A Martial Artist or just some loony hitting trees?

[Xue Sheng]

I have been training a lot lately and although I have found out that I cannot do the same routine I did 12 years ago (no real surprise here, I am 12 years older and a bit more banged up).

I am also finding is that I currently do not feel like a martial artist at all. Nor do I feel like I am training martial arts. I am doing Tai Chi and I am even getting a chance to do push hands from time to time. I have been training Xingyi ‘San ti shi’ and Qigong - 8 pieces of brocade, stretching and I am still training Sanda; strikes kicks, etc. I am even starting to get a handle on the Sanda high low forearm strike to the back. My sifu told me to approach it like Tai Chi, start slowly and figure out where the power comes from and once I do start hitting more trees, yup more arm pain is in my future. I am also doing strength training, mostly body weight stuff and yet I do not feel like I am training martial arts at all.

I am not all that upset about it to be honest nor do I plan on stopping. I am actually rather intrigued by the way my training is adjusting and compensating due to age and injury. Occasionally it gets frustrating, but I seen to get around it somehow.

It is just a very interesting feeling and yet very strange at the same time. I really can't explain it any better and I am not sure I need to, even for myself. It is just, I guess best description, a interestingly strange or strangely interesting thing. And it is not burn out, I have been there before and this sure ain't it.

I guess the reason I am posting this is I am wondering if anyone else has run into something similar before?

 

[morph4me]

I'm going through something similar now, I think it might be maturity:anic:. I'm getting older, I don't heal as fast, and I hurt in places that I never used to. I've mellowed, somewhat, and changed my approach to training, started listenting to my body. I have no intention of stopping, but I have definetly slowed down.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

First of all, I thought this was a poll and spent 10 minutes looking to check the loony box. Don't tease me like that Xue!

Seriously, with my hip problems I run into this a lot. Being unable to do certain things in class that my peers are doing can be quite disheartening at times. Personally, I just try to push through that and drive on.

Jeff

 

[terryl965]

First of all, I thought this was a poll and spent 10 minutes looking to check the loony box. Don't tease me like that Xue!

Seriously, with my hip problems I run into this a lot. Being unable to do certain things in class that my peers are doing can be quite disheartening at times. Personally, I just try to push through that and drive on.

Jeff

My Lord Jeff me and you both Look Xue as we get older the body may change and things that was possible all those years ago seem like a dream.

 

[exile]

My Lord Jeff me and you both Look Xue as we get older the body may change and things that was possible all those years ago seem like a dream.

You guys are young!!! No, don't say another word---you are, and you have a long way to go yet before you get to kick back and complain about how hard stuff is now. When I was your age... no, but really---you're still at the breakfast of life.

BTW, Jeff---did you just switch your avatar to Flying Spagetti Monster today or something???

 

[Fu_Bag]

.....My sifu told me to approach it like Tai Chi, start slowly and figure out where the power comes from and once I do start hitting more trees, yup more arm pain is in my future.

It is just a very interesting feeling and yet very strange at the same time. I really can't explain it any better and I am not sure I need to, even for myself. It is just, I guess best description, a interestingly strange or strangely interesting thing. And it is not burn out, I have been there before and this sure ain't it.

I guess the reason I am posting this is I am wondering if anyone else has run into something similar before?

OK. I think I have it figured out. The Ninja Squirrels got wind of the situation and have been using the Ninja Squirrel Mind Trick on you.

Ninja Squirrels: "Xue Sheng, you do not want to attack our home. You want to go home and re-examine your life."

Xue Sheng: "Weird... I feel really strange for some reason. Oh well. Back to hitting trees!!!!!"

Ninja Squirrels: "Damn. He's resisting...... Oh crap. Here he comes again..."


Hope this makes you feel better.

Fu Bag

 

[SFC JeffJ]

You guys are young!!! No, don't say another word---you are, and you have a long way to go yet before you get to kick back and complain about how hard stuff is now. When I was your age... no, but really---you're still at the breakfast of life.

BTW, Jeff---did you just switch your avatar to Flying Spagetti Monster today or something???

It's not the years, it's the mileage.

And yes, just changed it.

