Blimey my life is too full at the moment. Serious illness in the family, other medical conditions causing hassle, recurring bad back, birthdays, school trips, parties, work, etc etc. I thought life was meant to get easier into middle age?
If you had your kids really young and ageing parents in good health, I guess it might be easier in middle age, certainly true for some of my siblings and friends. But that’s not my life! I keep up my training as a way of trying to pace myself to avoid burning out. I particularly enjoy my weights and TCC and dao yin practice which I do on my own.
Sorry to hear that, my Mums been battling cancer for what seems like forever now. She had a surgical procedure just last week. My brother in law is off work with a messed up knee - he did it trampolining - padding everywhere but he still managed to injure himself really badly. I think it's nearly 3 months now.. My little one had a horrible flu last week, but been recovering and getting back to herself. She's hard work when she's ill # 4year olds! Works suddenly kicked off this month after 3 months of being on snooze, so it's been a busy March. Not too long ago my lower back was in really bad shape for several weeks, hated it. Get well soon.
My brother's been diagnosed with cancer and goes in next week for a major operation to get rid. Really messed up the family that. Daughter turned 10 today. Big Harry Potter party tomorrow. Which is a good thing of course but has taken some planning. Wife's been signed off driving pending MRI and ECG scans after passing out a few weeks back. My back's gone again and I'm in pain all day. Quite honestly I've had enough at the moment. Just want to curl up and sleep for about a month and then wake up when stuff's blown over.
hang in there, but you know that sorry to hear about your brother, it's always tougher when it's the younger generation. when these things come out of the blue... wish you all well through a difficult time.
So sorry to hear about your brother. I hope the surgery goes well. We nursed our son thru cancer for three and a half years but you would never know to look at him now. Hope you can carve out a bit of time to look after yourself, particularly as your back is playing up. Easy to say but not so easy to do.
Sorry to hear about your pains mate. If you're ever over Manchester way and fancy some free treatment on your back (MAP discount ) just drop me a line. Hope things start looking up for you bud.
We already had a quick message but this post made me think of a conversation I had with a student yesterday and with my own Instructor a few weeks ago. Normally, martial arts should be a way to destress, not get more stressed. Obviously there are gradings etc that may increase your stress levels, but generally it should help you decompress. In sport arts this can become difficult as you get older. You're less able to physically endure tough sessions, injuries become more frequent, you take longer to recover. I'm 50 now and a proper 90 minute class can leave me creaking for days. More than that, we have jobs, kids, relatives, etc that all require time too, and can instantly override our training. As an example there is a training session that is mandatory for black belts in my group, which regularly falls on my son's birthday weekend. Now he's 14 it's not an issue, but when he was 5? Please, TKD can go whistle. Years ago I watched a documentary on Okinawan Karate, which talked about classes for people under 20 and up to 60+ year olds. It talked about the young folks doing everything, but the oldest maybe getting up and doing a kata a few times then sitting down for a bit, and joining in again later, as suited and required. I thought that was absolutely brilliant. The scaleability of a martial art, letting people of varying degrees of fitness take part. The fact that someone doesn't have to give up something they have invested decades in just because they're not a competitor anymore really hit home with me. So I'm trialling warm ups for time periods not reps, looking at standards for age groups, and hoping that I can keep my club spanning 7 year olds to at least 60 year olds. I'm paying much more attention to the relevance of a warm up to an individual, rather than doing the same thing for a class as a result. Personally, I'm in it for the long haul.
Often when I do a warm up aside from general body temperature raising and joint mobility movements I leave a few minutes at the end for people to do something that is relevant to them. Something they feel they need to warm up. I hate it when someone else leads the warm up and I don't feel ready because they've missed a body part or not sufficiently targeted something I need. It can confuse kids and beginners sometimes who don't have the experience to know what they like or need but overall I like that little bit of time for something personal.
Trying to squeeze it in does begin to feel like a chor, and with everything else going on you wrote about, I commend you for still keeping at it! After my first child I stopped everything, I just could not fit it in, my second was much easier in some aspects which have me leeway to start again after 7 years. I can't deny, I feel a bit rubbish that I couldn't go to any classes during that time, but I feel like a better father/husband for it and that makes me feel better overall. Sometimes you need a break, and the hunger will come back ten fold when you restart.
Martial arts will always be there. At 29 I had everything I wanted. I had found a JKD class under an amazing instructor with worldwide connections. I was teaching his classes in two locations. Happy at home with a lovely wife and 4 young children (including twins). One Christmas I was asked to go to a club award night in a pub somewhere. I didn't really want to go, but was sort of persuaded to (turns out I had won an award). When I got home there was a note that my one year old son was in a London hospital with bronchiolitis and had been one hour away from death. I had a decision to make and I stopped training to be a family man. I got out of shape for a few years and started to miss martial arts. At 34 I found someone (David Arnold for those that attended the last MAP Meet) teachingg Eskrima locally, which I had done in my JKD days. "I can do that", I though, as it isn't that heavily based on fitness. I went along, enjoyed it, started going to the Kung Fu club and ended up being an Instructor. I inherited that club when my David had to go back to full time employment. That club did well for a few years, but with 4 growing children I had a tough decision to make. With the kids being teenagers they started to be more demanding of my time, I was working 60 miles from home, then obviously a 60 mile return visit and after 10 years of 14 hour days and then teaching I had another choice to make. I sadly told the students I could no longer teach the club. On leaving the club that night two of the students (still with me today) said, "we understand, but don't want to stop training. What can we do?" We decided to open a small class on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month, just for them and the occasional drop in student. We did that for a couple of years and when life got easier I added every Tuesday. That went well and we added a Friday. From here we did a second session on the Friday and that is where I am now, still with those Sunday session. Smitty, walk away from martial arts if it frees up time you feel you are lacking. It will always be there. Take care, Simon. PS. In regard to the pain I have been in 24 hour pain since before Christmas. I'm waiting on an MRI scan, but we suspect arthritis. I have another instructor take the warm up and I just demonstrate what I want doing in class. Again, stop if you need to, get repaired, then make a choice.
Thank you. Hannibal gave me some good advice last tear that I've carried into this one. Secure your own oxygen mask first.
Cheers peeps. I'm still well into my martial arts but have just hit a spot in life where things are happening on so many fronts it's bewildering. My back's been great for a month or so, started grumbling when I bent down a couple of weeks back. Then I did an Iain Abernethy seminar last week (which was fantastic) and is now really bothering me again (but improving). We ticked one thing off today at least. Big Harry Potter themed party for my daughter. Went really well. Sorting hat, wands, potions, a feast, owl handling and fortune telling ice cream bowls!
