Senior Citizens Are Tough

Seniors, college students, junior high and high school students, university faculty, and military-vets in our dojo - teens, men and women. We are all great friends and our soke (grandmaster) adjusts Seiyo no Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai curriculum to fit body types, good and bad knees, backs, shoulders etc. We are always interested in new students as long as the have good life values and integrity.

When Soke, taught classes and clinics at the University of Wyoming from 1977 to 2007, some years, he had 300+ students; but after retiring, he teaches very small classes typically around a dozen or so. He likes the smaller classes so students can focus on many techniques.

Karate is taught as a powerful self-defense art, but has to be adjusted to the capabilities of the students. A few students are unable to develop full-power because of physical limitations, but they do their best. 

Previously, Soke, taught martial arts at ASU, UNM, U of U, University of Wyoming, Gold's Gym, and the Hombu Dojo. After training and teaching for more than 5 decades, he helps students get fit, while focusing on safety, and enhancing self-defense capabilities. Soke, a father, grandfather, and even a great-grandfather, has a blood pressure of 120/78 with blood oxygen at 99. In fact, we tested soke's vital signs this morning (4/22/2022) and they were 122/76, heart rate 71, and blood oxygen 98. Keep in mind, he is of the same generation as President Trump. But how does he do it? 

Prior to the pandemic, he trained at Mountainside Fitness 3 to 4 times a week, trained in karate 4 to 6 times a week, taught self-defense classes clinics to church and Christian groups. 

He also has duties as a scientist (geologist and astronomer), writer, and public speaker. In addition to good physical health, he is a devoted Christian and attends bible classes each week and hopes to attend post-graduate studies on the Shroud of Turin - a burial cloth of Christ that is the most researched artifact in history. So-far, the cloth can only be explained as a miracle, in which 2D, 3D and X-ray images were produced along with video, and holographic images caused by a very short-burst of extremely intense radiation on linen cloth that is normally, non-sensitive to any photographic techniques. Scientists have been studying this linen for several decades now, and still cannot duplicate the technique - it is far beyond current technology.

But, back to fitness. Soke likely gets a lot of his energy by his polymath characteristics. He is always active and always has been. He eats once a day and sticks to the Okinawa adage of 'hara hachi bu' (eat until 80% full). 

Two outstanding seniors in Seiyo Shorin-Ryu.
Sensei Paula Borea with O'sensei Bill Borea (RIP)
receive hugs at the Hombu in Mesa, Arizona.

Soke focuses on his students' limitations (i.e., bad knees, back, neck, etc) and works to keep everyone safe in the dojo (karate school). For example, we have one 3rd degree black belt senior who trained many years in the martial arts; but in younger years, was a problem for his parents, neighbors, wife and others. Once, he practiced jumping over speeding cars, fell off his roof while fitted with a leg cast from a previous injury, and self-removed finger tips while operating a circular saw. He was so well versed in injuries, in one year, he was presented a prestigious Christmas card signed by all of the medical personnel employed at his favorite ER. They even gave him a personal name tag since he spent so much time at the ER.

We now have three black belt senior citizens who had knee replacements who train with us. One, Japanese-American woman, had both knees replaced due to lack of control by her former Taekwondo instructor. Another, a cowboy from Casper, Wyoming (now in Arizona), had one knee replaced due to a tumble over a Mesa sidewalk; and the third person, our friendly ER user from Mesa, wore out his original knees because of the many incidents in the past, such as falling off his roof twice.

Congratulations Jeff! Senior citizen and military
veteran from Mesa, receives certification for 1st
degree black belt in Shorin-Ryu karate and
kobudo. Presented by Soke Hausel in
November, 2021. 

We have students with bad backs. These include our ER-socialite and also a professor from Grand Canyon University who injured his spine in a car accident years ago. Not so long ago, we also had and a cowgirl-retired school teacher from Jackson Wyoming who fell off a horse and tripped over an apparatus while teaching self-defense to a senior group in the Apache Junction area. Then we have another female black belt from Mesa, who has a bad back, knees and neck, but Soke watches over her like a hawk.

So, you may get the impression the members of this hombu dojo are all seniors who can barely get out of bed. Not so, all purportedly jump out of bed and keep in relatively good shape through karate and kobudo training a few nights each week. But, for those who have children and grand-children, soke allows them to sign up their offspring at no extra charge, and train with their parent or grandparent. He believes that karate families stay together. And then, we also have some members who recently graduated from college.

Some of our more outstanding seniors include a sensei (3rd degree black belt) who passed away at the age of 72 a few years ago from cancer. Until that day, he was at the dojo as often as he could, but had physical problems acquired as a pilot in the Air Force. Some years ago, he had took a month off of training to have open-heart surgery. Typically, it would take months before such a person could return to karate; but sensei Borea was back in the dojo a month later. So, if anything, karate makes people more healthy and more tough than the average person!

