When to stop jumping

[geocad]

I don't think you can put a quantifiable number like age on it. Some older students are in fantastic shape (Jhoon Rhee and Hee Il Cho come to mind). Others are 25 years old and couldn't jump if their lives depended on it. My answer is this: I will stop jumping when my body tells me it is time to stop. Otherwise, with proper practice and conditioning, I see no reason to believe I will have to stop jumping anytime soon (I'm 38).

I agree. When my body tells me to slow down then I'll take it easy. But what about advancing to the next level? Some required techniques are jumping, spinning, and jump & spin. If one of your required forms contains a jumping spin kick from the sitting position, then aren't you expected to do it in order to advance to the next level. IMO if your body is telling you not to do something then don't do it fast. But if your instructors are telling you that you need to do it in order to advance, then I guess you have choice to make. I too am 38 and am now carrying 20 extra pounds. I'm still practing my jumps/spins but just a little slower and lower...for now.

 

[tellner]

I can only quote the wisdom of my first Silat teacher.

Your *** is a finite resource.

The older you get, the more finite it becomes. The jumping spinning hard landing stuff is bad for you. You just don't know it at 25 the way you will at 55.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I can only quote the wisdom of my first Silat teacher.

Your *** is a finite resource.

The older you get, the more finite it becomes. The jumping spinning hard landing stuff is bad for you. You just don't know it at 25 the way you will at 55.

Nice!

 

[zDom]

I was asked to work with our purple belts on jumping and flying kicks last week.

While I can still do all of them head high, I definately saw the writing on the wall: there is a day in my near future (five years from now? Maybe three?) when I won't be able to.

I used to be able to sky them up HIGHER than my head; now I can hit temple high for my height (6 foot) but only higher on a couple of them.

And some of the really sweet combination flying kicks — flying side/backside; double-front-round, and the like — I probably shouldn't attempt any more for safety's sake.

Being mortal sucks.

 

[kidswarrior]

I can only quote the wisdom of my first Silat teacher.

Your *** is a finite resource.

:lfao:

The older you get, the more finite it becomes. The jumping spinning hard landing stuff is bad for you. You just don't know it at 25 the way you will at 55.

Oh, sure, put the 55-year-olds in the fine print. Sheesh. Talk about becoming invisible as you get older.... :lol:

 

[kidswarrior]

Well? When will you stop jumping and spinning first?

Immediately!!

Oh, too late. I stopped 10 years ago after, I think, nine knee sprains and lots of joint pain (kind of my body warning me). Doesn't mean I don't have to still come home and ice my knees on the days I teach 3 1/2- 4 1/2 hours (after workng all day). But at least I can still walk, and even do MA.

I agree in principal but there is "good" hurt and "bad" hurt. Good hurt is where you are pushing yourself and the muscles need to improve to cope, bad hurt is where you do yourself damage and should no longer push it. People can tell the difference with experience.

Exactly right. And Shaderon not only gave the way of discernment as an intuitive knowing (which I'm not disputing at all) but also implied the analytic answer: good pain is often muscle growth and stamina, or aerobic (heart and lung) capacity; bad pain is often, in my experience, joints (as tendons, ligaments, and for those of us who lack cartilage in some mandatory places, bone-on-bone grinding). In other words, good pain is to things that will heal; bad pain is to things that don't heal.

 

[kidswarrior]

The sooner the better. In fact, as teachers, if our objectives are to create an art that someone can practice with longevity, then we need to seriously rethink our curriculum.

I look at my own art, TSD, this is based upon Okinawan Karate which had practioners actively training in their golden years. Did those guys practice jumping and spinning? No. Did they practice a heck of alot of other self defense skills other then jumping and spinning. Hell yes!

I'm 30 years old. I've been practicing martial arts for 20 years and TSD for 10. Thinking about the above objective has caused me to totally rethink what I do. Much of the jumping and spinning is now gone from the TSD that I practice. Why? Because I don't want to ask the question "when to stop jumping/spinning" 20 years from now when all of the damage is done.

Yes, Yes, Yes! Gotta think about a lifetime practitioner, which we teachers are responsible for guiding in the right direction.

 

[tellner]

Just to add to kidswarrior's point, anything weight bearing takes a long time to heal if it ever does. An elbow or wrist? Not too bad. A shoulder? Months. A knee? Maybe never.

 

[kidswarrior]

Just to add to kidswarrior's point, anything weight bearing takes a long time to heal if it ever does. An elbow or wrist? Not too bad. A shoulder? Months. A knee? Maybe never.

And now that you mention it, the feet. They're at the bottom of the food chain. Broke one once with a stress fracture just from the length of a belt test, and other times for other reasons. Pain comes and goes, and can be managed mostly by training smart. But as tellner says: Healing? Maybe never completely.

 

[Shaderon]

And now that you mention it, the feet. They're at the bottom of the food chain. Broke one once with a stress fracture just from the length of a belt test, and other times for other reasons. Pain comes and goes, and can be managed mostly by training smart. But as tellner says: Healing? Maybe never completely.

Yes the feet must be listened to, I am learning this the hard way with my right foot tendonitis, all from falling off a curb years ago. I did a flying kick on Monday, landed on my right foot and had to hop for a minute (painlessly) as the darned thing gave way. We all need to remember, the feet are involved in everything, if we don't look after them they'll affect everything!

 

[Kacey]

From (if I remember correctly) an ad for a patent medicine that became Ben-Gay: "pain is nature's way of telling you to slow down". The greater the pain, the louder nature is yelling at you to slow down. Listen to your pain... it will tell you when to stop jumping - forcefully, if you don't listen to the first warnings.

 

[Jusus]

Started TDK, at 51, Never learned how to do jump kicks. However I do worry about Injuries when training with younger parternes, I don't know how much this will give me problems when I test for higher belts. I'm currently a green belt, I would like to reach black some day, If any instructors out there would like to give me an opinion on what to do, to make up for this problems feel free to email.

Jusus.

 

[akskarate1]

I would have to say it all depends one the day, like today would be a good day I just got off the trampoline with my kids. A few days ago I though I felt like I was 100. That day I took the opportunity to go over some of my Kenpo forms like I do my Tai Chi. Listen to what your body tells you.