If you start your training 18 or older is it harded to become very skilled at striking or grappling?

Do you think that this observation is true, that if you want to have world class striking skills you need to start very early. I'm sure it is somewhat similar with grappling but not to the same extent. It seems that striking is something that to become at a high professional boxing or kickboxing level you should start very young. Grappling on the other hand seems like as long as you start in your late teens you can still be great. Striking you can too but the odds are almost impossible. Seems like most boxers start very young Oscar, Floyd, Ali, Ray Robinson all started in elementary school.





I could be way off I would like some opinions.

If you start your training 18 or older is it harded to become very skilled at striking or grappling?
There is something you need to understand about your question. It is true that almost all fighters (strike or grapple) who started training young are exceptionally skilled, but this actually has little to do with the number of years they have spent training. The reality is that most children and young adults don't have a high level of dedication to learn difficult things (whether it be martial arts or piano lessons). So, those awesome fighters that have been training since they were 10 yrs old are exceptional because of their natural talent and level of dedication, because those are the two biggest reasons why young fighters stick with their training and achieve success. For example, if a parent forced their young 5 yr old to train in TKD until they were 18 ; this 18 yr old would have 13 yrs of experience, but, lacking the dedication for those years, probably is a very weak fighter. So to boil it down it's not the number of years, but the dedication to practice as much as possible coupled with a bit of natural ability.
Reply:its never too late for anything. striking is not a brain surgery, its a basic skill that requires power and speed, which will be acquired by practice only. so age reall does't matter. however if you want to box professionally i think you can still do it, if you have a magic power or something like that.
Reply:Skill is something you develop, the earlier you start the faster and easier you'll learn it. Skill alone will not produce a world class grappler or striker. You also need speed, power, stamina, dedication, heart, desire, toughness, and so on. These other factors either you are born with them, or have to develop. A guy could be a natural striker or grappler without any training, and with training could become exceptional. It's never too late to start, or expand your game.
Reply:Youth is certainly an advantage, but I started when I was 44. I'm now 59 %26amp; a 3rd degree black belt. Physically, I can't do what much younger people with comparable experience can. I think that Chuck Norris started Tang Soo Do when he was stationed in Korea in the Air Force.
Reply:It is never too late to start. But Cunamo has a point. Dedicated students that start at a young age have the advantage that their brain is also in a formative stage and is able to make connections that we as adults will take longer. What I mean is that a young, really dedicated student that starts proper training will be able, in the long run, to be of exceptional quality. His neuron can make faster connections, and his fine motor skills, become more finely tune and actually closer to gross motor skills. When you are in a stressful situation, like a fight, the first thing that suffers is your fine motor skills. Through training your fine motor skills are so embeded in your brain that are not dificult for you to do anymore, is a reaction, a gross motor skill. Adults can develope that, we might have to train a little harder. Nothing is impossible if you put your all into it.
Reply:Do It
Reply:I'd say it would actually be better to learn it after 18. A younger student just doesn't have the motor nerve control and coordination of an older student like say a 20 year old of the same rank. This reason is also one of a few why you should also be wary of any dojo that cranks out 8 year old black belts by the truckload.
Reply:just get stuck in man. at the age of 18 + you have more determination than a under 10. you will understand technical concepts in language, and have testosterone also.





the benefit of training young is in the hard wiring of your brain, but its never too late to wire it up. if you are dedicated and apply yourself to your maximum, then you will get to superior heights before you know it.





one day you will wake up and realise that it is your 35th birthday, and look back at 21 years of training (I did). does it matter if I started at 14 or 6? no, not when you stack up the years. so do it. you will not regret it. just be true to your feelings, and if you start to learn nothing, sort it out. either you or the art is stagnating. sweet sweet.





time moves on for those who train and for those who dont, so stack up those years of training. each day is a labor, but the years go by so fast.

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