Mac Gilmour, who holds seven black belts in different systems and has participated in 28 different forms of martial arts, is going to be training pensioners to help them stay active and feel safer.
“I want people to realise that when you retire you’re not finished,” said the instructor, who has been teaching for well over 40 years. “I just get despaired with the martial arts because there is nothing around for pensioners.
“My objective is to give them some confidence so they don’t have to stay in the house, scared.
“I have already spoke to five pensioners who are really interested in it and they are really excited for it.”
His interest in martial arts first began during his time in the army, where he spent nine years with two years of active service.
“I got into a spot of bother with an RAF officer in 1962,” he explained. “He bladdered me more than ever before. I asked if he was special forces and he said no, I do kung fu.
“From there I was hooked.”
Mr Gilmour credits martial arts as having turned his life around alongside his wife, who he also teaches dancing with.
He was inducted into magazine Martial Arts Illustrated’s hall of fame in 2017, and still teaches a class open to all on a weekly basis.
“I want people to realise that when you retire, you’re not finished,” he said. “As long as I can keep doing this every Thursday, it gives me something to do, something to stop thinking about the army.
“People think ‘I don’t want to do that’ because it is running up and down, but it’s not.
“If you want to run up and down then go to a gym.
“Everything I have learned over the past 60 years, I want to pass onto somebody else.
“Why not OAPs?”
Mr Gilmour’s first class for for pensioners will be on Thursday, November 27, at St Mary’s Church, Sherard Green Road.