Jeff

 

[SFC JeffJ]

OK. I think I have it figured out. The Ninja Squirrels got wind of the situation and have been using the Ninja Squirrel Mind Trick on you.

Ninja Squirrels: "Xue Sheng, you do not want to attack our home. You want to go home and re-examine your life."

Xue Sheng: "Weird... I feel really strange for some reason. Oh well. Back to hitting trees!!!!!"

Ninja Squirrels: "Damn. He's resisting...... Oh crap. Here he comes again..."


Hope this makes you feel better.

Fu Bag

Oh come on, squirrels cant be Ninjas!

They are Jedis.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Well as we get older we must adapt to our attributes. For some people that might mean just a little tweak here or there. While for others it could be a major tweak. Everyone is different as each of our bodies are different and as Jeff said the mileage may be different. The most important thing to realize is to just keep going even if you have to tweak your training a little.

 

[exile]

Well as we get older we must adapt to our attributes. For some people that might mean just a little tweak here or there. While for others it could be a major tweak. Everyone is different as each of our bodies are different and as Jeff said the mileage may be different. The most important thing to realize is to just keep going even if you have to tweak your training a little.

I've come to the conclusion that if my body objects to what I'm doing, too bad. I'm at the age and stage where if I start listening to it, that's all I'll be doing! As time goes on I'm finding that denial can be your best friend...

 

[still learning]

Hello, Age...as one gets older, especially over the 50 year mark. Many people at this age can still train as hard as the young ones do. BUT for many of the others in this age range...life is slowing us down.

"The Peter Principle" if you know about this book. Life is a curve....Enjoy what you can, do what you can, make the best of it...enjoy before it is gone.......Aloha

 

[Hand Sword]

I have been training a lot lately and although I have found out that I cannot do the same routine I did 12 years ago (no real surprise here, I am 12 years older and a bit more banged up).

I am also finding is that I currently do not feel like a martial artist at all. Nor do I feel like I am training martial arts. I am doing Tai Chi and I am even getting a chance to do push hands from time to time. I have been training Xingyi ‘San ti shi’ and Qigong - 8 pieces of brocade, stretching and I am still training Sanda; strikes kicks, etc. I am even starting to get a handle on the Sanda high low forearm strike to the back. My sifu told me to approach it like Tai Chi, start slowly and figure out where the power comes from and once I do start hitting more trees, yup more arm pain is in my future. I am also doing strength training, mostly body weight stuff and yet I do not feel like I am training martial arts at all.

I am not all that upset about it to be honest nor do I plan on stopping. I am actually rather intrigued by the way my training is adjusting and compensating due to age and injury. Occasionally it gets frustrating, but I seen to get around it somehow.

It is just a very interesting feeling and yet very strange at the same time. I really can't explain it any better and I am not sure I need to, even for myself. It is just, I guess best description, a interestingly strange or strangely interesting thing. And it is not burn out, I have been there before and this sure ain't it.

I guess the reason I am posting this is I am wondering if anyone else has run into something similar before?

We all will eventually, if not already. Life is a constant state of evolution, or change. As we do, so must our martial Art training practices.

 

[Xue Sheng]

It is nice to know I am not the only one, but it is really not the age, it may be the mileage not sure there, and it definitely is not the “I’m so old I can’t do what I use to do stuff”. I am finding ways around that and actually that is pretty cool and some of those ways are a whole lot smarter. I do admit to feeling a little old lately but it is not MA related, it is really no big deal either, my feeling on getting old has always been we all get there if we’re lucky. The only real “wow I’m old” related thing I have going right now is I am considering shaving the mustache because it is starting to change color on one side from blonde to white, but I do not think that is it either.

I have spent most of my life actually thinking of myself as a martial artist and now I don’t and I have no idea as to why. Sorry I can’t explain it any better than that I wish I could. I still do the stuff I mentioned and I like many MA people get up way to early in the morning and train when any sane person says, nope I’m sleeping in. But I do not feel like I am training martial arts anymore I just feel like I’m doing non-MA exercising. Although most do not hit trees and train kicks and punches to exercise, unless you train Taebo, but then you still don’t hit trees. And since I have been on this philosophical bender lately I have realized this and it just feels strange. I suppose some would call it mid life crisis but I have no desire to buy a sports car, date younger woman, or go cliff diving so I don’t think that is it either. I am actually rather happy with life in general. Possible career change in the future but that too would be a good thing. It just something I realized and, to be honest I am not even sure what else to say about it or at this point even why I am talking about it at all. It just feels a bit strange and yet interesting and I am trying to figure it out, maybe thinking too much could be the problem too, not sure, I'll have to think about it.

