Karate for Life!

Having taken up karate training as a 14yr old schoolboy and continued to practise consistently ever since, now, at 50yrs of age, I have a significant body of training experience to reflect upon. In my youth in the late 70s and 80s (I turned 18yrs in 1983) I trained hard under the guidance of my instructors and my mindset during sessions was one of total commitment: if my instructor said “jump”, I didn’t question it, in fact I said “how high?”! I took my physical ability and injury free body for granted and didn’t think about the inevitable changes that would occur eventually – why would I? The thought of ever becoming 50yrs of age was absurd to my mind; it felt ‘light years’ away given that my own parents were about that age and they were ‘ancient’ as far as I was concerned!

I was of course also wrong.

The ‘leap’ from 20 to 30, then 30 to 40, then 40 to 50 came in rapid bounds and there was considerable change: my karate evolved, I made technical progress, and physically I became fitter, stronger, faster, sharper. But over a period of 36 years I picked up a few injuries and I also became aware that my gains in strength, speed and sharpness slowed down and, dare I say it, began to decline. I can’t pin down when it was but the latest research suggests that over 40 there is usually a decline in aerobic capacity, muscle mass and joint mobility. There were changes in my repertoire too: functional techniques within my comfort zone began to slip to the periphery of it, sometimes as a result of a modified training regime to accommodate an injury, sometimes not.

But here’s the thing.

It could have been a whole lot worse – I could have lived a sedentary lifestyle!

Apparently the ‘couch potato’ lifestyle is responsible for half of the physical decline hitherto widely accepted as being ‘par for the course’ as we age – in other words, the evidence suggests that it isn’t the ageing process itself doing all the damage. So the good news is we have some control over it. The current learning also suggests that athletes who maintain high intensity training as they age slow the rate of physical decline by 50%! So according to the research, we shouldn’t be training lighter (and perhaps longer) as we get older, it’s the very opposite. Continuing with high intensity karate training makes sense from a self defence perspective in any event: a violent assault doesn’t become more benign as we age – quite the contrary, it becomes more problematic. You can’t say to an attacker, “can you take it easy on me I’m no spring chicken you know'”!

I have recently spoken to two karateka about longevity in training: the first a current karate athlete in his prime niggled by a catalogue of injuries to whom I offered some advice; the second a former World champion whose wise counsel I value. The upshot is this: we must continue to train vigorously and with a high intensity but within our physical capabilities whatever they may be at any moment in time; we must also train intelligently and with good common sense because the worst thing that could happen is that we have to stop!

Oss!