How do any disabilities/learning difficulties effect your training in a MA? [Archive]

TheBorderer

09-Aug-2003, 04:51 PM

Hi folks,

Interesting topic here I thinks(again from an interesting time on MAP chat :))... Just wondered how many folks here who do a MA have some kind of disabilities or learning difficulties and your opinions on doing your chosen art? How do you feel this effects your training if at all? Do you feel it hinders you compared to the rest in your class, or helps you through as you have more of an incentive to do well so you can 'prove' you can do it? Also to any fully able MAists, what's your opinon of your fellow classmates? What about instructors, how do you find trying to teach such students and how they react to you? I want this to be as wide ranging as possible, hence so many questions! (Of course if there are any more feel free to say so!)

I might as well mention self in this respect, while I am not physically disabled in any way, I do have a learning difficulty known as Dyspraxia (not sure on it's spelling, why do these things, have to be a blighter to spell! :D), basically this means that I'm maybe more clumsy as my body won't to precisesly as the brain tells it to! I do Tae Kwon Do and I guess one reason as to why was to 'prove' that I could train my body to do complicated things, such as high kicks, stikes, jumping turns etc... As for if it hinders me, I guess it does slightly as I feel it takes me slightly longer to learn a new pattern or move and sometimes maybe I'm not as quick or as elegant at first! (Of course maybe my instructor can shed more light onto that than me as I don't know if it is me, or just the fact it is a complicated move!) Sometimes I get annoyed as I'll be through a pattern or move and forget it or feel really clumsy when moving!

But anyway, I'd like to see what you guys have to say on this, hopefully this will make for an interesting discussion! :)

WhiteWizard

09-Aug-2003, 05:05 PM

My eyesight is quite bad i'm registered partially sighted and have a travel pass because of it i don't find it affects my training really but that may be down to me not knowing anything else when in class i like to stand as close as possible to make sure i'm seeing everything however my instuctor is quite understanding about it as his eyesight isn't great without glasses either its a lot better than mine to be fair.

It doesn't affect me too much however

thiaboxr2

09-Aug-2003, 05:08 PM

We have an individual who lost all his fingers on his right hand in an accident a few years ago. All cut off at the second joint. His thumb was gone.

He's been practicing BJJ ever since. He's used to it. Its as if there is no difference when it comes to grappling with him. He can easily hold his own. Also participated in a few competitions.

He has also done Thia Boxing since then. Punching is not a problem. As I see it, he still has two hands.

paul paterson

09-Aug-2003, 05:30 PM

Osu,

How does any disabilities/learning difficulties effect your training in a MA?

This is a very good and thought provoking querry, everyone has a disability and YES I did say everyone. Each person will have some kind of ability and disability, some more than others and some less. To most of us the word disability will mean someone who is in a wheelchair or a "spastic" person. This is where the word disability is total word encompassing compaired to the old term "handycaped". The word "handycaped" is a Victorian word given to the poor and ex-service men from the wars who would beg in the streets with a cap in hand and ask for money and were disabled in some way.

Having several disabilities myself and having married a spina-bifida sufferer I can understand why there is a prejudice and discriminatory factor within the MA world and in general. I too have dysparaxia and dyslexia & dyscalcula, osteoarthritis and bi-polar disorder. These disabilities did cause me many ills and headaches, I was even bullied because of them, but the disabilities that I have, have helped me more and due to this I have grown into a better person.

Having taught many disabled students, from deaf to blind, from epileptics to heart and kidney patients and people with certain limbs missing. After seeing other people with other types of disabilities and some are far more than others, you begin to see how insignificant we all are and this is a humbling experience.

Life is hard enough but having a disablity makes the job of living an art and though we face brick walls, eventually they come falling down.

Osu.
Paul Paterson.

teacher

09-Aug-2003, 05:42 PM

Interesting thread Borderer, thanks.
My mate had dyspraxia and behavioural problems at school. He studied karate and found it gave him the discipline to change his circumstances. He is one of the nicest guys I know.
I also trained in a class that include a boy with Downs Syndrome.
He gave it his all and loved the classes. He was a great example to the rest of us.
I particularly liked Paul's contribution. What is a disability? When it is visually obvious its easy. But what about that quiet 17 year old working away on his or her technique?
I'm hoping to cope with my poor eyesight with new contacts.

