Old and Slow versus Young and Quick

Bill Mattocks

Sr. Grandmaster
MTS Alumni
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Messages
15,627
Reaction score
4,434
Location
Michigan
So the other night in the dojo, we ended up the evening with some light sparring. Nothing fancy, just a teaching/learning environment, no pads. Friendly stuff, not even enough to test your cardio.

I got paired up with one of our older instructors. He's in his late 70s and a third degree black belt; he's been training since he was in his 40s. He and I just goofed around. Threw a few punches, a couple kicks, nothing with any smoke on it. He fools me a lot though; he's faster than he looks, and he's sneaky. I love it. He's a great guy.

Then our sensei called time and we all switched partners. One of our young students came running up to me and bowed in. He's a great kid. 15 years old, recently promoted to san-kyu, so he'll be looking at his black belt in a couple years. He's been in the dojo since he came up to my obi; now he's 6 foot 3 inches tall, and looks down on my old bald 5 foot 10 inch head. He's maybe 175 to my 225-ish. I should mention I'm 56 in a couple days. He's got range on me like crazy and his hands are like lightening; he's actually scary how fast and accurately he throws fists. His control isn't everything it should be, so sometimes I do worry he's gonna knock a few of my teeth out by mistake. We're working on that.

I should also say that the reason he came running up to me was that he wanted a little payback. We had been doing some one-step drills recently and I paired up with him and he cranked me kind of hard. Which is fine, I can take it. But you give, you get, you know? So when it was my turn to apply the waza, it came with a quickness. I gave me something to remember after class, if you know what I mean. And then he had to tease me and say "That all you got, old man?" Well, no, it's not ALL I got. Here, have some more. The thuds reverberated through the dojo and got me the stink eye from our sensei. And I will give him credit; Aside from a throat shot I tagged him with, he never shied away or said uncle. He took all I dished out. Well done, him. I know he wore a few bruises from that session. So yeah, he wanted to get a little payback sparring me.

So I haven't sparred with this young man in awhile now. In the past, all I did was avoid his kind of lousy kicks and knock down his punches. I'd reach in and tap him on the forehead to let him know he was open. That kind of thing. But although his kicks still aren't that impressive, his hands, as I've said, are downright scary now. I have real trouble blocking his punches. About all I can do is not be there. He also has some nice feints, and he suckered me a couple times into chasing the punch that wasn't there. Nice work, kid.

So we face up and bowed and took our stances. I did the stay-away dance for awhile; he came at me with kicks and punches, and I skipped back and offline to stay away from the kicks, avoided the punches (but dang it was a close thing) and move in fast to try to tag him as soon as he committed those long arms and legs. However, he recovered faster than he used to, and I often found myself moving inside only to get punched some more. OK, so that wasn't working for me.

I threw a couple kicks at him, including that nice little question mark kick that was being discussed recently here on MT. I can do it, but at the expense of my knees, the torque on them hurts when I change the direction of the kick. So he mostly dealt with my kicks just fine, and he didn't fall for my fakes. Dang.

We move around offline and did the usual exchanges. I had to bow to him a couple times when he tagged me deep with fast fair punches. He didn't clobber my noggin, so his control was improving. I was realizing that I was overmatched. The kid was going to beat me. And he knew it.

Beaten by a 15 year old brown belt? Whom I helped train? Who called me an "old man?" NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

Look, I'm not that good. I never was that good. But my training and some of my life experience always kept me a step ahead of the game. Any of my instructors, and a couple of the more experienced students, could eat my lunch any time they wanted to. I am under no illusions as to my abilities. I'm an old slow fat guy in a pair of white pajamas and don't I know it.

But I have a couple tricks left yet. I haven't given up all my angles. I rely upon the fact that pain and I are old pals, and that I'm hella strong to keep me going. I've got a big round belly; a former sparring partner refused to punch me in the gut because he complained it was like hitting a brick wall and hurt his hands. Heh. And when I punched him, I swear I felt spine. I'm pretty sure he felt it in his DNA.

So the next time he threw a roundhouse punch, I ducked and swarmed in. Arms open, a straight up front bear hug. I started working his midsection with some punches; and I am still hella strong. He made some noises involuntarily, which cheered me mightily.

However, he kept his composure and stepped around me and tried to throw me.

If I had not allowed it to work, it wouldn't have worked. I had a lower center of gravity and weight on my side. I could have overpowered his attempt and either kept from going down or thrown him instead.

But I knew where I was and what was behind me, so I let it happen, and used it to my advantage. I went over backwards, rolled my back, and kept the momentum going when I hit. This brought him down with me and I rolled over him. Unfortunately for me, he got me in a right side headlock with his back on the ground. I tested his grip and he is strong, but I'm stronger. I was able to pry his hands back, even though he resisted. However, I realized he was all tied up using both hands to keep the headlock, and I was not being choked, I had my chin tucked and he was only applying pressure to the sides of my neck. I could have pulled my head out, but as long as I was where I was, I decided to work from there.

