I quickly realized that at age 33 that I already was too old for anything quite serious and competitive.
I’m 50, and will be competing in BJJ this year, hopefully at seniors national level. One of my sidais won a master’s world championship on Brazil last year, and she’s over 35. To get my BB by age 60, I’m going to have to be VERY serious. Actually to get even purple belt I’ll need to be heavily committed.
I started WC at 35 (though I’d done other CMA since 22), and have been training seriously ever since.
I live a very busy, rich and rewarding life outside MA also.
I never was very athletic or tough. Wing chun is almost tailor made to conserve the body and strength. It’s great for an old man - or woman.
Nor was I, though I’m fitter and tougher at 50 that I was at 20. Many MA fit those requirements.
Only one thing is faster than the speed of light, according to Einstein, and that is a geometric construct. Imagine a cosmic pair of scissors. When closing, the point of intersection can travel faster than the speed of light.
The Superluminal Scissors do not actually work. Check out the Relativity and Faster Than Light FAQs that a Google search will find. It’s not the point of blade intersection that “theoretically” travels FTL, but the points of the blades. The intersection is stationary. However closing a pair of cosmic scissors with blades a light year long Will NOT result in the tips of the blades closing FTL, because this would require a level of physical rigidity far beyond that belonging to any actual or theoretical material, and for other reasons which I can’t remember which are in the FAQ.
There are some phenomena where relative velocities can be FTL, expiained in the FAQ. But none of these have any real application for travel or communication. Or Wing Chun, for that matter.
No sweat, I make no claims to perfect mental health in following my aspirations. My wife questions my sanity regularly. Nothing wrong with your take on it.
FWIW and anyone is interested, here’s a link to a “Superluminal Scissors” article:
No sweat, I make no claims to perfect mental health in following my aspirations. My wife questions my sanity regularly. Nothing wrong with your take on it.
FWIW and anyone is interested, here’s a link to a “Superluminal Scissors” article:
And actually, I misread your post: the join of the scissor blades doesn’t move, but the blade’s intersection, the point where they meet on closing, is what the paradox says should move FTL, though special relativity explains why it won’t, per the article above.
My wife thought I was totally insane when I was sound asleep and doing the first part of first form while snoring.
Now, when she starts pulling the covers I stop her with a lan sao or a gan sao or a chop to the covers. She says I am using force. She can’t budge the covers. I have no memories of these things happening.
my teacher is weaker than me and has a bad back that is so painful that he can not even lift mildly heavy things. He’s almost double my age. However, he can still always get a very sharp edge on me or anyone I know using his wing chun against any technique so quickly you barely have time to blink your eyes twice. He can’t hit as hard as he used to before the back trouble, but he can still one-inch punch hard enough to floor you through a phone book or two and you can feel the force exit through the other side of your body.
So I don’t know about all this talk about wing chun only being good for the strong and able-bodied is about.
It seems that the more relaxed you can become the split second before you hit, the more power you generate when the force is switched on at the impact.
As far as age degenerates a person’s body, that is not necessarily true except in extreme instances. Inaction deteriorates the body. I know someone over 90 years old who has as much vigour as a typical 70 year old. Farmers and other people who constantly do safe, yet strenuous work seem to live longer and stay in better shape than everyone else. Your body has an upkeep cost and in the process of becoming a “mature responsible adult” most people seem to shun doing the things necessary to upkeep their bodies and its no suprise that they wither quickly. An unused body or mind can atrophy with tremendous speed once it gets into the habit of not being used.
I do not know of any sources of power that are mightier than simple words outpouring from desperate men with desperate needs.
"In response to Knox’s prayers, Mary Queen of Scots is reputed to have said: “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.” In response to the rising resistance of the Scottish Reformers, Mary fled Scotland and was later put to death by a court of English who had accused her of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I. Knox was survived by the Scottish Covenanters, who drew up a compact in 1638 asserting their right, under God, to national sovereignty. "
I do not know of any sources of power that are mightier than simple words outpouring from desperate men with desperate needs.------
determination goes no where without believe there is a solution .
believe goes no where without awareness.
awareness goes no where with those rigidly stuck in scientific and physics explaination without knowing scientific and physics are just explaination and model for what is very clearly known.
and known always preceed scientific and physics model before explaination and modeling.
there are a different between existence which not being model yet or science not be able to model and what is not exist.
I was reading W. Churchill when I ran through this marvelous phrase “Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it shoud be postponed.” Taking the cue, I have conveniently overlooked some silly noise from one who can’t help on how he’s born. =D
There are so many documented cases of an elderly person using martial arts to defend themselves successfully against younger, bigger, stronger, more athletic, (pick your adjective) attackers that the naysayers of this thread are on thin ice.
Naturally this is the exception and not the norm, but then, how many oldsters study or have studied a martial art?
This reminds me of the argument that women or men of small stature can’t benefit from MA.
One could give many examples of oldsters who can deliver the goods in Wing Chun and other MAs. Likely many of us who post here are old by comparison to the groups’ norm, but those of us who keep at it seem to keep improving.
To start someone out in old age after they’ve neglected their bodies through inactivity, dissipation, and poor diet is likely to have good returns only if the student is emotionally ready to change their habits and devote themselves to overcoming age-related limits.
In Paul’s example of a stiff oldster, he should remember that even if a student cannot twist themselves into a pretzel, intent is the key and “perfect” structure eludes even the best of us.
Another exeption that proves the rule, Jack Dempsey used to jog in New York’s Central Park everyday in his 70s and 80s. When a reporter asked him if he was safe from muggers, he refrained from clobbering the idiot.
So far the strong ones that I know are almost always those who engage daily in vigorous activities. I’m hoping if I ever make it to the eighty, I can still kick some youngsters’s butts. Just to see the surprised looks on their face make it worthwhile. =)
The father of one of my instructors aged late 70’s, was accosted in London by a couple of would-be and much younger muggers. My teacher’s Dad had done Judo and boxing, but not WC like his son, for most of his life.
After an initial altercation, one of the young pups ran away after being hit with a walking stick, and the old guy chased the other into a public toilet where the kid barricaded himself in a cubicle and refused to come out until the cops arrived.
I think lifelong athleticism or training is more important than the particular vehicle used. If there were some magic method of power generation, surely it could be adapted to less extreme tasks than combat and old people would happily be lifting heavy objects, playing younger people’s sports, etc. The frame (structure) and engine (muscular power) can be employed with maximum efficiency, but as they whither so too will the power output.
I think that science coming up with ways to delay or overcome aging and death is more feasible than magically increasing power somehow. Biology is more flexible than physical laws, at least at the Newtonian level.
I’ve thankfully only seen a few corpses, and none of them could hit hard.
