Whether aikido, karate or wing tsun: It is important, experts and trainers recommend, to break the victim-perpetrator cycle expected by the attacker in the event of a threat through body language and choice of words. Self-confidence, speed, presence of mind and the ability to react are strengthened.
However, using active defense only makes sense if training is intensive and regular, so that in real emergency situations, people actually react with the right movements.
Fear of crime affects well-being
According to research by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony, fear of crime leads to greater impairment of general well-being in older people. This can lead to withdrawal from public life and associated loneliness. Seniors also suffer more from the consequences of crime in contrast to younger people.
The Lower Saxony study also shows that the well-being of older people is significantly more impaired after a home burglary, for example, than it is for younger people. They no longer feel comfortable within their own four walls or on the street, not infrequently accompanied by longer-term fears.
Seniors are more cautious in many cases. It is often an expression of an overall increased insecurity, as they are sometimes more insecure and vulnerable due to declining physical strength or possible visual and hearing difficulties.
Self-assertion rather than self-defense
For many seniors, self-defense is no longer an option for health reasons, but assertiveness is. Police psychologists therefore recommend creating publicity, for example, by shouting or screaming loudly to draw attention to assaults. 80 percent of all attackers then give up. Self-confidence and moral courage must be trained above all so that the defense functions in an emergency.
This defensive posture can also be trained: create distance with the outstretched arm and walk back in the so-called passing gait. In doing so, one must always keep an eye on the attacker and be ready to counter with the striking hand.
Aikido as self-defense
Edmund Kern uses fluid turns to fend off the attacks of his attacker, who tries to hit him with punches. Edmund Kern is 74 years old – and he is a sensei, a master and teacher and belongs to the elite of aikido masters in Germany and Europe. In 1988 he founded the Takemusu Aiki Dojo Bayern e.V..
Aikido is about not meeting the aggression of the attack with aggression itself, but to repel it and to use the power of the attacker. The attacker should be brought into a situation where he cannot start a new attack without further ado, or where he recognizes the futility of his actions. This is usually done through throws and levers, which make up the bulk of aikido techniques.
Martial arts in old age
Edmund Kern does not feel too old for this sport: “The movements in Aikido correspond to the natural movement sequence,” he explains. Therefore, he can only advise everyone, no matter what age, to practice the martial art. Even older people benefit from the fact that they learn something about the coordination of movements and their own physical fitness through interaction with their training partners.
Aikido training allows everyone to experience their own needs and possibilities. Ines Heindl has also learned this. Full concentration and also falling and rolling are learned through Aikido. The now 58-year-old learned to challenge her body through Aikido after a slipped disc. She is now a Dan, a master of the art of self-defense, and trains women and men between their late 50s and early 60s.
For her, a particularly positive side effect of aikido is the promotion of coordination and reaction skills. In this way, participants in her courses fear few falls in everyday life, as they learn much better body control. Self-defense and self-assertion courses for all age groups are offered by local adult education centers, as well as institutions such as DRK, AWO, etc., and judo and karate clubs.