Dr. Sigalov (shodan) at UW karate.
At this point, Dr. Sigalov was in his
late 70s, and believe it or not, he was
by far the fastest karate ka in the 
UW group, and also had tremendous
strength!

Another outstanding member was professor of linguistics at the University of Wyoming. He trained under soke for years, earned a 1st degree black belt, and trained while in his late 70s and early 80s. He originally was a professor in Estonia behind the Iron Curtain, but left the USSR after applying to immigrate. He was placed under house arrest simply for applying to leave, taken to court 6 years later, and then told by the judge to leave the USSR and never return. We were very happy to get him at the University of Wyoming.

Soke: now a senior citizen who trained in Okinawa and Japanese martial arts his entire life, trained under a few of the best martial arts instructors in the world, began martial arts in kyokushinkai karate (full contact). Today, he continues training in shorin-ryu karate as well as other arts. He keeps training in martial arts and did much of his past when he had a full-schedule of geological research at the Wyoming Geological Survey, University of Wyoming, as well as private consulting projects around the country. How can one person do so much? According to soke, he has been blessed by God.

University of Wyoming Shorin-Ryu Karate, 1999

Soke with hanshi Watson and kyoshi
Stoneking from the Utah Shoran-Kai. Hanshi 
Watson (left) began training in karate at about 
the same time as soke. I am so thankful to have
these people in Utah. May God bless them!

So, if you want to stay healthy, take up traditional martial arts and keep practicing (don't stop). 

Seiyo no Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai hombu photo, 2019, just before the pandemic.

Diminishing Nightmares - Another Benefit of Martial Arts.

Sketch by the author (copyright), 'The Big Game'.

There are benefits to training in traditional martial arts besides just learning to defend oneself. Some  benefits include self-control, self-defense, dexterity, increased strength, dramatic reflex increase, flexibility, improved body and brain health, weight loss, favorable body mass index, calming confidence, focus, and self-confidence.

Periodically new benefits are discovered. For example Perfect Mind describes 10 benefits of martial arts training as does Health Fitness Revolution. Some bloggers report traditional martial arts training is beneficial to all people and emphasize benefits to women. Another site describes 10 best martial arts, while another blogger mentions 7 benefits of martial arts training. Then there are other reports described at Easy Health Options which focuses on brain health and martial arts. In a recent pilot study, Batcheller (2019) reports benefits to those inflicted with Parkinson’s disease including depression and anxiety.

Some additional benefits were recently described by one of my students last week, that I more or less forgot about, simply because these have been part of my life for decades. One is hand-eye coordination described in some of the above links. My student, Jorge, mentioned he dropped something, but quickly snapped it out of the air before it hit the ground, surprising both himself and others at his gym - Jorge is a senior citizen, and his reflexes dramatically improved due to his weekly Shorin-Ryu karate, kobudo, self-defense and samurai arts training at the Hombu dojo in Mesa, Arizona. 

Sketch by the Soke, 'Tameshiwari'

I notice this same benefit years ago. In one instant, my wife and I stopped at a International Pancake House on the edge of Grand Junction, Colorado. After we sat down, we were attacked by a pack of rogue flies. We should have just left because of the poor environment, but I was hungry, and besides, I periodically enjoy sparring bouts with flies.

So, as we sat and waited for our breakfast, a group of young adults in the next booth and I had a challenge to see who could take the most flies out of the air. Before breakfast was served, I killed 6 or 7 in mid-flight, and our challengers only got one between the five of them.

 "Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don't forget to breathe, very important." 

Mr. Miyagi walks away, still making circular motions with hands

"Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off."

Sketch by Soke, 'Optimism'.

Then there were those old high school and college days playing football, where is used hands and elbows to sneak a blow to the ribs, hands, etc, completely unseen by others, during plays, and easily knocked footballs out of hands.

Jorge also mentioned another benefit that he recently discovered which I completely forgot about. He no longer has nightmares!

Prior to signing up for karate in 1964, I had nightmares of being attacked or bullied by others. The normal stuff we went through as teenagers. After I trained in karate, nightmares were all replaced by successful self-defense against all attackers. I suspect this benefit likely falls under the category of self-confidence.

But this is only the beginning. The more health and kinesiology researchers develop interest in martial arts, the more research studies will be done in the lab or on various groups. I would bet future studies will find tremendous benefit to people training in traditional martial arts from kids to seniors. I would also bet that research on Veterans taking martial arts will prove to be greatly beneficial in more than one way and could potentially help those Vets and Law Enforcement officers with bouts of PTSD.
 

Traditional karate Sketch by Soke