self defense until im old

nicerdicer

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Hey forum,

I'm looking for an effective martial art that you can practise until youre old. no high kicks, no hardcore sparring, etc.

ive been looking into tai chi and it seems to have some solid applications. I also looked into "attack proof", i cant make up my mind about it and i cant afford to go their seminars as i live in germany.

does anyone have a good idea?

Please dont tell me how every style is effective etc. most teachers cant teach effective self defense because they dont have a clue on how an attack goes about. Im looking for a style that USUALLY has effectove self defense in mind.

TKD, JIu jitsu, krav maga are cool and all buti cant see myself doing these styles when im 70 or older. some may be able to do that but the chances are pretty low.
 

crazydiamond

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I find my martial art - JKD/Kali offers many things for all ages and I will find things I am being taught now that I can use when I am 70.

Example Kali includes a lot of stick fighting and my school occasionally offers a special form of this with cane fighting classes. I also think the plain old boxing fundamentals we learn are simple effective and direct and work for most anyone of any age. Locks and joint manipulations I think are very low energy methods.
 

Buka

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I guess it would depend on what's around you. I'd go checkout a Tai Chi place if there's one.
 

hoshin1600

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Like everyone here I am biased to my own art. :) uechi-ryu might be a good choice. it may look hard core but take a look at some YouTube videos and notice the ages of the masters. It's a solid art and you can keep training well into your golden years. Tomoyose I think is in his 90s. It is important to train in a way that keeps you fit and healthy.
 

jks9199

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Any art can be practiced for your whole life; the expression of your practice and especially of your application will change as you age, as you collect injuries, and as you deepen your understanding. So, instead of worrying about how long you can train, find the one you want to train in for your whole life.
 

Gnarlie

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Two questions: where in Germany are you, and how old are you now?

There are practical elements to all the martial arts you mention which can still be practiced into old age.

For example, although TKD may be famous for high kicks, I know of a taekwondo group for senior citizens that focuses mainly on applied striking for self defence. Their youngest members are over 60, and their highest kicks are to the knee or shin. Your expression of your art changes as you age. Get enough experience while you are young, and the art won't matter, you will be able to tailor your own training.

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GiYu - Todd

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TKD, JIu jitsu, krav maga are cool and all buti cant see myself doing these styles when im 70 or older. some may be able to do that but the chances are pretty low.
Our oldest member, who is in his mid-60s, recently earned his 4th dan in Koryu Bujutsu (ju jutsu). It tends to be a harder form, and I wouldn't recommend it for a 60+ y.o. beginner, but you should be able to do most forms as long as you listen to your body and have training partners who are respectful.
Good luck.
 

Tony Dismukes

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1) Almost any martial art can be trained into your 70s. What changes is how you train.
2) You aren't going to get a lot of consensus here on what counts as "effective". Also, what is effective in one context may not be so effective in another.
3) In my personal opinion, effectiveness depends as much or more on how you train than which art you train.
4) Most people don't have the drive or physical condition to seriously train in a martial art in their 70s at all, let alone train it in such a way that makes them effective at fighting. If you want to be the exception, I recommend you start when you are younger, find a martial art that you love enough to spend a lifetime working at it, and then train smart so as not to damage your body to the point where you can't train.
5) Hard sparring is a good thing if you want to develop actual fighting skill. I recommend getting in your share of hard sparring when you are young so you can retain the lessons it teaches you as you get older and have to scale back your sparring.
5) Self-defense is mostly about things other than fighting skills. Hopefully you should have a firm grasp on those things well before you reach your 70s.
6) If you want to be a genuinely dangerous fighter into your 70s and beyond, I strongly recommend some sort of weapon-based art.
 

Brian R. VanCise

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Everyone has made great comments above. You really can train in any art as you get older. However, you may not be as effective as you would like to be in some systems when you are elderly. My advice would be to find a system that emphasizes utilizing tools/weapons such as the Filipino Martial Arts, Silat, Bando, Takamatsu Den lineages, etc. If you can utilizing tools/weapons even in your old age you can be really effective!
 

Chris Parker

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Hey forum,

I'm looking for an effective martial art that you can practise until youre old. no high kicks, no hardcore sparring, etc.

Hmm. I'm going to start off sounding a bit harsh here… but the simple fact of the matter is that you are not in a position to dictate how a system works, or what is considered effective training or not. You don't want high kicks… okay, don't train an art that has high kicks (such as TKD or Savate… of course, I note that you're already training in TKD, so saying you don't want your own art is a bit, well… odd). You don't want "hardcore sparring"? For one thing, that's fairly vague… and will mean different things in different contexts… but the real thing to realise is that, if that's considered the way the art achieves effectiveness, you don't get to dictate what they do or not (or why).

ive been looking into tai chi and it seems to have some solid applications. I also looked into "attack proof", i cant make up my mind about it and i cant afford to go their seminars as i live in germany.

