What wasn't lost on me is the notion you seem to have that if your 54 years old you can't fight. While it's true, 50-something muscles can't keep up with a 20-something or even a 30-something set of muscles, neither the 20 year old nor the 30 year old has seen near as much of life as the 54 year old has. I speak from experience. I'm 55. I harbor no illusions about being about being a bad-ass, because I'm not. I have, however, been weight training since I was 13, and training in martial arts since I was 18. I don't like to fight and do all I can to avoid it. The training served me well during my 16 year career as a Deputy Sheriff in Brazos County, Texas. My training enables me to stop a fight before one really gets going. That generally means the other guy either can't and doesn't want to continue being an irritant after the initial contact. If I were forced to fight a highly trained 20 year old I'd be in for a world of hurt. But, something I've found about the true bad asses of the non-criminal world; they don't want to fight and will do just about anything to avoid a street fight.