Artikon

09-Aug-2003, 10:34 PM

Interesting . . . I personally don't have any disabilities, but I noticed one of my students does. He hasn't been diagnosed with it after speaking with his parents but they think he may be a little dyslexic.

From what I've seen from him in class I would agree. He seems to have trouble paying attention and learning things . . . however he does know the material that is presented to him, with the exception he does everything backwards! It is the weirdest thing, you can teach him a form and he do the entire thing backwards without knowing what he's doing. He thinks he's right.

This has presented a problem with developing his S/D as well as he'll try to do things backwards there too. Try the strike before the step aside or the block. He has been a huge challenge but quite interesting and enjoyable . . . if not sometimes aggravating to work with.

Do some of the other instructors or parents on MAP know of anything that I could do or his parents could do to help him develop?

Bon

10-Aug-2003, 12:48 AM

Yeap, I'm hearing impaired.

The disadvantages are pretty obvious I reckon - don't hear as much as everyone else, therefore less knowledge. It's particularly a bitch when the instructor is talking us through the technique, I learn most of my techniques through looking at other people & imitating them... then I'll work out why the technique works later as best as I can.

Andy Murray

10-Aug-2003, 01:06 AM

A quote from the Site Magazines 'Articles' section;

Different people have different abilities!

Some people seem to be born with advantages!
We all know someone who is really strong, fast, flexible, intelligent, funny or good looking!
Something I have observed from experience though, is that the people at the forefront of Martial Arts today, are not the people with the 'natural gifts' of strength, speed, agility etc.
They are the people with an inner strength!
Something to prove, perhaps a physical or mental limitation.
Bloody-minded determination can overcome Mr or Mrs Lucky if you are persistent about it.
Learning a Martial Art is a 'War of Attrition' with yourself.
The people with 'natural gifts' tend to find things so easy, that they wander off and find something else to do that is easier still!

If someone ever says to you; "What you? Do that? You have no chance", just smile to yourself, and take steps to make them eat their words.

Some of the best students I've taught have been Autistic, Spastic, Deaf, Blind and Diabetic.

darlph

10-Aug-2003, 02:53 AM

We have a few ADHD & ADD students who just can't control how much they move or even how their speedy thought processes come out of their mouths or where their attention is. We are aware if who is who and I really think that MA helps them to control it a little and helps to build confidence.
I have knee problems and I have learned to adapt my movements. I have a great instructor who understands the problems associated with not being able to get lower in balance or doing a pulling kick. It seems that because of my personal familarity of problems, I often times is the one to grade them on their tests. Recently, I had to bow out of the training for my 2nd Dan training and test because apparently back in April when I thought I had just pulled a muscle, I had ripped some cartilage in my good right knee.
I have noticed when other students know you have certain disabilities they don't want to partner up with you. At this point, I really don't give a rats butt about how they avoid me. I may not be able to do impact drills with my legs, but I am faster and higher in alot of the kicks we do. Mostly I train on one side only and kick with the right leg in front because of the left knee surgery i had a few years back. Now I am in the process of switching to the other side.
I can honestly say, I haven't quit yet like quite a few others have done that I thought had great potential.(:

PsiCop

10-Aug-2003, 07:33 AM

There is an interesting case in my school. There is a boy who trains there who is slow to learning things and also doesn't really put forth a lot of effort. However, I see my instructor calmly talking to their very annoyed mother nearly every week as to why he keeps getting held back for Dan testing. I can understand the cases of learning disabled students who put forth a lot of effort, trying that much harder to achieve their goals in martial arts. It's my opinion that they should be able to test regardless of their disability, as long as they know the core material required for testing.

But that's the problem. He doesn't put forth much effort at all and I think he's only there because of his mother's ambitions of trying to make him a martial artist. Therein comes the moral problem. He's disabled, but doesn't put forth any effort. Is it prejudice to hold him back? Are you just holding him back according to a condition? IMO no, but in this society moral standards are constantly changing for the worse. Just look at the American Judicial system. The word "sue" had magically appeared in our vocabulary in the early 1990s. Now it's a widespread con game.

So we come to the questions: Could you be sued for holding back a mentally challenged person numerous times? Should you feel bad about it, even though it's the only fair thing for the other students who earned their black belts?

booksie_girl

10-Aug-2003, 11:27 AM

IMHO, holding him back is only fair, he has to put in the effort, and know the material, but from a legal point on view... depends on who has the better lawyer. Sad, but you can be sued for just about anything. However, the chances of it aren't too high. just my opinion.