I thought about prying his right arm out and going for the armbar, but I would have had to pry his arm off my neck, reverse my position, and get the lock while he resisted. I thought better of it and simple extended my thumb on my left hand and stuck it under his jaw on his right side. I applied pressure upwards while pulling his right shoulder down with my right arm. He could not stop me without releasing his hold on my neck. So he experienced some deep body pain for a few seconds and then tapped out.

It's a good thing he did, because the act of my pushing my thumb upwards like that had caused me to untuck my chin; he was applying a choke and didn't know it. A few more seconds and I knew I was going to go out.

I also realized when I got up that I done sproinged my back outta whack. Wow, that felt weird. It was like my spine was 2 inches to one side out of place. Didn't hurt as much as it was weird.

When I got home that night, I doubled up on vitamin I. It's been a couple days, my back feels fine. So I guess I lived.

But I'm going to need some new tricks for the next time I spar with this youngster. Grrr!
 

Tony Dismukes

MT Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
7,577
Reaction score
7,611
Location
Lexington, KY
Sparring with younger, stronger, faster, better conditioned partners is my lot in life. Some of them are even professional fighters.

It's been really rough this last couple of months. I spent the better part of January through May dealing with a never-ending series of colds and sinus infections, which meant my training dropped down to about half of my usual frequency and intensity. As a result, my physical conditioning went in the toilet and I've been struggling a lot more with those young-uns than I usually would. Even when I'm winning, it feels like way more effort than it should be.

Right now I'm about 3 weeks into a daily workout routine aimed at rehabbing my tired body and then getting into real fighting shape. I'm seeing some progress, but I've got a long ways to go. It'll probably be a few more weeks before I get all the way back to where I was last year. My goal is to keep going and get into serious competitive shape by the end of the year.
 

jobo

Grandmaster
Joined
Apr 3, 2017
Messages
9,762
Reaction score
1,514
Location
Manchester UK
So the other night in the dojo, we ended up the evening with some light sparring. Nothing fancy, just a teaching/learning environment, no pads. Friendly stuff, not even enough to test your cardio.

I got paired up with one of our older instructors. He's in his late 70s and a third degree black belt; he's been training since he was in his 40s. He and I just goofed around. Threw a few punches, a couple kicks, nothing with any smoke on it. He fools me a lot though; he's faster than he looks, and he's sneaky. I love it. He's a great guy.

Then our sensei called time and we all switched partners. One of our young students came running up to me and bowed in. He's a great kid. 15 years old, recently promoted to san-kyu, so he'll be looking at his black belt in a couple years. He's been in the dojo since he came up to my obi; now he's 6 foot 3 inches tall, and looks down on my old bald 5 foot 10 inch head. He's maybe 175 to my 225-ish. I should mention I'm 56 in a couple days. He's got range on me like crazy and his hands are like lightening; he's actually scary how fast and accurately he throws fists. His control isn't everything it should be, so sometimes I do worry he's gonna knock a few of my teeth out by mistake. We're working on that.

I should also say that the reason he came running up to me was that he wanted a little payback. We had been doing some one-step drills recently and I paired up with him and he cranked me kind of hard. Which is fine, I can take it. But you give, you get, you know? So when it was my turn to apply the waza, it came with a quickness. I gave me something to remember after class, if you know what I mean. And then he had to tease me and say "That all you got, old man?" Well, no, it's not ALL I got. Here, have some more. The thuds reverberated through the dojo and got me the stink eye from our sensei. And I will give him credit; Aside from a throat shot I tagged him with, he never shied away or said uncle. He took all I dished out. Well done, him. I know he wore a few bruises from that session. So yeah, he wanted to get a little payback sparring me.

So I haven't sparred with this young man in awhile now. In the past, all I did was avoid his kind of lousy kicks and knock down his punches. I'd reach in and tap him on the forehead to let him know he was open. That kind of thing. But although his kicks still aren't that impressive, his hands, as I've said, are downright scary now. I have real trouble blocking his punches. About all I can do is not be there. He also has some nice feints, and he suckered me a couple times into chasing the punch that wasn't there. Nice work, kid.

So we face up and bowed and took our stances. I did the stay-away dance for awhile; he came at me with kicks and punches, and I skipped back and offline to stay away from the kicks, avoided the punches (but dang it was a close thing) and move in fast to try to tag him as soon as he committed those long arms and legs. However, he recovered faster than he used to, and I often found myself moving inside only to get punched some more. OK, so that wasn't working for me.

