Hello everyone, I've read through the old threads on eyeglasses and they're pretty old, so I wanted to resurrect the subject for my own sake as well as anyone else. I'm very farsighted and have astigmatism, and the idea of putting things onto my eyeball just creeps me out, so I'd really like to find a way to obtain prescription eyewear that would work in a high-contact situation. I just started studying two months ago, but watching the most senior students prepare for their next tests has me worried a bit about all of this. I am very farsighted, so without my glasses, a person at close combat range (think Wing Chun) is blurry. I also trip on things in an unfamiliar setting without my glasses (which I normally wear all the time). I want to stick with eyewear, so I'd appreciate any ideas or comments from folks to still use glasses and train in the martial arts. Thanks!
If you're not willing to wear contacts the only thing I can think of are training goggles although they don't seem the best thing to wear for full contact sparring. If you won't put things in your eyes you're going to have something in front of your eyes (glasses, goggles, whatever) that will get probably get driven into you when you take a hit
im nearsighted so it gives me an advantage when sparring, up close I see quite well. I understand about putting things in yer eyes, i wore contact for about ten years then stopped because they are a pain with glasses ya just slip them on easy when you need em. and the cleaning is easier too. I just carry them and slip them on when i need them.
I'd say give contact lenses a go. I never fancied putting my fingers in my eyes, but since I went over I've not looked back. I wear the monthly continuous type, and they're pretty thick, so it doesn't even feel that much like you're putting your fingers in anyway. Initially I tried the daily ones as an occasional thing, but they're so thin it was a major pain. For martial arts, one thing I will say is you don't realise how poor your peripheral vision is when you wear glasses.
Nope. Goggles of any sort willl cut and bruise your face and damage gloves at anything greater than the lightest contact. You're pretty much stuck with contact lenses or nothing for any kind of reasonable well rounded sparring.
I find it hard to believe that they don't make something that can be used in this situation, but that's why I asked. I'm farsighted, so in a real fight, I'm not too worried about it because I can still hit my target. My concern is when doing drills I want to avoid hitting my partner too hard. It's hard to pull a punch when you can't quite see where your partner's face is. Fortunately, I don't have any trouble HITTING anything without my glasses. I only have trouble intentionally missing. I know it is my partner's responsibility to block the punch, but I'd still feel pretty badly about it if I fractured someone's jaw because I couldn't quite judge the distance without my glasses and my partner was distracted just long enough for the punch to slip past his or her defenses.
Its a market opportunity if you can think of anything but its a hard problem to solve without having something on your face to hold the lense that can then cause damage to your face, or your opponent, when it gets hit. If you're worried about your partners' your only real option would be to give contacts a go. I was worried about trying them at first but they really are perfectly safe to wear and you don't notice them at all, only reason I don't wear them now is my eyes are really sensitive making putting them in without blinking like mad incredibly hard.
Osu, I am wearing sports wrap goggles in rubber with polycarbonate lenses & an elastic band to hold them in place. similar to these: osu!
Nobody likes the *idea* of contact lenses - it is fundementally a bit icky - but if you can get over that first hurdle, they are a fantastic solution for the visually-challenged martial artist.
Or you could just wear your glasses. I always wear mine when I train, I get thrown and block punches and everything. Sometimes they get slapped off of my face and bounce around the floor for a bit though. Are you really taking a lot of straight punches to the face when you drill? If your partner is supposed to pull the punch before caving your nose in then you should be all right.
Trust me, if you're sparring with enough contact to be worth much, your glasses are going to get wrecked and probably damage your face. Crossfaces, pretty much any punch or kick, most chokes... yeah, I wouldn't think of rolling or sparring with my glasses on. If you're never touching or working with resistance your glasses should be okay, but you aren't going to be learning much but cool ninja poses.
If it's possible for you, consider laser eye surgery. Cost me about 3k about 10 years ago, really worked like magic. (It was for shortsightedness though). No ill effects. I would never had restarted TKD had I still been on glasses/lenses. Incidentally, soft contact lenses are really pretty good. Once you get used to it, there's no ickness in putting them in ... the white of your eye is not sensitive in the same way your pupil is, so you just mostly just dap them in on the white of the eye whilst looking at the ceiling. There's no discomfort, & you do forget you have them in - if you've not tried them, you might find it easaier than you'd thought. Mind you, if you wear lenses too long or fail on the hygiene side of it, or just have extreme bad luck, you eventually get problems. Hence laser surgery if you can get it, particularly if you have a high prescription. Mine for short sight was -8 something in one eye & -4 or -6 in the other, after surgery, -0 point something in both eyes.
Contacts are the way to go. A couple of things to be aware of with laser eye surgery are a) that the worse your prescription is the more chance you have of complications arising and b) the less chance there is of them being able to fully correct your prescription.
Just bite the bullet and get contacts. I hated the idea as well but pushed through and getting used to them was one of the best things I've ever done. I've had three boxing matches now which I would never have been able to do without them due to my vision. They're great in a variety of situations where glasses can be a nuisance as well, theme parks, nights out, beaches etc
I use 30 day contacts, stick them in an leave them for 30 days (sleep with them in too). Never had a problem with them and they have never fallen out during training. They're ideal if your not a fan of putting lenses in and out each day.
Second this. I had mine flapped and zapped about 10 years ago and it was one of the greatest things I've ever done. Going through the surgery was actually less aggro than me trying to put my own contacts in. The only thing is you'll probably need at least one month off training while they heal up. For high contact MA I'd probably force myself to take two months off.