Tireces

10-Aug-2003, 01:00 PM

Originally posted by Andy Murray
A quote from the Site Magazines 'Articles' section;

If someone ever says to you; "What you? Do that? You have no chance", just smile to yourself, and take steps to make them eat their words.

Precisely why I got involved in the martial arts to begin with. I think my story is a pretty common one, one that I see from top-tier martial artists a lot, even (not saying that I'll be joining those proud ranks anytime soon, but I'm hopeful :D ). That story is of course, of the weakling who was god-awful at every athletic endeavor, and one day just got tired of being the wuss, and set out to jam everyone's mocking words down their throats. It was hard even making it to where I am now, I've trained with first-time people who kind of get amazed at how they're so out of breath while I'm still going pretty strong, and I always tell them I didn't even make it through my first class, which is absolutely true. They had to get me to stop before I started losing consciousness. I had always been interested in martial arts, the idea of one's body becoming a weapon has just always intrigued me for some reason. I was inspired by hearing once about how Bruce Lee had started from being in a similar state at roughly the same age as I was, and ultimately wound up choosing his Jeet Kune Do as what I would study (not simply because it was his, but because I liked it from all the reading I had done on it, not because of its "freedom" as most people do, but actually because of its emphasis on "hacking away the unessential"). I guess my biggest disability would be that my body just isnt a big and as roughly built as even the average (roughly 6'3", 160 pounds, and thats AFTER gaining about 20 or so pounds from training, almost no body fat though), let alone those guys out there who can somehow manage to be hulks without a single drop of any synthetic hormone. This has contributed to a much larger problem that has kept me out of classes, that developed as a result of a sprained ankle. Anyone who knows their way around the JKD stance knows that the rear foot is essential, and that, unfortunately, happens to be where my injury was located. Because of the way I got used to walking on the foot after the sprain (wound up not seeing a doctor for it or getting a cast and crutches, mostly out of fear that I would get killed in the hallways of my high school, since they were so overcrowded, and people there for the most part were just generally very self centered and were the kind of folks who'd run down a cripple if they were in a hurry), my foot and the muscles in it are all very bizarrely formed now. Ones that shouldnt be so strong ARE strong, and ones that should be strong are weak. In a JKD class, that foot's heel is raised nearly ALL the time, and so therein lies my problem. I have been trying a lot of different things to get the foot back to what it should be (as well as correcting both feet for being flat footed, another somewhat nagging disability, but really not a bad one at all by itself), and hopefully they'll pay off. Some people I know also think I have ADD, but I doubt it. My mind wanders at times, but not ALL the time.

Knight_Errant

10-Aug-2003, 01:05 PM

does a lack of abilities count as a disability? If you can fight but you happen to be deaf, you stand a better chance than a fully-hearing person who can't fight to save his life, I'd think.

TheBorderer

10-Aug-2003, 05:55 PM

Hi folks,

Interesting replies, though I don't take all the credit from this idea, like I said was on chat, speaking to Kyokushin_girl and hence really the idea, so thanks K_girl! :) (hope I'm not 'embarrasing' you! :p) Anwyway back to topic. Interesting question Knight_errant actually along with paul paterson's comment earlier, I guess it's all how you define 'disabillity' if you that's what the definition on it is, then yeah, makes sense, in a way 'disabillity' is a word some would call a fickle/subjective word like I find the word "normal" to be. I mean what is normal? It's just really people's various interpretations/connotations of something. Life can indeed deal us some 'poor hands' so to speak and it's really a case of who we use them which makes us.

Andy, yeah you do have a good point there, I sometimes find learning TKD a bit of an internal 'War of Attrition', but yeah for everyone studying a MA inner strength can and does count for a lot.

As for the boy PsiCop mentions, it's hard for me to say much (and sounding like I'm passing judgement to easily) without the 'whole story', but yeah I can see why it's a sticky issue, considering the many sides to the story. But yeah, if a MAist does truly knows they're stuff and has the will to succseed, I don't think it matters too much (if at all) what kind of disabillity they have and how bad that disabillity is in order to progress (granted it can get very difficult depending what the disabillity is). The way I see things, and it has has been said many a time before, people are individual as long as we respect each other then that's the most important thing (something which I try my best to do every day).