I’m not depressed, I don’t plan on quitting, stopping or giving up, but it is nice to know that I am likely not just some loony hitting trees (although that too could have its advantages), I am still likely the same lunatic martial artist hitting trees I was, I just don’t feel like it. Maybe it is the ninja squirrel mind control, hmm I am not sure, but all of a sudden I have the strangest desire to go leave Walnuts at the base of all the trees in my yard. Regardless it is not the Ninja squirrels you need to worry about its the dreaded Samurai woodpeckers, they’re the real danger to us that pound trees.

And I do appreciate the Reponses and I look forward to more.

Thanks
XS

Oh and one more thing 50 HOW OLD DO YOU THINK I AM!!!!! OK I'm well on my way to 50..... but 50!!!!


must go buy walnuts now

 

[morph4me]

Sounds like you're settling in, your martial arts are becoming your lifestyle. Like getting behind the wheel of a car, going into autopilot. You're becoming comfortable with things that used to be exciting, they are now commonplace. It's a good place to be, comfortable and easy with what you're doing.

BTW, I'm 53 and I'm not old, old is a state of mind, age is a number. I've always had a theory that old is 20 years from where I am at the time. 20 years ago I would be old right now, but now I won't be old until I'm 73.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I meant to add this to my previous post but I ran out of time and I was also doing that thinking philosophical thing again.

First of all, I thought this was a poll and spent 10 minutes looking to check the loony box. Don't tease me like that Xue!

My Lord Jeff me and you both

Next time I promise I will make it a poll.

Is Xue a tree-pounding Loony? Yes/No
Is Xue a tree-pounding martial artist lunatic? Yes/No

You guys are young!!! No, don't say another word---you are, and you have a long way to go yet before you get to kick back and complain about how hard stuff is now. When I was your age... no, but really---you're still at the breakfast of life.

BTW, Jeff---did you just switch your avatar to Flying Spagetti Monster today or something???

It is possible that I am young but I did start training back when dinosaurs walked the earth....ok... truth be known, I'm no that old.... Mammoths were still around though. But it really is not an age thing of that I am sure.

And I'm with exile, what is with the Flying Spaghetti monster Jeff?

I'm going through something similar now, I think it might be maturity. I'm getting older, I don't heal as fast, and I hurt in places that I never used to. I've mellowed, somewhat, and changed my approach to training, started listening to my body. I have no intention of stopping, but I have definetly slowed down.

Yup this is part of it for sure, but I am not all that concerned about the slowing down part, it was expected.

But I'm with you I am not stopping now.

OK. I think I have it figured out. The Ninja Squirrels got wind of the situation and have been using the Ninja Squirrel Mind Trick on you.

Ninja Squirrels: "Xue Sheng, you do not want to attack our home. You want to go home and re-examine your life."

Xue Sheng: "Weird... I feel really strange for some reason. Oh well. Back to hitting trees!!!!!"

Ninja Squirrels: "Damn. He's resisting...... Oh crap. Here he comes again..."


Hope this makes you feel better.

Fu Bag

Upon reflection after my previous post I tend to think this is not what it is... however you will be happy to know the squirrels did enjoy the Walnuts

And to Jeff the Jedi are the Chipmunks, NOT the squirrels. But don't tell them I told you about that... ok... I have enough problems with the dreaded Samurai woodpeckers.

Well as we get older we must adapt to our attributes. For some people that might mean just a little tweak here or there. While for others it could be a major tweak. Everyone is different as each of our bodies are different and as Jeff said the mileage may be different. The most important thing to realize is to just keep going even if you have to tweak your training a little.

Thanks Brian

Hello, Age...as one gets older, especially over the 50 year mark. Many people at this age can still train as hard as the young ones do. BUT for many of the others in this age range...life is slowing us down.

