Never Too Old To Learn the Martial Arts

Never Too Old To Learn the Martial Arts

Here is proof that anyone can practise the true martial art and that age is no factor.

Most 91-year-olds would be content to put their feet up but Cristobal Campos is a 4th Dan black belt and still going strong, teaching Taekwondo in the north east of England. Cristobal first became introduced to Taekwondo when his son Mike, and grandsons Adam and David, who are also black belt experts in the Korean martial art, started training.

Mike said: “My dad trains at least twice a week in Taekwondo as well as doing circuit training, running half-marathons and cycling.

“He is much fitter than me and beat me by half an hour the last time we did the Great North Run.

“Dad has the energy of a 19-year-old, not a 90-year-old, and is constantly horrifying my mum May with the things he gets up to, like spinning around on the handrail outside his home the way young kids do,” said Mike.

Spanish-born, Cristobal was born in 1919 and fought against Franco’s fascists in the 1930s civil war.

After the fall of the Republic he fled to Sierra Leone, where he joined the crew of a coal barge heading to North Shields, North Tyneside.

Unable to return to Spain he settled in the North and joined the British merchant navy to help the fight against the Nazis during the Second World War.

Having boxed as a youngster, Cristobal took up Taekwondo at the grand old age of 80.

Mike said: “He joined Taekwondo after my sons and I and came to watch a class. He said ‘if you can do it Mike then so can I’ and since then there’s been no stopping him.

“When it comes to sparring he’s a bit of handful because he loves the close up stuff and self-defence aspects. With his boxing training he knows how to hit hard, so he keeps us on our toes.

“He really is a human dynamo,” he laughed.

 

So here’s the proof! You are never too old to learn Taekwondo, so go and find a good club now! As long as you’ve got a good Instructor who understands that everyone is an individual there really is no excuses!