And how to keep going….
When we were recently
back in
Horst and his wife
had decided to spend a good part of the year in
I first met Horst,
when he was running a club in Hohegeiss, a small village in the
We were talking about
training and keeping fit in general; when Horst said that he continues to
train– practising all the katas every day. He also mentioned that he was
preparing for the
He then laid out his
training schedule.
Morning - 1 km swim, followed by gym
session
Afternoon Run or if weather too bad,
back to the gym. If it’s snowing, then get the skis out!
Evening Kata practise.
But don’t
worry, he has Sundays off!
We then went onto ask
when Horst & Kristina would plan to visit us in
I just managed to
avoid the temptation to invite him to run the
So, what is the
purpose to this lovely story? Well, Horst is 70 this year – that’s
right, Seven-Zero. He was a late arrival to karate, only starting once his
teenage son became interested in training.
The fact that he has
the energy to do all the physical activities is amazing in itself, but the fact
that he continues to train away, practising his katas I find to be a real
inspiration. He is not doing it because he is grading, nor is he competing
(unless there is a super-vet category). Nope, he is training because he enjoys
it.
I am lucky to have
trained with some of the best instructors and most dynamic karateka that have
been around. Their abilities are astounding, and I can only aspire to attain a
fraction of their talents.
What I can strive to
attain is Horst’s enthusiasm and desire to continue training. He gave me
a copy of the phrase which you can now see on our Homepage, “Karate is
like hot water.”
So if you are tired
and not feeling like training, that’s OK. Just ask yourself, what would
Horst do?
Happy training
– and keep the heat on!