Hi, I am a martial artist with about 16 years of experience who has recently come down with a mild mental illness. Because of this illness, I am required to take heavy medications with somewhat impair my sparring ability (more specifically my speed and reaction time). My question to you all is: When seeking sparring partners, should I first mention to them that I have a medical impairment first? Also, would posting online classified ads such as "sparring partner needed" be of any help? I look forward to any responses and questions.
I would be very sceptical about advertising for sparring partners. Are you training in a martial arts school at the moment? If you are I would definately tell the instructor. It then becomes his/her responsibility to monitor your training and match you with the right people to enable you to continue training, sparring and progressing.
I'd agree with Simon. Stick to sparring in your martial arts school or through properly organised sports clubs.
Agreed with the above. If you have a school, just train and sparr their. I imagine with some time you will adjust to your new state.
Ok listen, I take a ton of medications: some for ptsd and anxiety others for pain and inflamation. Tell your instructor at school and get partners accordingly. People need to know of your afflictions but don't go advertising it like it is something that is to be ashamed of or any other sort. Meet up with someone you trust especially in class and explain the scenerio as it is. Listen, the thing is this.......Being a disabled martial artist is first and foremost the following is true: You are not 100 percent so don't try and compete or think that you are. You gotta accept you now have limitations you didn't have. Slow down and continue doing the Martial Arts forever. I used to be able to do the jump spinning crescent as a breaking technique, now i am perfectly happy kicking ankle to knee high with good and slow technique. Good luck bud.
Yes, actually. I am at a small kickboxing school, so I suppose I could follow your advice and continue sparring among my fellow students.
One of my guys is in a wheelchair and we accommodate him accordingly...actually we have to hold him back a bit because he has massive strength in his torso and his sticks hit hard! Going outside of my classes would give him issues because people would either (a) not want to hit him at all and this give no benefit or (b) be dicks about it and "treat him like anyone else"....both approaches are wrong. The beauty with staying in a relatively select group means that they can "turn the volume" up or down as required and everyone gets the benefit
I train with everybody at whatever pace they set, often a little below it, disabled or a beast or a low aggression newbie... I don't think its right to force people to train at what I consider my pace. That means training above my comfort zone when needed too. A spar has to be a mutually beneficial exchange or isn't worth it for me.
I totally agree and I think too many people place too much emphasis on sparring and see it as the be all and end all. I saw an interview with boxer Nigel Benn last week. He said he never sparred that much and all he wanted out of it was distance and timing. He never did to bad without regular sparring.
Benn would often eschew bag work latterly becuse he used to say "if I can't hit hard now there's a problem"