I threw a couple kicks at him, including that nice little question mark kick that was being discussed recently here on MT. I can do it, but at the expense of my knees, the torque on them hurts when I change the direction of the kick. So he mostly dealt with my kicks just fine, and he didn't fall for my fakes. Dang.

We move around offline and did the usual exchanges. I had to bow to him a couple times when he tagged me deep with fast fair punches. He didn't clobber my noggin, so his control was improving. I was realizing that I was overmatched. The kid was going to beat me. And he knew it.

Beaten by a 15 year old brown belt? Whom I helped train? Who called me an "old man?" NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

Look, I'm not that good. I never was that good. But my training and some of my life experience always kept me a step ahead of the game. Any of my instructors, and a couple of the more experienced students, could eat my lunch any time they wanted to. I am under no illusions as to my abilities. I'm an old slow fat guy in a pair of white pajamas and don't I know it.

But I have a couple tricks left yet. I haven't given up all my angles. I rely upon the fact that pain and I are old pals, and that I'm hella strong to keep me going. I've got a big round belly; a former sparring partner refused to punch me in the gut because he complained it was like hitting a brick wall and hurt his hands. Heh. And when I punched him, I swear I felt spine. I'm pretty sure he felt it in his DNA.

So the next time he threw a roundhouse punch, I ducked and swarmed in. Arms open, a straight up front bear hug. I started working his midsection with some punches; and I am still hella strong. He made some noises involuntarily, which cheered me mightily.

However, he kept his composure and stepped around me and tried to throw me.

If I had not allowed it to work, it wouldn't have worked. I had a lower center of gravity and weight on my side. I could have overpowered his attempt and either kept from going down or thrown him instead.

But I knew where I was and what was behind me, so I let it happen, and used it to my advantage. I went over backwards, rolled my back, and kept the momentum going when I hit. This brought him down with me and I rolled over him. Unfortunately for me, he got me in a right side headlock with his back on the ground. I tested his grip and he is strong, but I'm stronger. I was able to pry his hands back, even though he resisted. However, I realized he was all tied up using both hands to keep the headlock, and I was not being choked, I had my chin tucked and he was only applying pressure to the sides of my neck. I could have pulled my head out, but as long as I was where I was, I decided to work from there.

I thought about prying his right arm out and going for the armbar, but I would have had to pry his arm off my neck, reverse my position, and get the lock while he resisted. I thought better of it and simple extended my thumb on my left hand and stuck it under his jaw on his right side. I applied pressure upwards while pulling his right shoulder down with my right arm. He could not stop me without releasing his hold on my neck. So he experienced some deep body pain for a few seconds and then tapped out.

It's a good thing he did, because the act of my pushing my thumb upwards like that had caused me to untuck my chin; he was applying a choke and didn't know it. A few more seconds and I knew I was going to go out.

I also realized when I got up that I done sproinged my back outta whack. Wow, that felt weird. It was like my spine was 2 inches to one side out of place. Didn't hurt as much as it was weird.

When I got home that night, I doubled up on vitamin I. It's been a couple days, my back feels fine. So I guess I lived.

But I'm going to need some new tricks for the next time I spar with this youngster. Grrr!

well the bad news is he is only going to get quicker, whilst you continue to slow down, reaction times peak at around 24 and then on average you lose 15% a decade.

there is a much broader question of is this an inevitable part of the aging process, or is it life style, you do things more slowly so you lose the ability to be fast. Sure you ate going to slow down but does it have to be at such a fast rate?

i found pn my journey that I could speed up my reaction times and speed of movement by doing things that needed fast reaction times and movement.

I started playing five aside soccer with a group of 18 yo, they went past me like a was a tree. I put a considerable amount of effort in to just making my feet move faster, and worked on my reaction time. The result was that they had a challenge to get past me. Still quicker than me, but the difference was substantially reduced,
 

oftheherd1

Senior Master
Joined
May 12, 2011
Messages
4,685
Reaction score
817
Bill,

Youthful exuberance and vigor will always be defeated by old age cunning and guile. :):)

Nice story anyway. I hope that young student is quick enough to understand what you are doing to help him.
 

Buka

Sr. Grandmaster
Staff member
MT Mentor
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
12,952
Reaction score
10,444
Location
Maui
As Ronald Regan said, "I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
 

lklawson

Grandmaster
Joined
Feb 3, 2005
Messages
5,036
Reaction score
1,680
Location
Huber Heights, OH
When I got home that night, I doubled up on vitamin I. It's been a couple days, my back feels fine. So I guess I lived.

But I'm going to need some new tricks for the next time I spar with this youngster. Grrr!
Look friend, I'll give you some advice which I received when I got my shoulder dislocated by a younger, stronger, more fit, more experienced dude early in my Judo training.

Wait for him in the parking lot and run him over with your car.

rofl__by_angel91701-d3c0qpy.jpg


Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 

Latest Discussions

Top