Video: Proper use of Shaolin cane techniques [Archive]

GeneChing

03-01-2011, 10:59 AM

We have a few cane related threads but I figured I should post it here in the "Reality" forum because growing old is the biggest reality. ;)

Martial arts self-defense an option for seniors with canes in East Contra Costa (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17485663?nclick_check=1)
By Roman Gokhman
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 02/25/2011 06:19:51 PM PST
Updated: 02/27/2011 04:51:58 PM PST

BAY POINT -- Cat Willson had just finished loading groceries into her car last year when a stranger knocked on her window, then opened a door and began to lean in.

"He said, 'All I want is $35,' " the 67-year-old said.

She screamed, and he ran away. Frightened, Willson started looking for a self-defense class.

She found Cane-Do, a self-defense and exercise class that incorporates the use of a cane into a martial arts and exercise program. It is a variation of hapkido, a Korean martial art.

It draws from samurai sword-fighting skills to not only use the cane as a means of self-defense, but also as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat by striking, kicking, locking and throwing.

"A lot of seniors walk around with a cane, but they don't realize they can use it for self-defense or as a piece of exercise equipment," said Jose Isidro, a martial arts expert who started teaching the class at the Ambrose Community Center in August. "Canes have been used as a weapon in martial arts and combat for centuries. It's very versatile."

Isidro, himself a black belt in hapkido and several other forms of combat, began to study Korean and Filipino martial arts at age 5. He owns the Mt. Diablo Hwa Rang Kwan school in Bay Point and started his first Cane-Do class at a Danville senior center in 2008.

One of his first students has since taken over that class. Another has started a class in Alameda and a third has started one in San Jose.

"They are 75, 65 and 60 years old," Isidro said. "They are black belts. They have to know all the techniques and exercises."

Isidro already teaches a karate class at the Ambrose Community Center and was asked to offer Cane-Do when the center expanded its senior exercise program, recreation coordinator Ken Gray said. The funding came from a Kaiser Permanente grant.

Besides the new program, which started in August, and karate, the center offers ballroom dancing for the community.

"The seniors lacked exercise and we said, 'Lets get them something,' " Gray said. "The senior program needed some life."

The classes are free for anyone, though Cane-Do is geared for those 60 and older, Gray said. Participants do not have to live in Bay Point. The class draws between 15 and 20 every week.

A handful of the participants, such as Willson and her husband, Robbie, are regulars.

Willson and her husband, 70, are now trying to attain black belt-status. A retired carpenter, Robbie Willson said he wants to be a black belt in order to teach Cane-Do to other seniors.

"I do it for the exercise and also to help other people in the future," he said.

Most of the participants, like 77-year-old Edna Bussey, of Bay Point, simply want to learn how to protect themselves if a need arises.

Bussey said she would still be scared if a need arose when she needed to use her Cane-Do skills, but at least she will have a means to protect herself.

"We do what we have to do, when we have to do it," she said.