Kinjiro Tsukasa

12-Aug-2003, 01:25 PM

Many interesting comments here on how various kinds of disabilities affect the MA learing process. I'd like to know how disabilities (either permanent or temporary, or injuries, or physical limitations, or age-related conditions) affect the relationships between you and the other students in your dojo. Do you feel accepted? Are you taken seriously by the other students? Do you get the same respect as everyone else? If your condition is temporary and/or not visible, do other students seem to treat you as if you're slacking off (assuming there are certain things you can't do, or do as well as the others)?

paul paterson

12-Aug-2003, 01:35 PM

Osu,

In general for most students and people in general with disabilities both past and present, if you put in the same effort or more then you are accepted. There is however a small amount of others who will use their disabilities to play on to get more, those people tend to fail in life but they still need our help after all thats what Budo is about.

Osu,
Paul Paterson.

Saz

12-Aug-2003, 04:58 PM

Paul, I also have Dyslexia and Dyscalculia, and althought they do effect me to some extent in my MA (direction, co-ordination, attention span etc) but I don't play on them. My sensei doesn't even know about them, so I can't. The sort of people who will play on it in MA will play on it for other things in life, and they tend not to get very far in anything, and then blame the disability for their flaws. Anything can be done with enough dedication, disabled Martial artists just need to use a bit more than most.

To add another point to this, my sensei doesn't know about my disablities. Those of you with disabilities, do you tell your instructors about them, or keep it to yourself. I can see advantages for and against it myself.

Kinjiro Tsukasa

12-Aug-2003, 05:38 PM

Some things your Sensei needs to know; if you are under doctor's orders not to do certain things because of injury, for example. No point in doing something that will make the injury worse, and knock you out of training for weeks or maybe months. If the disability has no real impact on your performance, then no need to mention it. However, what if you really are giving maximum effort and doing the very best you can, but are falling a little short because of real limitations -- how do you deal with people who erroneously think you're making excuses?

paul paterson

12-Aug-2003, 06:06 PM

Osu,

Although just about all those with disabilities will be genuine and honest, its hard enough being and having them. There are some that will play on them and there will others with no disabilities who will pretend for the attention. Although no harm was ment and thanks K_Girl for pointing that out, having these disabilities should not mean that we that have them should be treated any different. We have all seen many people out there with some kind of disability but please look upon them as the rest of the populas, give a helping hand when needed but just treat us and them with kid-gloves and sympathy.

As I said in a previous posting, we are all disabled in some manner, shape and form. It takes a real person an honest person to admit to it, and those that do are always the stronger.

Osu.
Paul Paterson.

paul paterson

12-Aug-2003, 06:10 PM

Sorry for the above, the old dyslexia got in the way.

Paul Paterson.

KungFuGrrrl

09-Mar-2004, 04:53 AM

this is to kinj.I'd like to know how disabilities (either permanent or temporary, or injuries, or physical limitations, or age-related conditions) affect the relationships between you and the other students in your dojo. Do you feel accepted? Are you taken seriously by the other students? Do you get the same respect as everyone else? If your condition is temporary and/or not visible, do other students seem to treat you as if you're slacking off ::
-----------------------------------------
*for those who dont know me, (arthritis in spine, healed broken back, ruptured protruding disc lower lumbar, 2 protr. disc cervical spineand ptsd)
In my 8th yr WC TCC JKD, and teach Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Gong

I used to feel like I needed to prove myself - as if I am being *babied* someone once said Sifu *spoils you*..... usually newer students have those types of attitudes however now that I have become more accepting of my disabilities and tend to hold my own, the newer students tend to show more respect, especially when I teach them *good moves* they can't quite get yet.....

It is a great boost when I play chi sau or blind folded chi sau and do really well against a younger healthy male. and the guys always root for me.
My condition is permanent however it does get better and worse at times....hope that makes sense.

I find that for the most part my Kung Fu brothers are very supportive of me and always catch me if they do a take down, and dont hold back to much, I go home with my share of battle bruises! however, if I am in pain they do take it easy....but make me WORK for it!

Hope that helps!

KFG

mattsylvester

10-Mar-2004, 09:19 PM

Are there any blind people on this forum and, if so, what martial arts do they study and why?

Kinjiro Tsukasa

11-Mar-2004, 03:38 PM

Thank you for your words, KungFuGrrrl; they were very helpful to me.

