Welcome to Fifty Plus Krav Maga, a site for not only Krav Maga, but for those who are 50 plus and engaged in physical sports. I wanted to start a site from which I could share my experiences not only with Krav Maga but with, participation in physical sports in general for plus age individules.
Not Over Anything
I don’t really like using the term over 50 because it isn’t over, it is just beginning. To me the word over indicates that something is done, finished or past its prime such as game over or overdone. Whereas plus means there is more to come or a positive value. Believe me, my life isn’t over and there is definitely more to come. And for that matter, I don’t think those who have not reached 50 should use the term over 30, 40, etc. Nothing is over till it is over.
However, with that in mind and reality sets in I am not 18 years old either and my body does not respond the same as it did when I was younger. There are number of things which I have found help me while participating not only in Krav Maga but in any physical sport. And I am sure there are others who have found additional things which help them and hopefully these can be shared for the benefit of all. For example I recently had a my cervical vertebra fused, you can read about in the About Me page. I will share my experiences during this event over time.
Why Krav Maga
Krav Maga is the self defense system developed by the Israeli military (see About Krav Maga for additional information), it is a very aggressive self defense system which emphasizes a lot of reality based and exhaustion drills. You might ask why would someone 50 plus years of ages choose Krav Maga. Below are the main reason I chose Krav:
- One of the fundamental principles of Krav Maga is the techniques used must be based upon natural movements where possible, and they must be able to be performed by someone of average physical ability. Krav really is ideal for older individuals, most instructors will work with individuals to make a technique work or recommend something different to accomplish the same task if the individual has trouble with a technique.
- I never liked running for the sake of running, I could run to play football, basketball or softball; but to run just to run for me was boring; the same went for tread mills, bicycles, climbers, etc.. However, for me focusing on Krav Maga and self defense I didn’t even notice all the stuff I was doing. I was learning how do defend myself and in the process I lost more weight in a short amount of time then I had ever lost before; I lost 30 lbs. over an 8 month period. Additionally, I started doing cross fit training, but not for the sake of cross fit, it was because it would help be to better defend myself.
- The most important thing I wanted to learn was how do defend myself and loved ones in a fight, not break a brick or a board. One of the main themes of Krav Maga is that when a person leaves a lesson they are better able to defend themselves in a fight. And after my first lesson I felt better able to defend myself.