I have been training in Shotokan karate since 1976, and a member of Bushido since around 1980. I am now 63, and for some time have been working to fight off the effects of ageing. I have arthritis, wonky feet (I can’t kneel on top of them, and have to sit for the formal bow) and various regularly aching joints.
So, in October while on holiday lounging at a Mediterranean pool, I decided I would supercharge my fitness, by doing as much training as I could in the following month. I discussed with Sensei Ramsay and also contacted Sensei Elliot to ask if it would be ok for me to join some of his classes in addition to my Crookfur training – this would be 5 classes per week. Discussing my goal with the BKA an idea was hatched to give my class fees to Children in Need, as it was November, and the BKA would also match with the same amount- this was an offer I could not refuse and made my challenge even more exciting and rewarding. So what started as getting an old beaten-up guy a bit fitter became an actual thing – which I dubbed Neverending in November.
In essence this meant participating in 25 classes in the month (though by what we lawyers call a legal fiction, we extended into the first couple of days of December).
We are now complete. I did my final class at Netherlee on Saturday 3 December. The main lesson I learned from NIN has been that more training is better for me – in terms of fitness as planned, but also technique and general health. Aches and pains have either disappeared or greatly diminished. I had set myself the extra training as a hard shift, a burden. But the reality has been completely different. The more I trained, the easier it became. The last stamina circuit of partner bagwork on Saturday left me stronger than I could have anticipated.
Other improvements were around the karate. No matter my 4th Dan grade and decades of karate, I am well aware of my limitations, but training at Crookfur and with additional classes at Greenbank/Netherlee you train hard every time- with two eminent instructors telling you to do combinations, kata, kumite and bagwork a total of 5 times a week, you either sink or swim.
I would like to thank the BKA, for letting me do this exercise, and those members who when they heard about it offered me donations which I will add to the joint Austin/Bushido payment to Children in Need – it looks like we will be sending them over £300 and I will mark it up as from the BKA. Thanks are due to all classmates in supporting and encouraging me. I have met lots of additional people in training, and can report that the ethos of my new classes is as good as anything I have got used to at Crookfur. A final thanks is owed to my wife Yvonne for washing more Gi’s all month than she bargained for.
Austin Lafferty
