Pros and Cons

There are some advantages to being an old guy in martial arts. The first is that I am awarded respect all out of proportion to my rank. Old guy plus Black Belt must mean a true master. Well, I am pretty experienced, but not in anything like a master way. I guess I could do some Yoda quotes to foster this image.

The second advantage is that I have been at this a long time, and have picked up some stuff along the way. I'm a brand new beginner at Jiu-Jitsu, but people keep asking me if I've done it before. Some, who've been there longer, are already acting as if I'm the old hand. When they come by, the instructors and senior students mostly say I'm doing things right.

All the assorted workouts have helped get me in pretty good shape, and my weight is much easier to control.

Of, course, it isn't all gravy.

In our Karate club we have three Black Belts. The other two never were free-fighters, and have injuries that prevent them from doing it in any case. I'm the local sparring expert. I just can't react as quickly as I'd like. I never had a really sparkling reaction time, but it's slipped even farther. Aging can be annoying.

Then there are injuries. I don't thing I get hurt more than a younger guy would, but each bump takes longer by far to heal. Had a cracked rib at the beginning of July, and it still hurt into September. There have been several jammed toes, which never seemed to bother me beyond the day they happened. An aching foot now lasts me a week at least. There have been several muscle pulls with no apparent cause. They just spontaneously happen.

One really big plus is that my dear wife is more than 100% in favour of all this martial arts activity. She used to worry that I was going to wear my body out early. Now, even if I managed to wear the sucker out right now, there is no way it will have worn out early. I’m well past early.

People also worry about how I’m going to fill my time once I retire a couple of years from now.

I’ll fill my spare time practising how to beat people up.