 I recently attended a three-day weekend Kempo seminar called The Zen of Kempo, hosted by good friend Master Sean Kelly. Now I wanted to cover this in today's episode because it isn't your typical Kempo seminar and in fact I feel that it is an important message not just for Kempoists but also one that applies to any martial artists, especially those of us who might not be in our prime or in our youth anymore. Today we're going to hear from some special guests and explore how you can get the most out of your martial arts at any age. For many years Master Kelly held massive annual seminars that attracted people worldwide and explored the dynamics of American Kempo. In recent years Mr. Kelly has scaled back to seminar to focus on deeper themes, themes that offered more than just the traditional busting and bruising practices Kempoists are known for. Kempo was represented by both the tiger and the dragon, the tiger for raw earthly strength and the dragon for higher wisdom and peace. So how does this seminar marry the two together? What is The Zen of Kempo? The Zen was to show the martial artist as a martial human to find out more about who they are and find now in their journey how to find balance, mind, body and spirit of all ages and regardless of where they come from but the majority of our group this particular weekend were above 50. Most of them are experts they're above black some are above even fit degree which means they're still willing to learn and so they have the injuries. Would it be through sports? Would it be just anything from a bruised knee to a knee surgery and shoulders? All the things that happen in almost any sport activity. We want them to learn how to use their martial arts as part of the therapy of better life and to go back to it and slow down a little bit. And my platform was to also give new instructors the ability to step outside of their normal comfort zone and give them a broader audience of working with black belts who are seasoned black belts. And so you get the grandmasters like the Bill Superfoot Wallace's. Here's a guy who is known worldwide who has a degree in kinesiology and physiology talking about the science of how to stretch. He talked about at 77 years old after four hip replacements and operation on his one knee. He's still doing it. Alex Perez had that this is his first time I invited him to start bringing out the forms and he did short three and his instructor is Master Ken Herman who's actually written books on the forms I believe up until short three long three. But I mean it's like an encyclopedia that he's brought to the table which means for those intellects who really like to go into the ingredient deep down and get into the DNA he put those in a manuscript where you can now outside though in your physical you can sit there and on your own and just start reading in between the pages some of the content that you may go man I didn't realize it was so in-depth. We brought in life coaches who are certified under the John Maxwell team coach Jocely Gonzalez and we have another one tomorrow Mr. Robert Sendin. We have a Tai Chi instructor Mr. Jim Kelly coming that shows the softer side of the art how to balance how to breathe how to transfer weight how to slow down and I get the physical this is fun let's see how many bruises and bumps we can get as our trophies but there comes a point in time most of us don't know in our audience what's going on with those people what sicknesses they may have dealt with or still are. My name is Jocely Gonzalez I am a neurobiologist I'm a life coach I've had a very interesting journey all throughout I love the martial arts train in my own capacity my age but I have learned to also adapt a lot of lifelong lessons into the martial arts not only training for myself but being a mentor to kids it's interesting because our brains think we're still 25 even the work maybe 60 65 70 and beyond our brains have that memory of who we were back in the young ages and so I love the fact that we are able to kind of work with where we are in a in our own capacity and at the same time allows to enjoy what we love. Zen is is a way of doing something not the same for everybody so it's what you get out of it is what you feel about it's the training the training the movement that the aspects of life itself you know I've been doing this since 1963 basically 57 if you count my wrestling background which is still a martial art my livelihood my life is still a blast I have an absolute blast doing this still fun kicking people too and we're all getting older but the knowledge and everything that you get from the Zenokempo as far as how to come how to become one with your spirit your mind your body and everything how to have a piece about yourself. One of the first things that Mr. Kelly and him talk about in the beginning is you know none of us are who we used to be we're not doing those jumping flipping kicks and spinning around and we can't do it but it doesn't mean it's not still in our minds and but what we can do is we can adjust what we know and make it work for us and do it with ease. When you're young or just beginning to train in the martial arts it could be an exciting time getting fit learning how to fight conditioning and taking your thumps it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of training but there are aspects of the arts that early practitioners tend to ignore or overlook. I think maybe a lot of martial artists might lose sight of just who they are inside you know they learn all this stuff and they learn all these techniques but you've got to also keep who you are in check as well. Intentional living in to really just sum it up if you can and just one global statement is just being aware each day of what you're doing not just for yourself but for others having intentionality and purpose to your life. I personally think that one of the challenges to finding this balance is our own perception aging isn't something that's felt overnight like a switch it's progressive and sometimes we have the tendency to not acknowledge the fact that we're getting older until we're forced to face scenarios where we hit limits so how can we better navigate this transition into getting older. I will encourage as the example I brought both myself Bill Wallace, Reiner Schulte who's in his 80s if we can do it you can do it and we have people coming from all ages I had a few come to this particular event I