You’ll Never Know Unless You Try

I doubt that there are many people who have started (with the approval of their doctor) to practise karate from scratch just before their 66th birthday, but this is what I did three years ago, and I am very glad now that I did.

After taking early retirement due to ill health I had spent the previous seven years attending the gym regularly and had gained some benefit from it, but found that the experience of plodding away on the treadmill whilst watching Countdown was – to put it mildly - beginning to pall. More importantly, while the machines and exercises were of benefit to the various parts of my body, I was aware that I was not doing anything which developed my overall co-ordination or related to my body as a whole. Neither was I a member any longer of a group other than my family, and neither was I learning anything new.

Not having any interest in competitive sports in the conventional sense I began to consider transferring to a Yoga group. However after watching one of my sons take his grading for his brown belt with the Wareham & Purbeck Shotokan Club it occurred to me that even at my age I might be able to take part, and I later discussed it with Sensei Glyn Morgan. He emphasised that each practitioner moves at their own pace and is assessed in relation to their physical ability and potential, which of course varies substantially from person to person. We agreed that I would give it a try, and three years later – despite having to miss nearly all of the last year due to problems with medication – I am still here and training for my green belt grading.

The benefits which I derive from karate (and which I began to miss badly when unable to practice last year) are not confined to the physical, although I am stronger and probably fitter than at any time since my twenties. My morale and self esteem, which were at a very low ebb when I retired, have been greatly improved. This has been due in part to the satisfaction of knowing that I work hard in the sessions, and that this has resulted in passing three gradings.

It has been due also to the way in which – despite my age and complete lack of experience - I was immediately accepted and supported by all the members of the group, regardless of the grades of the people concerned. This showed itself in such actions as one of the black belts presenting me, on my third session and without my asking, with some information on basic positions and techniques which he had taken the trouble to print off from the Internet. Although in most of the sessions I have been the junior grade there has never been any sense of being sidelined, and when on occasions I have been unable to keep up physically, I can still watch and learn by using the other grades as a model of what I am aiming towards.

I can understand that some people who are drawn towards karate may have doubts about their ability to cope with the demands which it makes, and therefore are reluctant to try it. I can only say that if I can do it, anyone can.

John Bennetts