Success and Age
Not too long ago, I was watching a Japanese variety show involving of a bunch of contestants from a myriad of gymnastics backgrounds. They all had to walk a plank placed across a body of water that was about 60 meters long (180 ft.) and about ½ a meter (1.5 feet) wide- and here’s the kicker- they had to do it on their hands.
The youngest of the contestants was only 20. He was a member of the Japanese national gymnastics team, and was without question the single most muscular Japanese guy I’ve ever seen. The oldest was 38- almost twice his age- and a former member of a Chinese acrobat group. In-between them were a multitude of other contestants of different ages and gymnastics backgrounds (including a Japanese Capoeira master I know in his late 20s).
As the contest progressed, virtually every contestant fell near or before the half-way mark; not because they didn’t have good enough balance, but simply because their arms and backs always became too fatigued to maintain it. After watching so many contestants fall, slip and slide of the plank, I began to wonder if it was even humanly possible to do- until the Chinese acrobat stepped up to the challenge. He started off along the plank in much the same way that everyone else did- albeit a bit slower. As he went along, I thought nothing of him… until he had passed everyone else’s falling point. Briefly after that however, his arms started to shake, and I thought that he too would soon fall- but he didn’t. Instead, he lowered his body down, locked his arms, and then used his stomach to hold his body off the ground while the fatigued muscles in his back and arms rested. Eventually, after a while (30 seconds or a minute or so), he raised his body back into the handstand and continued on, slowly, but surely. The break he took was costly for his time, but even so, he was the first one to actually make it to the finish line.
After that point, the other contestants seemed to shift focus- it had been established that the finish line could actually be reached, so the remaining contestants’ objective was no longer simply to make it- but to beat his time on top of it. With that, all the remaining contestants made it considerably farther than those who had gone before him, but in order to beat his time, no one else stopped to rest, and consequently no one else made it to the end.
Finally, the time came for the 20 yr. old gymnast. The guy’s muscle mass and agility were simply amazing- and he showed it as he quickly and easily progressed across the plank. As he, like everyone else hadn’t stopped to rest, his time was half of that of the Chinese acrobat- and as he reached the last 2 meters of the stretch it seemed fairly certain that he would be victor of the day- until he too became too fatiqued and fell- with less than a meter to go.
As my 29th birthday passed last week, and I reflected on the few injuries I’ve gotten while spending the past 7 months learning to do both gymnastics, and Capoeira, I noticed that they were considerably fewer and farther between compared to all the injuries I got when I started taekwondo training at 15. I came to realize that with age comes a certain understanding of not just the things around you, but of who you are as well. As a athlete this translates into knowing your body well enough to know what you can do, and know what you can’t. The Chinese acrobat won the competition because who knew he could never walk the length of the plank without resting, while everyone else assumed they could.
Perhaps this is why most athletes peak in performance in their late 20s- despite the fact that their body’s learning curve is slowing down, and injuries take longer to heal- they simply make less mistakes to begin with.
The youngest of the contestants was only 20. He was a member of the Japanese national gymnastics team, and was without question the single most muscular Japanese guy I’ve ever seen. The oldest was 38- almost twice his age- and a former member of a Chinese acrobat group. In-between them were a multitude of other contestants of different ages and gymnastics backgrounds (including a Japanese Capoeira master I know in his late 20s).
As the contest progressed, virtually every contestant fell near or before the half-way mark; not because they didn’t have good enough balance, but simply because their arms and backs always became too fatigued to maintain it. After watching so many contestants fall, slip and slide of the plank, I began to wonder if it was even humanly possible to do- until the Chinese acrobat stepped up to the challenge. He started off along the plank in much the same way that everyone else did- albeit a bit slower. As he went along, I thought nothing of him… until he had passed everyone else’s falling point. Briefly after that however, his arms started to shake, and I thought that he too would soon fall- but he didn’t. Instead, he lowered his body down, locked his arms, and then used his stomach to hold his body off the ground while the fatigued muscles in his back and arms rested. Eventually, after a while (30 seconds or a minute or so), he raised his body back into the handstand and continued on, slowly, but surely. The break he took was costly for his time, but even so, he was the first one to actually make it to the finish line.
After that point, the other contestants seemed to shift focus- it had been established that the finish line could actually be reached, so the remaining contestants’ objective was no longer simply to make it- but to beat his time on top of it. With that, all the remaining contestants made it considerably farther than those who had gone before him, but in order to beat his time, no one else stopped to rest, and consequently no one else made it to the end.
Finally, the time came for the 20 yr. old gymnast. The guy’s muscle mass and agility were simply amazing- and he showed it as he quickly and easily progressed across the plank. As he, like everyone else hadn’t stopped to rest, his time was half of that of the Chinese acrobat- and as he reached the last 2 meters of the stretch it seemed fairly certain that he would be victor of the day- until he too became too fatiqued and fell- with less than a meter to go.
As my 29th birthday passed last week, and I reflected on the few injuries I’ve gotten while spending the past 7 months learning to do both gymnastics, and Capoeira, I noticed that they were considerably fewer and farther between compared to all the injuries I got when I started taekwondo training at 15. I came to realize that with age comes a certain understanding of not just the things around you, but of who you are as well. As a athlete this translates into knowing your body well enough to know what you can do, and know what you can’t. The Chinese acrobat won the competition because who knew he could never walk the length of the plank without resting, while everyone else assumed they could.
Perhaps this is why most athletes peak in performance in their late 20s- despite the fact that their body’s learning curve is slowing down, and injuries take longer to heal- they simply make less mistakes to begin with.
Labels: action, athletics, Japan, motivation, success, Variety shows
posted by Chuck at 7:03 AM
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