When a person decide to pickup martial arts, he/she may not truly understand what they are in for. There are so many different styles of martial arts. They may have seen martial arts performed on stage, in movies and want to be able to do something like that. Some kids were sent to martial arts training to learn discipline. Some want to learn so that they are no longer afraid of bullies. Some martial art teacher is inspired to teach to popularize their specific style / culture. Of course, there are those that want to make money.

There is a huge difference between . There is a huge difference between those that train for health only, A teacher’s goals may differ from those of students. Different age groups have varying interests and needs, and a mismatch in these goals can often lead to frustration and dropouts.

In traditional kung fu teaching, the emphasis is often placed on the “style”, “tradition” or “culture”. Is learning the culture what your top priority? There are schools that focus on the “sport / competition” aspect. Therefore they emphasize on technical difficulties for points and/or the artistic impression to get a higher school. Some pride themselves of they kept everything in its “original state”. Given how much the world has changed even in 10 years, shouldn’t there be some improvements since?

When you get to be in your 60s or 70s, if you want to learn self defense, do you want to learn techniques so complicated that it takes 10 years of training before it become useful on the streets?

As shown in the video below, seniors are most frequently attacked with a shove that sends them to the ground. Surviving the fall is critical to have any ability to fightback. So learning how to fall should be your top priority. It is not just knowing what you should do but you should train to the extent that the response is automatic.

At Martial Gym, when we teach children that “fighting is the last resort,” we do not introduce punches or kicks in our introductory class. Instead, we offer non-violent alternatives. Our aim is to develop their movement vocabulary and make fun an essential part of the syllabus. When teaching seniors, the focus is on sensible self-protection. Punching is not the highest priority. Instead, we teach them how to notice a potential threat, how to find outside resources, how to get away when grabbed, how to protect themselves from being pushed, and how to land a fall without breaking bones or hitting their heads on the ground and much more.

Many seniors practice Tai Chi (Taiji 太極) for health and social reasons, which is excellent because it gets them out of the house, moving, and interacting with others. They were also working under the impression that it can be used to defend themselves. This is as dangerous as playing around with a toy gun around the bank – one might get killed.

If your highest priority is health, do what give you the max benefit? If your teacher adjust your hand higher or lower, is that for health? Ask yourself if your body even feel warm after the first 10 minutes, do you feel that your joints feel worked? aside from legs getting stronger because you are standing for longer while practicing the form, can we turf the form and simply stand with knees bent? are you fully stretched and feel stronger on all the deteriorating body parts? does the memorization of the complicated moves become a hinderance of improving your health?

My senior classes are divided into two streams: 1) Functional Fitness for Seniors and 2) Self-Defense for Seniors. In the Functional Fitness stream, you work on improving your overall circulation, flexibility, mobility, strength, and neural function, control, and reflexes. The goal is to prepare you for falls and address common chronic pains. With this “Functional Fitness” foundation, you will be better equipped to enjoy and benefit from the self-defense classes. We do not break boards or aim for competitions. We do not teach techniques that takes 10 or more years to master. Neither do we teach you forms from two thousand years ago without explaining why things are done a specific way. We do not use cryptic terms that you cannot understand. Everything is explained in plain English and can be replicated by you with guidance. Ultimately, we focus on enhancing your understanding of your body and mind to help you function better and protect yourself more effectively each time you come to class.

This blog is not for you if:

• you have no interest in the struggles that haunts seniors
• you want to become a professional fighter
• you firmly believe that building and maintaining muscles is all that is to protecting yourself.

Would love to hear from you to see if this blog is relevant and make sense to you. Thanks!