Quote Originally Posted by KPM View Post
I agree that certain martial arts that are based on athleticism...strength and speed...will start to fail you in old age as these physical attributes decline.
All fighting arts every single one relies on athleticism and conditioning there is no way around it.

Its always been a theory of mine that if Bruce Lee was still around his personal martial art would start looking more and more like WCK again as his physical attributes started to decline with age. Martial arts that depend more on timing and positioning seem to me to have better longevity. Helio Gracie was rolling and teaching BJJ well into his 80's. There are plenty of aging Sifu's that are 1st generation Yip Man students still going strong and teaching.
Helio may have been rolling into his 80s but his performance level was much much much lower than when he was younger. Yes yes there are lots of older guys teaching but that is very very very different thing than the level they are able to use their art at.

The truth is your physical performance level is going to decline as you get older and that is true in something as non intense as golf and even more true in martial arts and other things that are extremely high intensity.

But I also tend to agree with what Andrew said:
I'm not convinced Wing Chun (or just about anything else) would work for most people against a ruthless, committed attacker in such situations either.

A young, strong, ruthless, committed attacker that isn't interested in a fair fight is going to be very hard for ANYONE to deal with. Especially as your own strength and speed and reaction times decline with age.
Any ones performance level is going to depend on their current level of conditioning. The reality is that you are only as good as your conditioning level. Yes attributes and skill decline with age so what matters is where you were level wise when your decline began. A 70 year old Jack Dempsey knocked out 2 much younger guys who tried to mug him. Even with a decline his performance level was way beyond the average joe.

There is even a kuit that says that if you do not work hard when you are young you will have nothing when you are old.

Btw from a LEO perspective I think carrying weapons from knives to sticks and even guns is asking for trouble and is a really bad idea. Real self defense is living a healthy and smart lifestyle. Most people never are attacked never have fights and so forth because they avoid trouble and the places and people who cause it. Weapons cause more problems than they solve and are mainly security blankets that make scared people falsely feel more secure.