How to still have fun in competition through your old age

[wiesiek]

I fully understand your posts , John
however my post stay correct - on the tatami you may play any set of rules, it just matter of agreement, one punch contest is also available.

[origami_itto]

I work on it by constantly striving to release.

The most direct work is in ZZ. Huang's sung gongs help quite a bit.

In movement in general I just keep the energy/intention expansive while making the arms transparent. I want them to feel like they're moving without my help.

[yeniseri]

I am sure we all know this but we need to be as active in "old age" as we were/are in youth because that is what keeps the agility, the cognition, the balance, etc alive. Only through moving as good or better thatn back then that we contine the circuit to remain viable until our time is up. I was working at a public safety environment until 2 years ago and I was shocked and surprised that my younger supervisor would always call on me in response to incident calls as opposed to the 35 years younger fellows! Even the professors at my age were walking like "old people" , which was a telling narrative especially when a few of them were talking health, wellness and chronic illness in their lectures.

[Ian C. Kuzushi]

What you are proposing is just training, not competition.

Brendan Lai told me that he told a challenger if that challenger could block his single punch, the challenger won. Otherwise, Brendan won.

Sometime competition can be simple. For example, if you can take me down within 2 minutes, you win, otherwise I win. In that 2 minutes, you play offense, I only play defense. IMO, that's still "competition" because you will try as hard as you can to take me down.

Thanks for the response, John. I think it's just a difference of definitions, but I'm happy to use your definition here as you brought it up and have clarified it.

When I was the gatekeeper for my judo sensei, one of the things he would have me do at the end of class is to allow any student on the college team or club try and "get me" while I was only allowed to play defense for the first couple of minutes. It's sort of unfair because it is much easier to defend a throw or takedown than it is to do one. Over the course of years and hundreds and hundreds of students of varying levels of skill and athleticism, I was never taken down. There would also be a ten second finale where I was then allowed to attack as well and I had to throw them. I think I was always able to, but if they had only been defending, that might not be the case. So, while it might be okay for limited practice, I don't see it as much of a competition.

[johnwang]

It's sort of unfair because it is much easier to defend a throw or takedown than it is to do one.

When my senior SC brother David C. K. Lin accepted a challenge, he would tell his opponent, "I will attack you 3 times. If in any one of my attacks, you can remain standing for more than 3 seconds, you win, otherwise I win."

The friendly game can be

- You try to throw your opponent within 10 seconds (or 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, ...). If your opponent can remain standing, he wins, otherwise you win.

In other words, you can be either the attacker, or the defender in this kind of friendly game.

[Dmitri]

When my senior SC brother David C. K. Lin accepted a challenge, he would tell his opponent, "I will attack you 3 times. If in any one of my attacks, you can remain standing for more than 3 seconds, you win, otherwise I win."

3 seconds?! I realize that he was, I'm sure, really good, and I'm certainly not questioning the story, but that number is making me wonder if those challengers knew anything at all about wrestling/grappling...(?)

As for the subject matter -- simplified training drills can be a lot of fun in a relatively safe setting, for sure. I don't care for "winning" anymore though; I'm just happy to be on the mat and moving/improving a little. Any "win" or "loss" is just an incidental side effect of sparring; it's never "a competition" for me, these days. But that's just due to personality differences, I guess.

[wiesiek]

3 seconds with wresting background sounds quite legit, D.;
counting to 3 (something close to one sec.) - challenge during my collage years with "know nothing" guy, - it is my experience,
however
done in comfortable environment (tatami and gi)
but
I was years after my trainings peak