08/11/2026
I was recently and have been asked again..." Do you have "senior" versions of your courses.
I remember back in 1972 watching Ed Parker Kenpo Karate brown belts working on their requirements. There was a special spinning, jump kick that looked to us white and gold belts like a Ringling Brothers Circus trick. We looked at each other and said with dread, "We are going to HAVE to do THAT one day?" And I was about 19 years old.
NO can do.
NO could ever do.
NO need to do.
NOR should, certainly, any senior.
Senior courses? Well, pretty much, yes, I do have a senior version. And that is - do everything...only less of it. Ha! Actually though ...seriously, here's the deal...
I am a mediocre athlete. I find that handy as a teacher because the majority of practitioners...(98%?) are just regular people... whether they like to hear it or not, they-we are mediocre "athletes.""
- not these muscle-bound,
- not roided-out,
- not tattooed out the ying-yang,
- not circus acrobats.
- not obsessed-hooked on fighting tricks that they must turn checkers into chess moves. Inventing problem predicaments that will never appear in real fights and concocting escapes from them.
- oh, and....by the way...I have become a senior! I relate.
We are just regular people doing simple things. (This falls back to the WHO question #1 - who are you...really-REALLY? Then act accordingly. WHO do you REALLY think you will be fighting? We do have ALL ages of people attend these seminars and classes, for decades. Seniors have brought a training partner, or we'll match you with someone that knows you're a senior.
In the opening safety speech of every seminar I tell everyone, if you see something that relates to your "medical" concerns? Just say..."I shouldn't do that one."
But we all do "degrade" with age. I have written before that at some point, ALL of these tricks, even the simple ones will be unattainable, and I will be left with stumbling around with a hammerless, snubnose revolver in my jacket pocket, in a jacket "I won't care about."
(It was always fun when the police instructors would tell you..."bring a jacket you don't care about" on range days. We knew what that was for.)
