On restarting karate at age 71 (Saturday Sept 3rd 2022)

Gedan Barai (low block)

 "So before I went I was thinking about the last time I went to a karate class where I had to sit on the floor and spread my legs very wide and bend towards each foot, and it was very painful; also do ferocious push-ups on a hard wooden floor. 

That quite exhausted me but this was actually not at all such a bad experience. The guy who runs it, I'd say he's ISTJ (we're talking Myers-Briggs here) with a big extraverted presence though - plenty of charisma. According to his website he’s a spiritual kind of person - into Daoism - but very different from my T'ai Chi teacher, who's really free and easy. This guy is quite imperious; he called people out: ‘You look at me when I'm talking. Karate, it's serious stuff. If you're here, you do it right.’

So they all came in their gear, their white gis. The first thing that struck me: they were driving here from wherever they lived, parking their cars in the car park. I walked in and followed them: the dojo is actually the gymnasium at the back of the building facing the sports field. 

It's a hard polished, wooden floor. There were about, I would say, 20-25 people there: some brown and black belts, some orange belts; quite experienced people and a few white belts showing absolute beginners.  The age range was enormous. I was obviously the oldest person there at 71, there were some people below the age of 11: a little girl of seven or eight, a little boy. And then some kids around 11 or 12 and some young men. 

I was placed at the left side of the line as a newbie with the higher grades towards the right. We started by getting down on our knees and sitting on our heels. So, he says, you'll find this posture quite uncomfortable (a euphemism for painful) but this is what we do. 

It certainly is quite uncomfortable, kneeling on a hard, wooden floor sitting on your heels. So, we did that for a minute or two. I was thinking, this is the first test: if you can handle the pain you've already passed. Then we did warm-ups, the kind that we do before the Shibashi QiGong. 

Then we practiced kihon, basic techniques: some standard punches, punching and advancing, that kind of thing, getting the postures right.  And then towards the end some forward kicks, balancing on one leg, flicking the other leg out like a whip, out and back again, then stepping forward and turning. And it all looked more dynamic than T'ai Chi ever does because things were being done fast and with aggression. 

The Sensei was working with one of the orange belts as his opponent to show exactly how to do the punches, how to do the ward-off deflects and so forth. So that was good and I didn't find it too tiring. It's a bit of a workout but not a super-hard one. Not to the point of sweating or physical exhaustion or anything. I know that when you do things like sparring - kumite - where you're moving very fast, and extended kata sequences, you'll be working much harder. 

The padded boards he promised would arrive soon: then you'd definitely be doing more work than just learning the moves, which is what we were doing today. We finished on the hour and that was it. The cost was six pounds  and the next session is on Tuesday evening half past six. 

I spoke to the Sensei afterwards and said, thank you very much, and he seemed a perfectly friendly kind of guy, so that was my day." 

"And what are your thoughts on going?" 

"Well, I think it's, I think it's good. I mean, I got to see the people who know what they're doing. They were performing well in my opinion, linking up moves and doing extended sequences, looking very crisp and balanced - so fast! 

There are three things you're doing in karate. One is that you learn kihon, the basics of the moves themselves: how to do a punch, a block, how to do a kick. 

The  second thing is, you learn kata, a kata is an extended sequence like the T'ai Chi form where you're doing a succession of punches, blocks, spin turns and kicks, joining everything up. And the third is called kumite, which is choreographed sparring, at least initially. 

Later, in competitive kumite, you have an opponent and you could be doing freeform sparring with them. I don't know how he does it. I don't know whether he pads people up and has them, you know, hitting with a sort of muffled force. 

He was a bit short-handed today because his other black belts who normally assist him were all away on holiday . So I didn't see anything like that and we just did the basics today.“