Nimrook

02-Apr-2004, 11:20 AM

Nrv4evr

03-Apr-2004, 11:19 PM

Nimrook

05-Apr-2004, 05:26 AM

well thanks

ttamgirl

19-May-2004, 03:11 AM

KungFuGrrrl

19-May-2004, 03:33 AM

I have astma, and learning disabilates. NO one has treated me any differently, unless I have an astma attack. NO one at my dojo knows about my learning disabiltys, but I put alot of work into it. For a while at my Dojo there was this guy who was majorly desabled. He slowed down class everytime that he showed up. He had his white belt for almost 3 months and still didnt know any of the kicks, or anything else. It was a reall bummer for the rest of us, who had to give up traning time. He also didnt know what personal space was. He had never heard of the bubble.
so what if he had his white belt for 3 months ?
I have major back injuries, have been training 8 years and now teach, I had my white sash for a lonnnnnng time.
why did you have to give up training time? I don't understand that.
Im sure he paid his dues like everyone else.
Perhaps you needn't work with him.
At my school if I have a problem with someone, I will talk to Sifu, and it gets straightened out.
Maybe if he has downs or something that serious there is a separate class for him other than that I see no reason someone should have such complaints.
he is there to learn and have camaraderie.

Seems to me if he stays with whites sashes for ten years so be it. Why would that concern you? Maybe my school is built different.
My school works like this. The lower levels train together, the midlevels train together and so on and so on...........

I don't mean to be disrespectful but I get frustrated when it seems that disabled or "slow to learn" people are getting the short end of the stick.

I work with survivors of domestic violence most of whom have many disabilities (as I do) and some pick it up fast and others dont, but the main thing is they are learning and having a good time and bettering themselves.
KFG

Mrs Owt

19-May-2004, 03:52 AM

When I first read the title I wasn't going to respond because I don't think of myself as a person with difficulties, no matter a disability. But to be honest I do have challenges in my training and I think being honest about them to myself and with those I train with is important.

I have a knee injury that has never healed correctly, although there is still hope for it yet. I have had to learn to compensate for the lack of mobility especially in aikido. I can't even sit in proper seiza so even that has been adapted for me. I see this as a temporary set-back and constantly work to improve my mobility and strength and hopefully this will soon be a challenge in my past.

The more long term issue I have is my clotting disorder. I have a relatively mild form of it but it does definitely factor into the way I train. It was something I had filed away and not really paid much attention to when I was not doing MA but it came to the forefront when I really started to punish myself. Where classmates would have a small mark on their wrists from wrist locks I would be purple from wrist to elbow. Where classmates would say OW! from a mae konate to the gut I would have internal bleeding. These sorts of things led to fairly severe anemia and some health consequences. So nowadays, I spar fully padded and not as hard as I used to. I also have had to learn that some days I just can't train because I just don't have the energy reserves.

Learning when to say stop has been the biggest advance in dealing with my 'stuff'. Knowing when to not push it and to listen to my body has been a hard lesson. I never like being thought of as weak or lesser than anyone so it has been very hard for me to pull myself out of situations when I should.

ttamgirl

19-May-2004, 04:05 AM

Everyone has there white belt for more than three months, that is the way that is should be. I had mine for about a year, but by 3 months, you should be able to do the first basic kick in the first basic stance with out the help of the teacher everytime. Everytime that he was in class, the instructor would stop the whole class, leaving us to just stand around becouse he couldnt understand the stuff. Therefore no one else in the class was getting the work out that they deserved. I rember shorlty after geting promoted, that I had alot of new stuff to learn, I didnt learn any thing new for about 1 month becouse of the above metioned student. I do know that he has the same rights that I do, and any one else in the martial arts world, or the whole world for that matter, but it slowed down the training of many of the other students who I really respect.

WhiteWizard

19-May-2004, 10:30 AM

Surely your class knows enough to be able to continue doing something while the teacher is helping this person. I know that even if i'm not being shown stuff yet that i have stuff that i can work though

ttamgirl

19-May-2004, 01:59 PM

Yes, we do, but when we are drilling, it is not possable to keep going when there is no one to calling the drills. When delling with any other student, sensi would just have one of the upper belts call, but it dosent happen with this guy.

WhiteWizard

19-May-2004, 02:13 PM

Sounds like poor class management by your sensi is causing the problem more than the actual student. maybe you should raise your concerns with him

ttamgirl

19-May-2004, 10:36 PM

Before this student, I loved my dojo and greatly respected my sensi. I did speak with her, and basicly receaved the "YOu should have more respect of this student, they are a student here too." I no longer respect my sensi, but I do respect most of the other students and the coinstructor.

