Martial Arts and Life Long Learning

Yesterday I participated in the annual Bushido Alberta Open, which is one of the larger open martial arts tournaments in our fair province. I fought in six events: longsword, double-stick, sword & dagger, dagger, single stick, and black belt (point) sparring. And my son, Daveed, sparred in the event for his age group (6 & 7-year-olds). I'm pretty proud of him for his participation! He did really well, when you look at it. Was that other kid actually seven? He's a giant!



Yes, martial arts is a big part of my life. I teach a class every Tuesday evening here in Edmonton. It concentrates mostly on weapons, and is a complete system (meaning that it includes all modes of self defence, from unarmed to using improvised weapons to specific training with a variety of weapons, historical and modern).

Back to yesterday... My kids were both with me, and they both said that they had a lot of fun! I, of course, enjoyed myself, too. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't fun. :-) I managed to take two medals, both silver (one doesn't look silver, because they ran out of bronze medals, so were using gold for silver, and silver for bronze... odd); one for the sword and dagger, the other for the black belt point sparring. I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I was surprised I managed to do that! The last fight was one of the better fights I've had in years, as the techniques were so clean and crisp against the other guy (and from him, of course), that it was a lot like poetry in motion. I wish I had been able to film it. Not just to see what it was from an outsider's view, but also to analyze my fighting to see how I could improve. Yes, I know for a fact that I can greatly improve my skills! But learning and improvement is a life-long endeavour, regardless of what skills one is referring to.

I know that the martial arts is something that I will do as long as my body is fit enough for me to move well enough. And even then I will continue to try and learn. One thing I learned is that I am sorely out of shape! I woke up this morning and could hardly move, my muscles were so full of lactic acid. Ouch! Even now raising my right arm is painful in the shoulder muscles. It gives me more resolve to get into better shape, though. I want to be one of those old men, when I'm in my sixties and seventies, who runs circles around guys in their thirties. Heh heh! But lots of work to do before that happens. I figure it'll take me a year to get into the kind of shape that I want to be, with working out on a regular basis (at least 3 times per week). I know what I'm doing at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning...