Thanks to/for Senaman Tua

Senaman Tua Practice at the Detroit Gelanggang

I just got this nice email from one of the students:

Hey Guru,

I just want to send you a big Thank You for teaching Senaman Tua to me.

When you asked me how my knee was doing this week you almost caught me by surprise because I hadn't thought of my knee in many weeks. This is the exact same knee that I was sure was going to need surgery and the many months of rehab that go with surgery earlier this summer. The reason I no longer had my knee problems at the forefront of my mind is that it was 100% back to normal. I can only attribute this to the Senaman Tua exercises you showed me.

I am a bit ashamed to admit this now, but when I originally called you weeks ago to let you know I was going to have to quit training for awhile due to me hobbling around on a very painful knee that I had injured, and you told me to come in anyway because 'you just might be able to help my knee', sad to say but I was extremely skeptical.

I had no doubts about your abilities to cause people injuries, but I had never heard you mention any ability to heal people, and besides, I had already visited a Doctor who just gave me pain pills and told me to make an appointment with a Orthopedic Surgeon for my knee. But since it would be almost three weeks before I was able to get an appointment with the Surgeon, I figured I had nothing to lose by seeing whatever it was you were going to show me.

When I saw the exercises you suggested I do, I thought they were a combination of some crazy yoga mixed in with some not quite right Physical Therapy exercises, definitely nothing I had ever seen before. I took your suggestion and started doing these exercises every other day, and to my surprise, after the first week my knee was much improved.

I appreciate that our classes for the next couple of weeks were Senaman Tua classes and not Pekiti, because the combo of practicing on my own and coming in for the classes eliminated any limping completely by the third week, and after the seventh week, any trace of the knee problem was completely eliminated. Had I gone through with the surgery, the seven week point would have probably just been the transition from crutches to a cane.

So thanks again for the gift of these exercises that I have continued to do a couple of times a week for prevention of joint injuries.

your grateful student,
Larry

Mabuhay Larry!

Thank you for the note. I'm glad you're back to 100%. And I don't even mind that you doubted me...or that you thought the exercises were "crazy" and "not quite right" - we can discuss that later. The important thing is that you're better now and the Orthopedic surgeon will have to find another way to make his Ferrari payment this month.

See you in class!

JD