Saz

19-May-2004, 10:52 PM

Your Sensei is correct - You should have more respect.

Swap places for a second, how would you feel if it was you?

Kwajman

20-May-2004, 01:43 PM

For different reasons, I have memory problems, it takes serious amounts of repetition to learn a skill set. So I guess I have learning problems. It will take me probably 2 years at high red belt before I can test for my BB. Meanwhile, I'll be outranked by my son.

Amaranth

24-May-2004, 05:52 PM

We have several young students at my dojang with learning and developmental disabilities. There is a separate program for students under the age of 8 which they are involved in. They keep up as best they can with the other children and learn at their own pace, though it takes longer for them to aquire things than most other students. The other kids accept these students and they all participate with them as though they were no different.

Much of the reason these kids are in M.A. is because their parents want them to be. They feel it helps their children develop their coordination, listening skills, comprehension, etc. With the challenges they face, they need all the help they can get. Not so that it isn't hard for them, that wouldn't be teaching them anything. But so they are better prepared to face more difficult challenges.

Martial Arts isn't about competing to see who can learn things faster. It's largely based on self-dicipline, you can take yourself as far as you want to go. One person joins because they want to learn practical self-defense, another because they want to have the most awesome front kick ever, and someone else because they feel the need to overcome something. They have different goals and expect different things.

Though disablitlies affect these children's training (and many peoples training), I don't think it has that much of an impact on it. Basically, it's as big a deal as you make it. If they don't go as far in M.A. as the next person, whos to say they didn't get as much out of it. For them it might have been exactly what they needed.

Canemaker

05-Jan-2005, 04:53 AM

Paul,
I found your comments about teaching handicapped students very interesting. You mentioned you have worked with heart and kidney patients.. I am both a heart patient and a kidney dialysis patient. I have found my biggest challenge is cardo training and general weakness. It's kind of a weakness that is no in your head but from deep inside. Self motivation is real tuff. My question is, Do you have any suggestions or experinece tha would be helpful for a kidney / dialysis MA student. Thanks CaneMaker

ttamgirl

05-Jan-2005, 08:39 AM

Your Sensei is correct - You should have more respect.

Swap places for a second, how would you feel if it was you?

I know exactly how it feels. I have learning disabilites, I have had them all of my life. I have always been stuck in the classes for "specal" people. All I am trying to say is that it bugs me that one person can slow down the whole class and hammper the tranning of the rest of the only class that I can take, the most advanced class offred at the dojo. The class that everyone who has a black belt has to take, is affected by someone who has issues with personal space, and still to this day cant do anything with out being given specifc instruction. I think that if a person can not keep up for what ever reason, they should not be in class. they should have their own class. The way that I see it, it is not about my respect for the other person, or for my sensi. It is about the lack of respect that the sensi is showing for the rest of the students who take this class.

But none of that matters, becoues I took my own advice, and quit becouse I could not keep up, due to my wrist problems.

(I cant believe how bad I was at expressing my self, and how unshure of my self that I was when I first started posting on this topic.
I have some respect for the perosn who used to be my sensi. But it is not the same respect that I had before. Before, she was a wonerfull teacher who never pushed too hard. But then, she became someone who did not know who should and who should not be teaching.)

I have always taken the MA's seriosuly. I think more so then anyone else at the dojo that I was going to. But it was the best that I could find in my area. I mainly went there becouse it was the only one that my parents would pay for, that was not a MCDojo.

baubin2

09-Jan-2005, 05:38 PM

I know exactly how it feels. I have learning disabilites, I have had them all of my life. I have always been stuck in the classes for "specal" people. All I am trying to say is that it bugs me that one person can slow down the whole class and hammper the tranning of the rest of the only class that I can take, the most advanced class offred at the dojo. The class that everyone who has a black belt has to take, is affected by someone who has issues with personal space, and still to this day cant do anything with out being given specifc instruction. I think that if a person can not keep up for what ever reason, they should not be in class. they should have their own class. The way that I see it, it is not about my respect for the other person, or for my sensi. It is about the lack of respect that the sensi is showing for the rest of the students who take this class.

But none of that matters, becoues I took my own advice, and quit becouse I could not keep up, due to my wrist problems.

