The rationale for writing this brief post was met over a Grande soy almond latte in Starbucks. You read Val Worthington’s nemesis [the sauce] is diet coke well, soy almond latte is mine and at £3.00 a pop it’s a little more expensive too, anyway, I was perusing an edition of the Sunday Times sports section when I came across an article concerning age and competitive sportsmen and women. The raison d’être for the piece seemed to be the imminent return of Michael Schumacher, the seven times Formula One motor racing champion, back to a sport in 2010 he left some five years ago. “Michael Schumacher: more VIP than OAP.”

Schumacher, now 41, will be returning to the sport he once dominated to race under the expertise of Ross Brawn’s new outfit, headed up by Mercedes and challenge for the title against Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. As a formula One world champion Schumacher is of course used to the pressures of success and expectation but never during his career did he have pressures such as age as a concerning factor. The article drew on a number of similarities to persuade the reader that, like so many other aged performers Schumacher and his adoring fans have little to worry about. Take Sir Stanley Matthews who whilst, didn’t have to play against the stars and pace of today’s English football Premier league but still had to content with professional footballers in the prime of their playing careers playing on until he was 50 years of age and another example in Martina Navratilova who too, competed at the highest level in tennis until she was 50.

Staying with football, the BBC Sports personality of 2009 – Ryan Giggs is one of the oldest to grace the English premiership at 36 he is still one of the most active and competent players in the league, you can also reference Paulo Maldini who played on into his 40’s at AC Milan and David Beckham who is reported to be thinking not only about South Africa 2010 but also the 20th football World Cup to be held in Brazil!

Moving away from football (soccer) we have Tom Watson’s Open Golf performance from 2009, where he finished a very close runner up at 59 years of age, the Times attests strength to a further example from golf reporting combined ages of the great Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus at 194 years. Okay, let’s face facts now, Golf isn’t the most energetic of sporting pursuits – spoils a good walk if you ask me! But motor racing, now that’s a different thing altogether, a sport that requires immense strength, concentration as well as death defying reactions. This whole article got me thinking about old age and its relationship with performance, 30, 40 even 50 years old is not that old is it? Physical fitness is supposed to peak at around 32-34 years but Sir Steve Redgrave and Lance Armstrong are just two examples that put that hypothesis to rest from two of the world’s most demanding sports. What about active Judoka and Jiu Jitsoka, another two examples of often physical tourture, what about high-level performance here, how old is too old to be on the tatami?

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Let’s look at a few examples: firstly my old Judo coach, Robin Gell is slightly older than the aforementioned at 74 (forgive me if I am wrong Robin) and although he can no longer do any form of standing randori (due to bad knees, hips and a shoulder injury), god help you if he gets a hold of you on the floor in Ne-Waza. Neil Adams MBE, 8^th Dan, though despite being 50 years of age is still able to train with the best and indeed is active during sessions in his capacity as the coach of the Belgium National Judo squad.

From Brazilian Jiu Jitsu we have another fantastic example in Fabio Gurgel, 40 years old yet still competing at the highest level (European Championships) – Professor Gurgel really does live up to his moniker as “the General” - ‘fighting on the front line with his Alliance troops’ and whilst it is not polite to mention a woman’s age both Felicia Oh and Helen Currie are two of the best examples of ability, performance and age from our world of grappling – just phenomenal. The list could go on all day long BJJ black belt ‘Papa’ John Gorman who as a BJJ black belt didn’t start training Jiu Jitsu until he was 55 years old and the most senior female Judoka in the world Sensei Keiko Fukuda, 9th Dan is 90 years old, but perhaps the Grand Daddy of them all was fellow ‘nonagenarian’ Master Helio Gracie- the patriarch of Gracie Jiu Jitsu who, at the ripe old age of 95, was still able to hold his own at any academy he graced.

So let’s see… how old are you? How often are you on the mats? I think we could be surprised with this one… your comments please…