How old were you when you began...

Hi,
Started Judo at 16, Dan Grade at 18/19. Started Aikido age 28/29. Now 73 years old.Guess I am too dumb to quit and start relaxing in my comfy armchair, feet up, wearing my old carpet slippers clutching a pint of ale in one hand and a Mars bar in the other .Gee, must get the old gal to raid the fridge and bring me a cold beer. Cheers, Joe

Dabbled with martial arts from 10 - 15, took kickboxing a bit more seriously from then until 22 - got quite good and had a small stable of fighters at the uni club. Whilst at uni I was intoduced to, what was sold as aikido, so did that for three years. Graduated, made some life choices that took me away from it all. Then one day I googled aikido whilst at work, found a club, it then took eighteen months for me to take the plunge - funny how easy it is to talk yourself out of things

Then on one warm spring evening at 26 years old I turned up and have not stopped turning up since. With all the ups and down I am still having a blast and hope it may long continue.

Ok, I'm 52 years old and just started. Is there any hope?

just clicked on to the last page of this thread from the active topics list and had to mention one or two students at NY Aikikai when I was there started at age sixty.... they enjoyed it. My former student just made nidan at age sixty and enjoys Aikido even more than she did before. It just gets better and better...

confession:just turned 68 this week, been out of practice too long.

Was at NY Aikikai in the late sixties and early seventies when I was in my twenties, then moved back home after a year and a half in Japan, taught about 8 years at local Y here, visiting NYAikikai from time to time.

Haven't practiced much since mid nineteen eighties but you guys have got my feet alternating between gardening shoes, carpet slippers, going downtown shoes , and zories with a bit more arch support than flip flops. Next it will be bare feet. On the lawn with hubbie practicing nikyo and yonkyo and all the rest. Too bad to have stopped but often other stuff in life takes over, but then we remember....Aikido!

Joe Curran wrote: Hi, Started Judo at 16, Dan Grade at 18/19. Started Aikido age 28/29. Now 73 years old.Guess I am too dumb to quit and start relaxing in my comfy armchair, feet up, wearing my old carpet slippers clutching a pint of ale in one hand and a Mars bar in the other .Gee, must get the old gal to raid the fridge and bring me a cold beer. Cheers, Joe

Joe, one of my favorite dojos to visit has chief instructor w/ a few years on you; he can't do the rolling and falling but still getting to seminars, learning and developing along w/ everybody else w/ a twinkle in his eye.

I started at 41, now 57 and chugging along...

John Vasos wrote: Ok, I'm 52 years old and just started. Is there any hope?

"Don't quit. Don't die." see the recently started thread of a blog post by a pastor talking about Mary Stein, still training in her 80s.

John Vasos wrote: Ok, I'm 52 years old and just started. Is there any hope?

Absolutely. I started at 46. 49 now, and training 5x/week, 2 hours +/- each time.

We have several people at our dojo who started when they retired (60-65). Last year one of them, who started at 65, tested for shodan. He's 73 now, and still enjoying training.

Welcome, and have fun. :-)

Did a taster course about 10 years ago but didn't continue, then about a year ago took a few more classes but gave up again mainly as it was agitating some old injuries. Been back training again since the end of February and loving it again! Although I'm missing a seminar today and class on Monday as I twisted my bad knee last Monday and have some soft tissue damage

Started at 49. Will be 55 this summer.

Hi, started when I was 34, my sister started when she was 46, she is 3 kyu and she is good.

Hi, I just started at 40 years of age and looking forward to the journey.........

Started this past January at 38. So far so good.

I started at 22 and I'm 60 this year. I have a couple of students who started in their 60s and who've started chanting "Shodan by 70!"

15 :P And I'm still 15 xD (i began 7 months ago hehe still a begginer ^^)

Started at 20. Tried taekwondo, jujitsu, karate in earlier years but didn't know why I stuck with aikido all these years and keep coming back for more.

Started at around 8. I'm 18 now.

The oldest 'beginner' student i have ever had was a 75 y/o woman who trained for around 3 classes and then apologized to me for deciding to start bicycling instead as Aikido was too boring.

I was about 18 when I first began with Kung-Fu. After the glamor wore off and I lost interest it would be about ten years before I would step foot in dojo. So with Aikido, I was 28 and have not looked back.