(I cant believe how bad I was at expressing my self, and how unshure of my self that I was when I first started posting on this topic.
I have some respect for the perosn who used to be my sensi. But it is not the same respect that I had before. Before, she was a wonerfull teacher who never pushed too hard. But then, she became someone who did not know who should and who should not be teaching.)

I have always taken the MA's seriosuly. I think more so then anyone else at the dojo that I was going to. But it was the best that I could find in my area. I mainly went there becouse it was the only one that my parents would pay for, that was not a MCDojo.

You quit? Too bad. What level were you before this happened, just out of curiousity?

I'm really sorry to hear that you gave up. I understand your frustration with this boy and your sensei :bang: , but seeing as how it sounds like you have been practicing a while, I don't understand why you decided to give it up over this one issue. Especially because your frustration was over your inability to make progress while this boy was distracting your sensi; after all, how much practice will you make now that you have quit the class?

Surely there is another way to resolve your dilemmna. Perhaps you could ask another student to help you with your drills in your spare time? Call your own drills while you wait for your sensi to finish helping this other kid (assuming he is still a problem, of course, I just checked dates and realized that a lot of these posts were made quite a while ago). And as for your wrist problems, there must be something you could do to work around them.

Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is don't give up. It sounds like you have been studying a long time and gotten quite advanced at your art; it's a shame that you are quitting now over such (at least, that's how it looks from your post, maybe I'm wrong) comparatively trivial issues.

ttamgirl

09-Jan-2005, 08:32 PM

there is no way that his would have made me quit. Change Dojo's maybe,
But I have both artrites and a condtion exactly like carpol tunnel But on the other side of the wirst. in Both hands. :bang: :bang: I did not give it up until for about 2 months, I could not pick up a class of water, and it hurt like hell to pick up a fork. I traned for about 5 years. That is no where near advanced. But I had to go to the singel adult class at the dojo. It was a small school.

OneArmedBandit

18-Jan-2005, 10:51 AM

The weirdest thing I have found is everyone I have ever sparred with underestimates me, and tries to go gentle untill I finally get pissed off and just hit them with everything I have and after that they treat me as though I'm anyone else. I was fortunate enough to grow up with a father who treated me the same way as my perfectly healthy brothers. I'll be the first to admit that I have a HUGE pride issue, if someone at the gym lift 200 lbs. I have to lift 250. It kills my back but like I tell everyone else

"I'll be damned before I let anyone think of me as weak"

I know the feeling, I was born with only one arm, and as a consequence I have a greater natural strength than most, (as I am forced to everything with the one arm), but I am always underestimated, but hey, its their bones i'll be breaking. There is an advantage of being underestimated though, it gives you the element of surprise, you should see the look on peoples face when you just explode on them.

vicjudofreak

18-Jan-2005, 08:44 PM

I find that the younger people on the mat are ok with me (sometimes to the point of hurting me through lack of care) but I am having trouble at the moment with an overprotective training partner, who is paranoid about hurting me because my arms can get worse. I appreciate the care but don;t like being babied. Grrrrrr! :woo:

But I love judo and despite regularly saying I don't want to do judo anymore, I never want to give in to it and although it does affect my training massively I do the best I can and, like tonight, I get small victories, like adapting another throw to work effectively and that means an awful lot to me :)

Victoria

Battle Sword

10-Feb-2005, 01:38 AM

As a highly motivated disabled martial artist I can say that I have been fortunate to train mostly with motivated & positive people. There have only been a few who were unkind, rude, or out and out cruel to me. It's partially ignorance on thier part. I am currently in a pt/ot program now, which prevents me from training at this time. I have found that the best way to deal with any concerns or problems is to take it to the Shifu and state my concerns. They, being in the higher position of authority, possessing more training than me, need to make the best decision on my behalf. Pretty simple, really.
Becuz of my high level of motivation,I am understanding of the fact that I may need to do ot/pt strength programs from time to time, which means it will take me longer to achieve what other non-disabled people can achieve.
The main thing I'd like to point out at this time is that its the instructors job to be sure that any disabled people in thier schools are getting the time and training that they need & also that the disabled students are not ostrichized, ridiculed, or bullied, by the other students. Remember that being in martial arts also includes a thing called humility. One should be learning how to defend themselves against bullies according to thier Shifu's style as well as becoming a better human being, i.e., the path to enlightment!!!
A student should not be encountering bullies within the school, instead they should be learning to defeat them if & when they are encountered in real life situations.