1. Contact with younger people
Except at family get-togethers or for professional reasons (e.g. nursing and the health services) there are only very few day-to-day occasions when old and young people have anything to do with each other. I know of no “major“ sporting activity where people over sixty train together with fourteen year-olds and are “equal” partners. WT offers this possibility. During training, “grandpa“ and “grandma“ become George and Mildred who are taking their first student grade just like everybody else.

2. Respect
This takes us to the second point: who still respects age nowadays? The divide between old and young is too wide for more cultural proximity. But there are also exceptions, for respect is not given, it must be earned. For example by Lemmy in the band Motorhead, who still appears in “the world’s loudest band“ at the age of more than 60, or Sean Connery, whom we are very unlikely to meet on a pensioner’s bus outing. Don’t most of us dance to the music of Tom Jones, Cher, Tina Turner or The Stones?
This means that older people starting to learn WT are respected for this by younger ones right from the start. The feeling of being respected is also transferred positively to daily life.

3. Fun
WT lives on the fact that self-defence does not need to be hard-nosed and drill-oriented.
Our motto is “Have fun and meet people“. Where else is there so much laughter while learning to hit others than in a WT school? Laughter is healthy, which brings me to the next point.

4. Health improvement
An older student once said to me jokingly: “When I feel the usual aches and pains in the morning, I know that I’m still alive.“ Health is a central topic in the 40++ course, but it is applied with humour.
In WT the old are allowed to be young and the young old: except for a healthy basic constitution which is developed over all age groups, no peak sporting performance is demanded. The forms are conducive to calm, concentration and meditation, while the movements are aimed at relaxation and suppleness. How physically demanding or movement intensive the classes are depends on the individual instructor. Everybody is able to obtain what he/she wants. I think it would be overambitious to assert that WT itself can heal the sick, but movement is healthy and healthy movements are even healthier. Accordingly a WT school does its bit to improve general health.

5. Healthier ”grey matter”
It always sounds slightly absurd when I tell outsiders that I ponder for weeks about a small movement of the arm. During classes we ”communicate“ with our arms. We learn to stand, walk, see and “speak” in a new way. The exercises make us think, as does confronting our own ”ego”. Those who are aged over 60 and think that they have experienced a great deal in their lives are able to take a look at the dark side of the moon during WT. Which brings me to the next point.

6. A lifelong learning challenge
Usually I have to explain to potential students that I do not offer “courses“, but rather a lifelong “learning challenge“, though naturally I express it differently. Otherwise it sounds like ”imprisonment for life”. A course has a defined end, and at the end you know everything. In WT classes you know a great deal after a short time, but you also learn more and more that knowledge is not the same as skill. After all, starting to learn WT is a test or experiment. Some leave it at that while others find it impossible to stop. Particularly the older generations discover new perspectives and accept new learning challenges ”despite“ their growing age.

7. Self-assurance
There are T-shirts bearing the imprint “I’m 30, please help me across the road“. Funnily enough these are also worn by 30 year-olds, not just by 70 year-olds. People like to make fun of older people, while hardly noticing that the old also like to laugh at themselves. Ageing is a taboo subject, as is death. There are old south-east Asian customs where people happily celebrate the death of e.g. an 80 year-old, because they are glad that he/she has reached this advanced age. In our own culture, self- assurance declines with increasing age. Older people have the feeling that they are no longer needed, and are ”put out to grass“. WT counteracts this. It is perfectly possible for a 70 year-old to cope well during classes.

8. Security
Am I locking others out or locking myself in? Can others be a threat to me, or am I a threat to them? Should I be afraid, or should others perhaps be afraid of me? Why should I constantly be concerned about my security?!
Security becomes very important with age. Security is the opposite of fear. Most people are unable to deal with their fears constructively. You learn to handle your fears by playing with them. This means getting to know your limits and assessing yourself in dangerous situations.
If you are more confident in yourself, you move differently and more freely in everyday life.

9. Freedom of action
A Franciscan monk who had lived in Brazil for many years was once asked to make a cultural comparison between Germany and Europe in a newspaper interview. He answered: “When people in Brazil leave the house, they like to take a walk around the streets. When people in Germany leave the house, they always have a clear purpose in mind.“ Perhaps people are just more fearful here, or maybe they are just afraid of wasting time. Just walking around is something one does on holiday, and usually in southern European countries. But still with an unstated intention (e.g. to find the best and cheapest restaurant in the resort).
What does this have to do with WT and older people? In theory many more older people could be out and about in public, but they usually consider carefully when they will go where, and which situations might be a threat. I am convinced that more self-assurance and points of contact with younger generations would enliven the scene in our towns and cities at all times of the day.

10. Better quality of life
All in all, contact with younger people, respect for age, more fun, the health aspect, the mental challenge, learning in itself, more self-assurance and more security in day-to-day life, together with the enhanced mobility these provide, produce a better quality of life for older people.

Oliver C. Pfannenstiel, 3rd TG