Everybody Is 'Cane Fu' Fighting At Senior Centers, So Watch Out

[babylonsister]

Everybody Is 'Cane Fu' Fighting At Senior Centers, So Watch Out
Older People Get Healthful Exercise
And Learn to Wield a Ready Weapon
By JENNIFER LEVITZ
July 12, 2008; Page A1


CENTERVILLE, Ohio -- The St. Leonard retirement village here has a whole new way of thinking about recreation: Bingo has made way for cane fighting.

"Down on top of the head and up between the groin!" urges instructor Debra Stewart, of nearby Chung's Academy of Martial Arts, commanding a dozen gray-haired students swinging canes at imaginary attackers. "Stomp him! Dig it in there. Do it hard!"

Jim Ghory, an 82-year-old retired toolmaker, volunteers to take a few demonstration shots at Ms. Stewart, who has a black belt in tae kwon do, a Korean martial-arts discipline. "You want {it in} the collarbone or the ribs?" he asks.

Senior centers and retirement communities are looking for new ways to promote exercise in order to stave off physical decline. Older people interested in honing their self-defense skills, meanwhile, are delighted to find that something they already own can be used as a weapon.

more...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121582129325447667.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Here's their first graduate:

Good morning, Sis!:hi:

[babylonsister]

3. Ah, Ms. Buzzy! I remember her well.

Good morning to you, too, Cooley! :hi:

[Cooley Hurd]

4. It wasn't a cane, but that purse of hers!

WHAP!:D

[Dr.Phool]

2. John McCane meets Chuck Norris.

Get off my lawn! WHAP!

Actually good for them. It will keep them healthier and maybe safer. Too many cowardly punks like to attack the elderly.