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I passed my Yellow belt today in Taekwondo
As per the title, I passed my Yellow belt grading today with a Distinction. I'm really proud as I'm mid 40s.
When I was a late teen I made it to black stripe but a new job, kids and moving home stopped me from continuing. When I was early 30s I started again, made it to Yellow and quit due to burn out.
Thanks to COVID and a way better work life balance, plus the kids being older (except the toddler), I've managed to get back to it and plan to stick at it through to black belt.
That's it really. I'm hoping other martial artists on Tildes will chime in with any feel good stories they have.
Congrats man. As a fellow Old (I'm 45), I'm competing in my first martial arts tournament ever next Saturday. I don't feel ready for it at all, as I've trained martial arts off and on for a long time but the style I'm competing in--Shuai Jiao--is still very new to me, having only properly trained it since late January. Still white belt. I fully expect to get rinsed but it's a bucket list thing for me. I'm okay with it.
I'm not OP, but to answer @monarda as someone who's the same age-ish as OP, yeah, there are definitely physical hurdles. If this makes sense, you can truly do most of the stuff you used to do when you were 25 from a technique level but the stamina and recovery piece of it both fall off. Not to zero, it's just harder. Also easier to get injured, or to be more specific, there are things you can't "walk off" as easily. But it's still fun, I still get a lot out of it, it helps my mental health more than I'd like to admit, and it's still worth doing.
Awesome, good luck with that.
I've done a few tournaments in my life but rather than fighting I prefer doing patterns. I'm simply not fast enough in sparring.
Congratulations.
Cheers =)
That's super cool!
Did you have physical hurdles to overcome due to your age?
Oh boy, do I.
When I was in the late teens, I could do jumping kicks really well. My teacher was in to trick-kicks and board breaking; I could do a triple board break in one move, in the air with three kicks, it was so much fun.
About 8 years ago, I hurt my back. I was lifting servers from a rack alone, and I knew I'd hurt myself, but nothing really happened, just a slight ache. Three days later I bent down to fill up the dogs' food bowl, and it twanged, I couldn't get back up off of the floor. After six weeks, physio and some Pilates for bad backs it healed enough to continue with life, but I can no longer pick up anything heavier than my toddler without feeling a weird pain. This hinders my martial arts. It's something to do with the muscle around a nerve cluster, I've not really had it diagnosed medically properly. Stretching really helps, though, but it is a double-edged sword. Stretching releases it for a decent workout and unhindered training session, but after it seems to contract and gets very tight.
I'm also generally inflexible now. I used to get real near box splits, now I'm struggling to get past about a 90-degree angle. That'll come with time, I'm sure, although I've been back a year already. I'm starting a daily 8-minute inflexibility stretch routine from a YouTube dude that has a serious following, so fingers crossed.
Also, the recovery time. I'd do a 2-hour session when I was 19. Get up the following day, do a day of work, get home, have a light dinner and head back for another 2 hours. I'd do that 5 and sometimes 6 days a week. I wouldn't be able to cope with more than 2 sessions a week now. I wake, and getting out of bed hurts and is really uncomfortable.
However, health benefits are that I can run again, I sweat a lot less, I've lost 28lbs (mixed that with CICO) in the past year, and I'm generally a LOT fitter.
Thanks for the reply. I'm in my mid 50s and have been wanting to take up some sort of martial art, but I've been feeling too old. I've lost a good portion of the weight I put on during covid through CICO and walking, but I'm wanting to to become more active.
Why Taekwondo instead of some other martial art?
When I first started looking for martial arts in my area, it was very limited. I think there was Wing Chun, Karate, Taekwondo and Kickboxing. I did a bit of research online and thought the one I liked the look of most was Taekwondo. It was also ITF, so point stop, not full contact. I was a bit of a wimp back in my young teen days which was the reason I started in the first place.
Taekwondo starts off very gentle. It's simple moves, blocks, basic kicks and punches. A typical White to Yellow belt session is a 10 minute cardio warm up, light stretching, leg swings, and quite often 2 games of Bulldog. Then it'll be on to 10-15 minutes of line work, doing stances, punches, kicks, etc, as a class. Depending on the day, then some pad-work. Then a big cardio session, heavier stretching and a warm down.
At 44 years old, it's hard work but it's fine. I believe most people can do it without much issue. We have everyone from kids through to a retired guy in my beginners class. The instructors really want you to achieve the most you can, for them it's as much a pride thing as a financial, which means they put in the effort to guide you. Hopefully this answers why.
So after your replies, I started looking into what's available near me. Not a whole heck of a lot! But there was a place about an hour from me that offers both Kung Fu and Tai Chi that I've left a voicemail with to learn more about.
I appreciate that you made the post and then answered my question. It gave me the impetus to follow through. Thank you!
Congratulations!! I'm happy for you.
Thanks.
Congratulations! Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
I took a free Taekwondo class at a local church for a few years when I was 16 or so, it was great. The workouts were insane and my balance and flexibility were never higher. 10 years later and I've lost pretty much all of the benefits (I still work out, but its strength training, so its not the same results) but I still remember the kicks! I think I got up to high brown belt before the class shut down, maybe one day I'll go back and relearn it, though I hate the paid class environment because it can feel like they're just passing you up the ranks so you don't quit and stop giving them money.
I don't think you're ever really too old for martial arts (as long as you can be physically active) our teacher was a 60 year old retired navy seal who had a hole in his heart that needed to be pumped of fluid every month and he still was a total badass, kicked harder than a mule.
Yay! Proud of you!
Thanks.