I taught a lot of kids. Kids are often referred to as “germ factories.” We keep a bottle of that hand sanitizer gel on the mat at my studio and one of the instructors calls it “kid shield”. We use it after every class because, like a lot of studios, we end with a high-five. Predictably, you’ll get one kid that either coughs into his hand or was just sticking his finger in his nose and then high-fives you. You might ask how could I possibly think of children as an unruly mob of unsocialized cannibals?
I don’t get sick often but I’m nurturing a case of bronchitis right now, which is why I got the idea to write this.
When I was young I caught everything that was going around. I had all the basic childhood diseases that a kid growing up in the Fifties would get. I got the sugar cubes for polio immunization and still have the scar on my shoulder from whatever I was inoculated against back then. I had a raft of allergies, too.
I was at the doctor a lot.
I started in Judo, and then drifted over to karate between the ages of 11 and 18. I got stronger, inside and out. I earned my black belt in Kenpo. It was my youngest sister, Judy, who told my family doctor what I had accomplished. His comment? “That sickly kid?”
Yes, it was that sickly kid who was not so sickly anymore. I am convinced that martial art training did this for me. I have read many an account of people with serious conditions who have returned to normal lives with the aid of martial art training. The tai chi master, Cheng Man-Ching, had tuberculosis as a youngster. He overcame it and lived to a very old age. He lived in China about a century ago, when TB was rampant and recovery was not the norm. Medical science was not was it is today. I am convinced of the benefit of martial art training for overall health.
I get my checkups at the doctor and when I am asked what medication I am on there is disbelief. The average 52-year-old is on prescriptions and I am not. My blood pressure is very good. My arthritis is in check. Martial arts have kept me in pretty good shape.
It can do that for you, too.
I don’t get sick often but I’m nurturing a case of bronchitis right now, which is why I got the idea to write this.
When I was young I caught everything that was going around. I had all the basic childhood diseases that a kid growing up in the Fifties would get. I got the sugar cubes for polio immunization and still have the scar on my shoulder from whatever I was inoculated against back then. I had a raft of allergies, too.
I was at the doctor a lot.
I started in Judo, and then drifted over to karate between the ages of 11 and 18. I got stronger, inside and out. I earned my black belt in Kenpo. It was my youngest sister, Judy, who told my family doctor what I had accomplished. His comment? “That sickly kid?”
Yes, it was that sickly kid who was not so sickly anymore. I am convinced that martial art training did this for me. I have read many an account of people with serious conditions who have returned to normal lives with the aid of martial art training. The tai chi master, Cheng Man-Ching, had tuberculosis as a youngster. He overcame it and lived to a very old age. He lived in China about a century ago, when TB was rampant and recovery was not the norm. Medical science was not was it is today. I am convinced of the benefit of martial art training for overall health.
I get my checkups at the doctor and when I am asked what medication I am on there is disbelief. The average 52-year-old is on prescriptions and I am not. My blood pressure is very good. My arthritis is in check. Martial arts have kept me in pretty good shape.
It can do that for you, too.
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