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Old 08-06-2012, 10:13 PM   #12
Mark Freeman
Dojo: Dartington
Location: Devon
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,220
United Kingdom
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Re: training as we get older

I would like to be like the CIMA practitioner at 65. Fit healthy and handling less supple others like the proverbial dolls. This can be achieved when working with the true fundamentals of aikido.

Despite being on the wrong side of my mid 50's, I feel fortunate that I can handle anything that is thrown at me as uke, it's part of the fun of aikido for me. However, for maximum health and bodily longevity, I think some apects of aikido and the way that is practiced, can have a detrimental effect on the body.

Of course it is up to uke to take care of themselves, that is a given. But repeated high falls, even on forgiving mats, or many over enthusiastically applied joint locks, can produce long term problems.

Things do take a bit longer to heal when you get older, but as the images show so graphically above, we owe it to ourselves to keep up our fitness levels as we age.

If we train well and train wisely, we can practice well into into old age. My own teacher is 82, he has 2 artificial hips and an artificial knee. He attributes these wonders of modern medicine, to his 'hard' training in Judo and Aikido. He has since eliminated the damage producing aspect of Aikido from his teaching. I appreciate being schooled in such a way.

Train well, train wisely,

Mark

Success is having what you want. Happiness is wanting what you have.
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