We believe that one of the greatest losses of this generation is people dying before their time. The mission of this program is therefore to:
Add years to your life, and life to your years.
This program encompasses elements of Taekwondo, Hapkido, and Tang Soo Do, but deliberately chooses elements of those styles for best ROI, balancing ease of learning and technique effectiveness with the inevitably changing needs of the body.
The youngest age that will be accepted into this program is 18, and the program is optimized for older people than that. The primary weapon of this program is borrowed from Hapkido. It is the cane, because a cane can be carried anywhere, including on airplanes, and can be quite deadly in the hands of a skilled practitioner. Other weapons, such as nunchucks, spears, and sai's can look flashy, but we don't think older people are as interested in "flashy" as they are in getting the job done.
Consistent Warm Up:
In any physical program, people inevitably pace themselves. One day you feel great and push hard, while another day you feel a bit worn and want a slower pace. In order to judge your own pace, we want our people to know what's next, and how long that "next" thing is going to last. That way they can adequately set their own pace.
This means that the Silver Lions warm up routine is very predictable, because it (mostly) is the same each time. Some people might feel this is boring, but we think most older folks will appreciate the consistency. We have an alternate Taekwondo program for the younger folks that want to mix it up more.
Our warm up routine also has specific stretches that are more closely aligned with the needs of older people.
Modified Kicks:
Because of excessive joint shock while practicing their art, Martial Arts Grandmasters are succumbing to knee replacement surgery and hip replacement surgery at a rate that exceeds the "non-obese" general population. It is true that controlled and limited joint shock brought about by proper exercise can strengthen the joints, but it is also true that pushing too far does the opposite.
Consequently, this program has:
Spinning and turning techniques are deemphasized in this program (seniors get dizzy easier than youths do). The "front kick" in this program is ball of the foot, because top of the foot front kick is a niche kick with limited practical use. Hook kick is also not done in this program.
Bone Conditioning:
For bone conditioning, this program emphasizes nutrition (such as proper amounts of Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, MSM, Glucosamine, and Collagen). We also encourage you to have your doctor do your blood tests so that you know where you are.
We deemphasize and discourage impact conditioning that involves repeated impacts that are designed to develop micro bone fractures that then heal the bone to be stronger. Impact conditioning is very common in most martial arts, but not in this program. Google "impact conditioning" to learn more about what this means.
Reduced Need for Memorization:
Karate means Kara (empty) + Te (hand). The way is do. Thus, karatedo is the way of the empty hand. Taekwondo is the way of the hand and foot. The word judo consists of two Japanese characters, ju, which means "gentle," and do, which means "the way." Judo, therefore, literally means the way of gentleness. These martial arts all have a "do" component, which is the life philosophy or spiritual way associated with the art.
But it's difficult to teach an old dog a new philosophy. Older people are already pretty set in their life philosophy (their "do"). Attempting to change their already ingrained "do" is probably not going to work. It is also very well known that older people have greater difficulty with basic memorization.
This program therefore eschews the typical martial arts "do". It avoids long memorization of tenets and philosophies, and loaded rank requirements.
Meditation:
Most successful people meditate, from all walks of life, all over the world.
In Timothy Ferris' 673 page seminal book "Tools of Titans", Timothy interviewed 112 billionaires, icons, and world-class performers in an attempt to tickle out their tactics, routines, and habits that brought them to success. More than 80% of the interviewees have some form of daily meditation practice.
Meditation is NOT the act of "emptying your mind". To "empty your mind" means to cease brain activity, which means you are dead. Meditation is the act of placing thoughts in your mind towards the goals you are meditating on, and in doing so, you push other unrelated thoughts out of your mind.
For the Silver Lions program, meditation can be either cross-legged or kneeling. Due to knee stress, older people will probably prefer cross-legged.
Distance & Ranges:
There are five "ranges". Sorted by distance, they are:
1. Weapons range
2. Kicking range
3. Punching range
4. Grappling on your feet
5. Grappling on the mat or ground
Notice there are two grappling ranges. When you are grappling on your feet, there is less of your body in contact with their body than when you are grappling on the ground. Thus, grappling on the ground is a "closer" range than grappling on your feet.
Our Silver Lions program mainly focuses on the first 4 ranges. For the first range (weapons), the emphasis is on the cane. For the 4th range, emphasis is on joint locks.
Older people generally want to avoid wrestling (grappling) on the ground. Being sent to the ground is especially bad seniors. Also, it is never a position you want to be in if you are up against multiple assailants, regardless of how old you are, or how good you are. You want another option.
An oft-quoted statistic is that most fights end up on the ground, but this statistic is biased. It is taken from police records where the entire goal of the police officer is to take the person to the ground. Also remember that the fight always starts standing up.
This program trains for standing. It doesn't train for mat grappling. If that is the skill you want, our Jiu Jitsu program is the program for you (taught by our instructor John Pratt).