I’m too old for this

I’ve heard it many a time, “I’m past doing <insert activity here>.” I certainly hear it a lot when it comes to the freestyle boats. “I’m too old for doing loops and cartwheels, I’m past all that”. At what point do you decide when you are too old?

Many of the people saying these things are actually a lot younger than people like Eric Jackson and Stephen Wright for example, both people in the their mid 50’s and still competing at the highest level on the world stage. How many other physically active sports is this possible in? I’ve also seen an elderly gentleman in his 70’s who has lower back issues and had surgery on a shoulder performing loops and other tricks in a hole in a modern freestyle boat. If he can do it, what’s your excuse?

“But they have been paddling all their lives and have flexibility and fitness” and blah blah and so on. For one thing you are never too old to learn. It might take longer, but you can still learn new things. You are also still capable of becoming physically fitter no matter how old you are. Again it might take more effort and you might need to take more care, but it can still be done.

Flexibility?

I don’t care who you are, you can become more flexible no matter what your age. There is a myth that some people can be flexible while others can’t. It’s total BS. The only thing stopping you from being flexible is you! Stretching takes a bit of time and effort. But don’t make out that you cannot become flexible in place of the reality that you are simply too lazy. Please just admit you are too lazy instead of making excuses.

Besides, how much flexibility do you need for freestyle or playing around in a kayak? As you do the moves correctly your body will adapt, but it doesn’t really take a huge amount more flexibility than it does for normal kayaking. It’s like those people who say they won’t take up Yoga because they aren’t flexible enough. Yet the whole point of Yoga is to make you flexible! It’s as silly as telling someone that you can’t walk to the shops because your shoes are on the shoe rack. Put them on, and then you can walk there!

Old before your time

Do you think that things will become easier by reducing your activity and exposure to physical effort as you get older? Use it or lose it. Staying fit as you get older does become harder. You need to put more effort in to keep up. But if your solution is to reduce your physical effort at a time when you are in fact still very physically able, and to reduce your exposure to new techniques “because that’s only for the young teenagers”, then don’t be surprised when your joints seize up and you end up finding that the most exciting thing that you do at the weekend is a visit to Ikea.

What it boils down to is the difference between people who tell themselves that they can do something, and those who tell themselves that they can’t. But the moment you tell yourself that you are too old to do something is the moment that you have resigned yourself to becoming old before your time.