"The Peter Principle" if you know about this book. Life is a curve....Enjoy what you can, do what you can, make the best of it...enjoy before it is gone.......Aloha

And once again 50!!...What are you thinking man!?!?!?!?!?


But seriously thank you to all, I still don't feel like a martial artist and I am not sure how I am suppose to feel to be honest at this point, but I am not the only one and thats a good thing. .

 

[Xue Sheng]

Sounds like you're settling in, your martial arts are becoming your lifestyle. Like getting behind the wheel of a car, going into autopilot. You're becoming comfortable with things that used to be exciting, they are now commonplace. It's a good place to be, comfortable and easy with what you're doing.

BTW, I'm 53 and I'm not old, old is a state of mind, age is a number. I've always had a theory that old is 20 years from where I am at the time. 20 years ago I would be old right now, but now I won't be old until I'm 73.

Thanks.

I have been at this MA thing for a very long time, think Enter the Dragon was a new movie and you got it. I have always pretty much thought of myself in terms of martial arts and now I don't. And it happened just that fast apparently. that or I didn't notice when it did. And getting old or being old never really ahs bothered me. It did only once and that was at 33 and I have no idea why 33 was an issue but it lasted a week and I was over it.

But it could be exactly what you said it could be things are becoming comfortable with things that used to be exciting. It could be I can no longer separate myself from MA so I no longer think of myself separately from it or as part of what defines me since it is me.... Very interesting point, thank you.

 

[exile]

The stuff that everyone's been posting---in particular some of the things from Brian v.C., Jeff, XS and morph4me---started me thinking about my own response to discovering the MAs. I'm looking at turning 60 next b'day, and the funny thing is that I am probably in better shape now than I've ever been---stronger (from a decade of fairly humorless weight-training, pain-is-your-friend style), faster reactions (due probably to MA training), better balance (ditto), more flexible (ditto), and so on. And I've been a little puzzled by this... because the only way that's possible has been by driving myself fairly pitilessly, much the same way that I have driven myself over my academic career. I was promoted to full prof at OSU at the beginning of this year, and my first thought---not exactly, it was something I was thinking about at the end of last year, when I knew the promotion was coming through---was, OK, can't do anything more on that ladder, now I'm going to aim at my dan test some time in the next two years (my instructor doesn't like to rush this sort of thing one bit, which I really appreciate). Why does there always have to be something up the line that I focus on and try to take to pieces and reconstruct so that I understand it and can do it to my own satisfaction (which, of course, is impossible, since I'm never satisfied with anything)? So for quite a while I've been sort of baffled by the intensity with which I took up MA as a kind of second career path (not in terms of employment, but as a vocation or calling or something)...

...and then, reading over this thread, I found myself thinking of an old Neil Young song, `Motorcycle Mama' where he does this alternating duet with Nicolette Larson, who at one point sings

As long as I keep moving, I won't need a place to stay

and it hit me that this is the story in the proverbial nutshell. An MA can be a focus for an ambition that you can keep ratcheting up, because there's always another belt, another bit of technical competence and/or artistry, another nasty application of a seemingly innocent poomsae movement, that you can go after, and so, if you're the kind of person who keeps moving to stay one step ahead of the Grim Reaper, it's a perfect component to add to your lifestyle.

Of course it's an illusion. But at the end of a superhard workout, when you're drenched in sweat, it's a very easy illusion to swallow: `it ain't gonna happen to me, not now---I feel fantastic, I nailed all my forms and I have another belt test coming up in six months!' Very strange, the way the mind works to allow us to think we can evade our own mortality...

 

[Xue Sheng]

The stuff that everyone's been posting---in particular some of the things from Brian v.C., Jeff, XS and morph4me---started me thinking about my own response to discovering the MAs. I'm looking at turning 60 next b'day, and the funny thing is that I am probably in better shape now than I've ever been---stronger (from a decade of fairly humorless weight-training, pain-is-your-friend style), faster reactions (due probably to MA training), better balance (ditto), more flexible (ditto), and so on. And I've been a little puzzled by this... because the only way that's possible has been by driving myself fairly pitilessly, much the same way that I have driven myself over my academic career. I was promoted to full prof at OSU at the beginning of this year, and my first thought---not exactly, it was something I was thinking about at the end of last year, when I knew the promotion was coming through---was, OK, can't do anything more on that ladder, now I'm going to aim at my dan test some time in the next two years (my instructor doesn't like to rush this sort of thing one bit, which I really appreciate). Why does there always have to be something up the line that I focus on and try to take to pieces and reconstruct so that I understand it and can do it to my own satisfaction (which, of course, is impossible, since I'm never satisfied with anything)? So for quite a while I've been sort of baffled by the intensity with which I took up MA as a kind of second career path (not in terms of employment, but as a vocation or calling or something)...

