Old???

There are currently eight Blue Belts attending our Jiu-Jitsu class. I am 57 years old, while the average age of the rest is a shade over 25.

How does such an old guy regularly roll with people who average under half his age? It varies from person to person.

Two of them have been Blue Belts much longer than I. One of these gives me all I can handle, and is stinking fast, but I have 50 pounds on him. Our skill levels are close enough that they cancel out and it's his speed and youth against my size. It evens out. The other guy senior to me took a huge amount of time out of training. In those several years my skill has passed his.

One of the two female Blue Belts can't really spar due to injury. The other has the highest skill level in the class, and moves like greased lightning. Here again, I'm pretty close to her in training and have over a 50% advantage in size. It's competitive.

I have been training much longer than the remaining three adult males. Two are close to my size, while the third is much larger. All are younger and stronger.

For a long time I could handle them pretty easily. They were just too new to the more advanced curriculum. I beat them with my deeper knowledge and training.

That's all very well, but every day that they train brings us closer in ability. I'm at a pause in progress while waiting to complete my exam, get my results, and to start learning at the next level. Maybe then I can keep a bit ahead.

Right now I can roll just fine with the young folks. It isn't a realistic goal to expect to regularly beat them, but that isn't my desire. I just want to remain in the game.

Rolling is fun in itself, but it would get frustrating if I could be easily dominated.

As it is, sometimes they get an armbar or choke on me, and sometimes I get one on them. We tap and keep going. Maybe the same person scores again, or maybe not.

"Watch out for the old guy."