Tai Chi Chuan: A Great Option for Older Martial Artists
It’s an all too familiar story. As a young person you fall in love with the martial arts. You’re committed, you train hard, and it pays off. You get stronger, you develop great technique, and you move up through the grades and achieve black belt and beyond. As you become confident in your art you compete, enjoying the thrill of testing your skills against worthy opponents. Over the years you may even become an instructor, standing at the front of the class and teaching the next generation of martial artists.
But here’s the problem. You’re getting older. You’re not as fit as you were and it’s harder to keep up, especially as you now spend more time teaching than training. Your reaction time is a little slower than it used to be and you’re having to rely on experience to keep your edge over the younger guys. You don’t recover as fast as you used to, and you’re carrying a collection of injuries that you’ve picked up over the years. Maybe it’s a painful knee, a bad back, or a niggle in your hip that just won’t go away. Eventually, you decide enough is enough and you call it a day.
This doesn’t have to be your story. Tai Chi Chuan provides a path maintaining your passion for the martial arts as you get older.
Tai Chi can help you continue to practice your original martial art for longer, and there are many examples of top-level martial artists incorporating Tai Chi Chuan into their training routines. Building in some regular Tai Chi training can help you recover from hard training, relax the body and mind, speed up recovery and heal old injuries.
When I started training in Tai Chi, in many ways I found it more difficult than Karate.
Hirokosu Kanazawa
10th Grand Master if Shotokan Karate
Eventually, if you reach a point when you must let your main martial art go, you can consider a transition to Tai Chi Chuan, which can extend your martial arts career for the rest of your life.
Many older martial artists find a new home with Tai Chi Chuan. Over my career, I’ve trained with excellent Tai Chi practitioners whose backgrounds have included, Taekwondo, Karate, Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, MMA, or external Kung Fu styles. For these people, Tai Chi Chuan has provided a path to keeping their passion for the martial arts alive. In my experience, those who transition to Tai Chi Chuan from other martial arts styles are amongst the best Tai Chi practitioners. They understand how to move and coordinate their bodies, know what it takes to commit to a martial art, and settle quickly into a new, internal style.
Tai Chi is great for older martial artists, its emphasis on balancing Yin and Yang, soft and hard, provides a more balanced and forgiving form of training that is less demanding on the body. It’s health benefits help to address the years of punishment that you’ve put yourself through and to ensure you remain healthy and energetic. Moreover, Tai Chi Chuan provides a doorway to the spiritual dimension of the martial arts that inevitably begin to interest older martial artists.
Most importantly, when Tai Chi Chuan is properly taught as a true martial art, and not just a system of new age healing, is rich, deep and rewarding. It will reignite your passion for the martial arts and give you a platform to continue your lifetime development as a martial artist.
So, if you’re an older martial artist, why not try Tai Chi Chuan. To find out more check out the Applied Tai Chi website at http://appliedtaichi.co.uk, or get in touch at john@appliedtaichi.co.uk.