?

The one in downtown shut its doors with no notice or reason a few months back (it was always packed with people) and the one in Santa Monica's 3rd St. Promenade closed after looking like it does great business as well. I know the franchise was purchased by the Baja Fresh folks back in 2007, so maybe the parent company of both is having real issues and failing fast? I've also seen some Baja Fresh locations disappearing as well lately.

I can understand if you want to be an MMA fighter or an olympic athlete in TKD or Judo, but why do we get folks asking if they are too old to take up martial arts in general? Is it that dojos in many towns pay the bills by instructing kids from 5 years old and up, so that teens don't want to start with a bunch of 5 years olds in the beginner's class? Is it that adults have these visions of the training being physically demanding to the point of grooming them for iron shirt techniques?

I contend that the martial arts have something for people of any age. A good instructor can tailor his art to fit the needs of almost anyone so that the student benefits from the experience. Yes a 60 year old joining a martial arts class won't end up being a beast, but I equate fighting to golf. Just because you can't drive the ball 300 yards doesn't mean you can't shoot a low score by hitting the ball straight and being a great putter. Just because you aren't physically fit or young doesn't mean an instructor can't show you how to defend yourself using the assets that you do possess.

What are your thoughts?

I am looking to promote some positive sharing of concepts across different arts with this question here. For instance, a practitioner of Silat might share with us a bit of detail about "shearing" and/or "adhesion". What concept or "trick" in your art goes beyond the teaching of techniques and instead gets at unifying concepts of why a certain set of techniques or strategies works in your particular system?