...and then, reading over this thread, I found myself thinking of an old Neil Young song, `Motorcycle Mama' where he does this alternating duet with Nicolette Larson, who at one point sings

As long as I keep moving, I won't need a place to stay

and it hit me that this is the story in the proverbial nutshell. An MA can be a focus for an ambition that you can keep ratcheting up, because there's always another belt, another bit of technical competence and/or artistry, another nasty application of a seemingly innocent poomsae movement, that you can go after, and so, if you're the kind of person who keeps moving to stay one step ahead of the Grim Reaper, it's a perfect component to add to your lifestyle.

Of course it's an illusion. But at the end of a superhard workout, when you're drenched in sweat, it's a very easy illusion to swallow: `it ain't gonna happen to me, not now---I feel fantastic, I nailed all my forms and I have another belt test coming up in six months!' Very strange, the way the mind works to allow us to think we can evade our own mortality...

Thank you that helped and congratulations on becoming full prof at OSU and passing your belt test.

I don’t think for me it is a mortality issue. I know the Grim reaper will show up some day when its my time it is my time, this of course doesn’t mean I plan on making it easy for him however, I just may have to see how good a martial artist he is first, best 2 out of 3. But reading your post made me think of a line from an old Rush Song Dreamline “We are only immortal for a limited time” and I have always felt that way, or at least since I realized I wasn't immortal in my mid 20s

Career wise I could climb hire where I am but it has absolutely nothing to do with what I do it is all political and I don’t do politics. I am considering a career change but that is only in the early stages and will require me to return to college for an MS degree.

After reading all the responses, and yours very much so, I think this is a how do I define myself kind of thing if I no longer use the term martial artist as part of that description, even though I am still training Martial Arts who am I?

I also really can’t believe I am asking that question because I have always labeled such questions philosophical clap trap and I really hate them. The “Who are you really” kinds of questions. But here I am asking it of myself… I am a loony.

I think it is time to go for a walk and beat a tree.

 

[exile]

Thanks for the kind thoughts, XS.

I don’t think for me it is a mortality issue. I know the Grim reaper will show up some day when its my time it is my time, this of course doesn’t mean I plan on making it easy for him however, I just may have to see how good a martial artist he is first, best 2 out of 3.

Right---like that line of Dylan Thomas', `Do not go gentle into that good night.' MAists have a special way of not going gentle into something, don't they! :wink1:

IBut reading your post made me think of a line from an old Rush Song Dreamline “We are only immortal for a limited time” and I have always felt that way, or at least since I realized I wasn't immortal in my mid 20s

That's a great line!---reminds me of the wiseass crack that some book reviewer in the Vancouver Sun once wrote about some local literary tin idol whom the reviewer (obviously no fan of!) described as `world famous in Canada'. Wonderfully spiteful...

IAfter reading all the responses, and yours very much so, I think this is a how do I define myself kind of thing if I no longer use the term martial artist as part of that description, even though I am still training Martial Arts who am I?

I also really can’t believe I am asking that question because I have always labeled such questions philosophical clap trap and I really hate them. The “Who are you really” kinds of questions. But here I am asking it of myself… I am a loony.

I think it is time to go for a walk and beat a tree.

Not a loony! I think it's true what other posters have said, in effect---that you reach a point where something you do stops being part of what you are and becomes part of who you are---inseparable from the other elements of your identity. At that point, you stop using it to categorize yourself. Not at all a bad development or involving any kind of loss or diminishment of the importance of the thing to you...

 

[pete]

dont define yourself by what you do. rather, make whatevre it is you do a reflection of who you are. speaking of old neil check my tag line...