A martial art can be your fountain of youth!

When my dad used to say, wistfully, “Youth is wasted on youth,” I thought it was double talk.

The adage assumes that youth only comes once in a lifetime, and while this is the general perception, it is incorrect.

You can be, and I daresay you should be at any age, and it is possible if you diligently train in martial arts.

If you need any proof of this proposition, just take a look at the elderly in the People’s Republic of China, the millions who do Tai Chi every morning in parks and public spaces.

They’re agile, flexible, and graceful, and a typical 80-year-old doctor has more vitality there than the average 35-year-old American office rat.

But most importantly, these people believe that they are in charge of their bodies, they take responsibility for them, and they don’t give in to silly ideas that say we should naturally lose our physical capabilities as time goes on.

If, at an advanced age, you study forms of combat like karate and train with opponents of various ages, you will be surprised how well you will do, provided you have paid the price to condition your mind and body. .

Your body doesn’t know how old it is.

If at 45 you tell him to act like he’s 18, he will, as long as you’ve prepared it properly.

More than toughness, self-confidence or fighting ability, the true gift of intensive and continuous martial arts training is YOUTH.

In this sense, Dad may have been more correct in saying that martial arts training is wasted on young people.