haven't seen in almost 30 years. One lady I taught her son when he was nine he's 40 now she's 71 and the phone calls that came to me was I can't do this I can't do that I have this going on and I said are you done now that you've told me what's wrong with you I would rather look and see what's right with you and let's validate your strengths. Retire doesn't mean stop especially with work it's really means to live live longer live graciously okay but now be more concerned about your health because you can't afford what it's going to cost you okay if you don't do that. It is very interesting to see that even when you are struggling with aches and pains arthritis maybe some gay issues you go into your 40s your aging processes kind of kick in as early as 35 although we start aging at 25 years old when we get to about 35 years old our process is kind of beginning to change and then at 40 more so you go into your 50s and it's like a switch all of those aging stages are beginning to be challenging for the body so when you start training when you're young you know the body is very agile and you can do this you can do that you can move in so many different directions go on the floor you know all kinds of different things and then as you're aging you can no longer do this many people think they can no longer continue to train in the capacity that they trained before and that's where that mindfulness set that mindful set change has to happen so that you can see that all right well yeah I may not be able to kick as high as I did perhaps if I go into something as simple as stretching can help me kick maybe better than I think I can and work from there so it's an adaptation it's really to adapt the thought of continuing to enjoy what you're enjoying what you're what you've been doing for many years and then from there learning that you're probably gonna have to make a few compromises but don't stop more than anything else it it it can be done at a ripe old age you can do it your entire life you don't have to do it hard you don't have to do it fast you don't have to do it strong just do it because it's it's an education it's a physical education it's a training session and it clears your mind to where you can have clear thoughts it's something you can do forever I've done it now for 60 years never too late it's never too late to start some people you know I've had 70-year-old people 12-year-old kids six-year-old kids the older the better because see the good thing about older people they don't have the strength to make it wrong so they have to do it right if they're still human that they're still human and are not invincible that's it it is even more critical to take good care of yourself to really monitor and watch your health and I know that when you're in the martial arts there's that's a lot of physical there's a lot of but that doesn't necessarily translate into health all the time so I think that becomes a critical component because without health you really don't have a whole lot this seminar and series of classes went on for three days with so many great guest instructors and lessons the amount of information can be overwhelming if you can attend the seminar and walk away with a good nugget or two of information something that you could really apply to your own life and training then it was worth it so with that question in mind what would be the key takeaways with the Zen of Kempo we want people to understand that nobody knows it all that's that's you know but we're first to hate criticize critique you see it all the time but people are putting things up they're doing reformed they're doing whatever and it's like oh but your toes weren't this and you're here wasn't that you don't know if that guy has had an operation you don't know if the guy has a disability okay it's just for him to show you a little bit what he knows when it comes to life and death and if it's a real street application nobody looks good it's a matter of survival learning how to love and embrace who you are and how to just move forward with with that learn to be a student it doesn't matter how old you are there's always something to learn always something to read always something to just gather from somebody else and just give it 100% give it your 100% with intention peace yeah peace there's your way of doing something not the way that's your way of doing something you won't do it the same way Sean Kelly does it he won't do it the same way they did Parker did it it's difference in your body you take into consideration your body your height your weight your different your distance your strength your weaknesses your power in February matter of fact next February we're going to open it up and have you know see Kimpo people are used to working with Kimpo people what happens when they're going to work with a shoulder cut person what happens if they're going to work with a deco on the person now now we have these different sessions these different systems come in so they can play with modify change something that they do that might help them in the realm of competition of training of different hate maybe this is easier for me than doing it my way if you walk away with one thing this weekend just one thing that you say wow I like that it was worth the entire weekend I personally got a lot of great information and perspective during that weekend everyone there had such a great attitude and no matter the rank an open willingness to learn I would like to extend a thank you to master Kelly for holding these events and for continuing efforts to not only perpetuate the art of Kimpo but to also provide a resource for those of us who want to integrate what we learn deeper into our lives Mr Kelly also runs the stop the bully program providing resources and training for the young victims of bullying we covered it in a previous episode if you'd like to learn more about that the link is in the description so hopefully you guys were able to get some value out of this perspective and I would love to hear about any influential seminars that you have attended and what you learned from them now I was lucky enough to be asked to teach a class for Mr Kelly's Zenith Kimpo seminar in 2020 and it was a fantastic experience the complete video of that class is available for our patreon and youtube black belt members so you can find that there in its entirety thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next week