If you aren't in a position to attend the classes, then what's the point in considering them? For the record, they're heavy on fear tactics in their marketing rhetoric, and very light on good, informed understanding and methodology, so I'm not a fan of "Attack Proof"… Taiji… well, it depends on who you're training with, and so on.

does anyone have a good idea?

Yeah, look around, visit schools that are available to you, and make up your mind based on that.

Please dont tell me how every style is effective etc. most teachers cant teach effective self defense because they dont have a clue on how an attack goes about. Im looking for a style that USUALLY has effectove self defense in mind.

Yeah… you really don't get to dictate how people answer, you know… especially when such an answer would be, well, the truth in many cases.

TKD, JIu jitsu, krav maga are cool and all buti cant see myself doing these styles when im 70 or older. some may be able to do that but the chances are pretty low.

If you can't see yourself training it, honestly, that's an issue of your beliefs. Plenty of older people do train in such things. But, really, you're 25… such considerations are a long way off… don't worry about them, worry about today. That way you can get to still be training when you're 70. Thinking about acting as an old man when you're a young man doesn't help the situation at all.
 

Gerry Seymour

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I'll second much of what Chris said, above. When you are 25, you don't need to train as a 70-year-old. Train for who you are now. What you learn will mostly be transferrable, as principles, to what you can do when you're much older.

Whether you want to hear it or not, any (well-designed) style can be effective for self-defense. And any (well-defined) style can be crap for self-defense. The difference is largely in how it is taught. I could easily teach my style for show, for competition, or for fitness. I choose to teach it for self-defense, and focus on developing competence in that area for my students. That attitude makes far more difference than the art.

So, as Chris and others have said: go visit some schools. Ask how they prepare folks for self-defense. Look for something that seems fun to you (the more fun, the more you'll train, and the better you'll get) and has the focus you want. Then train like you want to be an expert when you're 70.


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Flatfish

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Most people's interest in extracurricular activities fluctuates over time. While there are certainly a good number of people who have been training in MA all their lives I think it's fairly save to say that they are in the minority.
There are also many folks on here who trained in their younger years, then took an extended break, mostly due to this pesky thing called "life" that happened and took a lot of their time. Then they rediscovered their interest in MA later in life and started anew with something else or picked up their original art again.
Who knows what is going to happen to your interest/ability to train MA in 5 or 10 years. You are young, so study an art that you are interested in and that you can find a good school for that teaches good self defense. If you continue to train until old age you will adjust your training according to what your body is able to do. But you also might stop training for a time at least or become interested in something else down the line. No need to worry about 50 years ahead.
 

Blindside

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Hey forum,

I'm looking for an effective martial art that you can practise until youre old. no high kicks, no hardcore sparring, etc.

ive been looking into tai chi and it seems to have some solid applications. I also looked into "attack proof", i cant make up my mind about it and i cant afford to go their seminars as i live in germany.

does anyone have a good idea?

Please dont tell me how every style is effective etc. most teachers cant teach effective self defense because they dont have a clue on how an attack goes about. Im looking for a style that USUALLY has effectove self defense in mind.

TKD, JIu jitsu, krav maga are cool and all buti cant see myself doing these styles when im 70 or older. some may be able to do that but the chances are pretty low.

This is Tatang Illustrisimo doing a bit of sparring, his is 85 I believe in this video. I would like to move like that when I'm 50. :D I would love to see what he looked like when he made his rep at half this age.
 

Paul_D

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SD is Threat & Awareness Evaluation, Coopers Colour Codes, Target Hardening, The Fence and familiarising yourself with the Rituals of Violence. Once you have these skills, then in the majority of cases the only thing you need is a good strong punch. As Geoff Thompson says, "I train for the first shot, it's all I need".

As for picking an art, I would just try everything that's available, and pick the one you enjoy the most, as if you enjoy it you are more likely to stick with it and therefore become good at it.
 

Tony Dismukes

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pick the one you enjoy the most, as if you enjoy it you are more likely to stick with it and therefore become good at it.
This is really the key. If you want to be training into your 70s, you better pick an art that you love enough to keep working at even when all your joints are creaking and aching.
 

drop bear

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SD is Threat & Awareness Evaluation, Coopers Colour Codes, Target Hardening, The Fence and familiarising yourself with the Rituals of Violence. Once you have these skills, then in the majority of cases the only thing you need is a good strong punch. As Geoff Thompson says, "I train for the first shot, it's all I need".

As for picking an art, I would just try everything that's available, and pick the one you enjoy the most, as if you enjoy it you are more likely to stick with it and therefore become good at it.

Are people really that incapable so as to not know how to avoid a fight?
 

Koshiki

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Are people really that incapable so as to not know how to avoid a fight?

Yup. As evidenced by how common fights are. And I think almost all of us, even those of who might be pretty good at avoiding fights, could benefit from more knowledge on the subject...
 

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