Martial Arts for the disabled through my eyes
By Andrew Melrose aka White Wizard
My name is Andrew and I have been practicing Martial arts in the form of Lau Gar Kung Fu for the past 9 months. I am 21 years old and currently live in Scotland. I am also disabled. My vision is very poor.
The word disabled seems to get different reactions from different people. Some think that this means that people are in wheelchairs or have very little mobility. But truthfully disabilities can be much more simple things like colour blindness or being slightly hard of hearing. There are many people in the world who are classed as disabled. More awareness of this is crucial for all of us
The purpose of this article is to give an insight through disabilities and Martial Arts through my personal experience hopefully giving helpful information to new students and instructors along the way.
I have wanted to do martial arts since I was about 12 but I never actually went to a class so it drifted by until my friend mentioned that there was a class nearby. So we went off I was pretty nervous at first. As usual there was the nervous say hello to the guy you have never met before. Fraser seemed like a nice guy when I first met him and he was very welcoming which set me at ease.
I am not overly conscious about my eyesight I do realise it is a problem but I never think of myself as being worse off than other people I am just different. I always stand at the front of the class so I can see what Fraser is doing and if I don't see anything then I just ask and he'll come and show me.
I won't lie some of the things we do are very difficult for me keeping my eyes on the target during sidekicks seems to cause me a lot of problems. Also doing turning kicks is very difficult just due to the whole issue of taking your eyes completely off the target I find focusing when I get back round to be a bit of a problem at present. The main point from this is that it doesn't make me different to anyone else everyone has problems doing some things and maybe I need to work a litter harder at times to compensate for the sight problem but that's the great thing about martial arts you'll get back what you put in and then some if you work hard enough.
Another great thing is that Fraser and Andy are willing to listen to what problems I have and then find ways to adapt to them. Andy even spent the time to show me some helpful tips that would benefit me and help me overcome the disadvantages that I face.
I think the most important thing when dealing with disabilities in any area is to be open about the problems that you face. Discuss them with your instructors or the people that you are training with most if not all situations have some sort of workaround. If you communicate then you are helping them to help you so learning things about you also increases their experience and hence everybody wins.
Many people don't want to be treated totally differently because they are disabled. Just offering support whenever it is needed or asked for is enough to include many and gives people a greater sense of independence. Martial Arts is already great in this respect so why not include absolutely everyone.
To the nervous newcomer you can do Martial Arts. Sometimes you will need to put in a lot of effort but so do all and you should not feel put off by this if anything it makes you feel better when you do achieve something. Don't be afraid to be up front about your problems if the person there isn't willing to work through them with you then it isn't worth being there anyway.
For the instructors don't be scared of disabled students within your class they are just normal people after all. Some may require a bit more attention than your average student but for every minute you give then they will probably twice as much effort as you ask for. If you think someone is having a problem try and discuss it with him or her that way you can sort it out and learn for future reference.
The main thing that I would like people to take from this is that MA can be for everyone regardless of mobility, sensory impairment or learning disability. By including people from these groups you can enhance everyone's training experiences by learning about what potential problems anybody could have.
I would like to thank everyone who has helped me along the way during these first few months. I hope I helped some of you too.
Andrew
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