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

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 ::
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*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

 

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

 

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

 

The weirdest thing I have found is everyone I have ever sparred with underestimates me, and tries to go gentle untill I finally get ****ed 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"

 

you have my respect, lol.

 

well thanks

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.