Bookmark this one so you can show your relatives what that “UFC-thing you’re always doing” looks like around the Thanksgiving table. You might be able to inspire a multi-generational family hobby.
You’ve already met septuagenarian BJJ competitor Elaine Beiersdoerfer on this site. Now meet a few of her sisters in the master’s division, fellow 70something-year-old training partners Dora Valdez and Susan Dasher. Like an emerging generation of retirees including Beiersdoerfer, Valdez and Dasher have sidestepped knitting circles and book clubs and instead chosen simulated murder as a leisure pursuit.
Given the myriad benefits of training martial arts as we age–increased mobility, muscle and bone health, improved hand-eye coordination, reduced depression and social isolation, etc.–it continues to be awesome to see so many more people from all age brackets fall in love with choking their friends. Those deranged smiles of post-exertional glee they flash at the end are the fountain of youth we all tap into every time we hit the mats with friends.
We couldn’t love this more, ladies:
