugby injury. I knew I could never make the height with my right leg so when I kicked I unloaded everything I had on the bag. I know I hit it at a point lower than he wanted but I managed to kick the bag over. It went straight over too, it didn't pause in the middle waiting for the water to catch up and tip it, it just slammed into the ground. I got a round of applause from the people who were watching the class. The instructor said it was a good kick. Nobody else that night managed to come close to kicking the bag over.

What does that incident show? It shows that a lower but more powerful kick can be just as effective as a high kick. It shows that a good kick does not have to be a high kick and that you can still impress people with some show of power.

You are at a transition point, you have been there for a while but you have only just noticed. You are transitioning from speed and agility to power. No more showing off by jumping and spinning, instead you can show off by breaking equipment. They still will not let me to flying side kicks due to structural damage from the last time I did it

Let the younger crowd jump and spin, that is what they can do best. Your best is changing, use it to your advantage.

I also forgot to mention (your post reminded me of that) what one of our instructors advises all students he coaches for board breaking with a kick:
Line the board up with the knot of your belt, it allows you to have more power in the kick.

Mind you he is a very agile young guy, at that time maybe 18. He had no problems sharing that he once failed a break at grading because he had it set up too high.

High kicks are all nice and dandy, and I (before the break anyhow) could get it up there pretty well, but flash and effectiveness to not always go hand in hand.


Naturally my aim is to keep training for flexibility (because at our age you gotta keep at it or lose it) but not rely on it and not want what I can't have.

 

[ATC]

Manny, it is not about doing everything, but everything that you can do. You don't have to use a spin kick when the kick that the spin kick is based off of will do. A tornado kick is still only a round house kick. A back spinning hook kick is still just a hook kick. Remember all the spin dose is add confusion to the technique. Perform the technique with the correct timing and you don't need the add spin or confusion.

Hope this helps.

 

[KELLYG]

Most kicks in poomse (wtf) are mid-section. Some of the fancier kicks, jumping and spinning, are beautiful to watch but are often times not as effective as the more direct mid-sectioned kicks. As some one said before youth and speed are no match for age and treachery!!! Let the younger guys jump around like grashoppers, when they are close enough nail them! :angel:

 

[Manny]

Most kicks in poomse (wtf) are mid-section. Some of the fancier kicks, jumping and spinning, are beautiful to watch but are often times not as effective as the more direct mid-sectioned kicks. As some one said before youth and speed are no match for age and treachery!!! Let the younger guys jump around like grashoppers, when they are close enough nail them! :angel:

As you wrote lineas above in Poomsae the kicks are the regular ones, side kick,front kick,roundhouse kicks. I think the developement of fancy kicks is a result of trying to make TKD fancier,unique eye catching.

When I was a teen the fancier kicks were the jumping/spinning hook kicks and the jumping/spining back kick that was in the 1980's. Today it seems that tornado kicks aand 360,540 and 720 grades spinning kicks are in voge.

Someting I saw the past tournament in my city (I was referee for poomsae and kyorugi) was the masters (people above 45 years old) doing poomsae from kungam and above were using force and control and believe me I really injoy saw that people.

There are times when I feel a little sad and desapointed cause I can do what the younger people do and then I think I am a mess, but when I do poomsae with the kids or the moms and put such an effort to do things right is when I feel very motivated.

Manny

 

[granfire]

Seeing forms done with power is a beautiful thing!

I really enjoy every second I see my instructor and especially his instructor performing even a simple color belt form.

And frankly, I was never able to go all acrobatic and flashy, I was always athletic but never THAT gifted.

(Kinda like looking at a huge house, love seeing it and drooling over the amenities, but knowing that I wouldn't want to live there....)

 

[Cirdan]

What to do when age does not allow us to perform flashy,jumping,spining,flamboyan kicks?

Wise up and finally stop showing off?

 

[Manny]

Well last TKD class was a little demanding for this 40+ guy but I put all my effort. We did a lot fo streching and the we proced with our daily dose of an chagis and bakat chagis (high inwards and outwards kicks face level) I rellax and do them the higher I could with good results. We did then some Self Defense aplications, that's my thing so inpiring myself I did what sambunim asked me and do a lot of my own moves, we finisehd with crunches and then again like Rocky Balboa complete the circuit of crunches.

I stay on the mat and worked with a young couple some self defense techs, I notice a strong teen (he turned 18 just a couple of days back) doing pushups with fingers (trying to emulate Bruce Lee), I stared at him and he asked me if he was doing fine, I just laugh and told him ha was going just fine.

Manny

 

[KELLYG]

You got me to thinking. If you compare your self with athletic teenagers then yeah there is going to be a big difference in performance level. But look to other people that are 40 plus, shopping or at work or other non training environments. I bet your health and inner well being is so much greater than theirs that they practically think you quit aging.

 

[IcemanSK]

I agree with KellyG. I've been training since I was 14. I'm 42 now. I train hard & often to be able to show my students how to do techniques well. But I can not do many of the jumping &/or spinning kicks I could do at 17. Heck, most of the kicks I see the Korean Tigers do weren't even a thought in TKD when I started!

I do what I can & focus on good techniques for SD & the Art that I love so much. I let the kids worry about 540's & the like. I'm not their competition. Mine is in the mirror.