take downs for wheel chaired students??

Discussion in 'Disabled Martial Artists' started by arumseytkd, Feb 21, 2006.

  1. arumseytkd

    arumseytkd New Member

    Hey all how are you doing. I needs some ideas. I teach tae kwon do and in my class I have a student that disabled from the waste down, but she has full upper body movement. Now at the present time she can do four take downs. Two are the same movement with a variation of the technique. I'm trying to prep here for her next test hopefully in march. She is a red belt going for navy blue in our system. Keep in mind that in the class room light if no contact with her opponate with her wheel chair. Out on the street I could care less, but in the class for safty reasons. Also, the techniques are taught from if the attacker punches. The four techniques that she has, she can do on both sides. So any suggestions is appreciated.
     
  2. Earlyturtle

    Earlyturtle New Member

    "Keep in mind that in the class room light if no contact with her opponate with her wheel chair. "

    Hey there, I may not be able to help at all ideas wise, but please could you explain what you mean by this?Thanks :D
     
  3. Mjelva

    Mjelva Banned Banned

    Run them down!
     
  4. Sgt_Major

    Sgt_Major Ex Global Mod Supporter

    It means the student is not permitted to use the wheelchair as a 'weapon' in class.
     
  5. Earlyturtle

    Earlyturtle New Member

    Thanks for clearing that up. :)
     
  6. BentMonk

    BentMonk Valued Member

    No Contact?

    I think it is awesome that you are willing to adapt your art to someone with a disability. I am fortunate to have very innovative instructors as well. That being said I must ask you, do you offer your students with or without a disability to train with any degree of realism? I understand that there are safety and liability concerns for you and your school, but there is the possibility of injury in any athletic pursuit. IMO to practice solely with light or no contact is unrealistic. I know that rank advancement is important to most practitioners of MA. Attaining the rank of black belt was a primary goal for me when I began training. I have since realized that it is not the quantity of forms you memorize that is important. How well you execute the techniques that work for your ability level is what matters. My advice would be to think of the most probable ways your disabled student might be attacked, and design techniques that she can readily apply. Once that is done, focus on strength training, and drilling the techniques until they become reflex for her. Try and keep the amount of techniques as small as possible. The less there is to remember, the more automatic her responses will become when called upon to actually use what she has learned. If rank advancement is still an issue, increase the difficulty of the situations in which she is required to perform her techniques for each rank, rather than increasing the quantity of what she is required to memorize. One aspect of her training that I would be certain to train in depth is the inevitability of her having to fight on the ground away from her chair. In a perfect world no martial artist would ever be required to use what we know. Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world. It is my sincere hope that none of what I have said comes across as disrespectful or arrogant. That was certainly not my intention. Peace and happy training. :)
     
  7. rubberband

    rubberband Valued Member

    finger locks, wrist locks, learning to use the chair to assist in locks... leraning to cage up and guard the head and use elbow destructions... practice keeping chair aligned straight at opponent so it rolls away instead of getting knocked over... learn to fall out of chair... learn to fight from the ground and on the ground... I would recomend the student get a copy of the Systema video defense inside a car...

    take care, steve
     
  8. iHeretic

    iHeretic Not-for-Prophet

    My reply is restricted to my experience, which is in wheelchairs rather than martial arts because I haven't been doing the latter for very long while I've been doing the former for my whole life!

    Don't neglect to take into account the type of wheelchair she uses (different chairs will fall/tip differently); A powerchair will be fairly solid (but unweildy) and won't tip unless deliberately pushed, while a manual chair will run a very real risk of toppling backwards (especially if she is paraplegic, in which case balance may be an issue--but she will be able to tell you this).

    To somewhat contradict what rubberband said above, I use a lightweight streetchair (pic) and if I line up straight at my attacker then many pressed attacks will tip me straight over backwards. Neither do I meet the attack side-on if I can help it... a slightly oblique angle allows me to blend with the attack and direct its force away from me. It also allows my chair to react to the attack's energy almost on its own.

    However, a large part of my training is spent on the ground because I accept that my chair is unstable in the face of an attack and I will end up on the ground eventually.

    /b/
     
  9. arumseytkd

    arumseytkd New Member

    Thanks everyone for the info its been a great help. She is going to go for her test in March from Red to Navy Blue in our Tae Kwon Do system. Granted out on the street she will need to know how to fight from the gaurd position. This test she is not going to do that, but future test that me and another Master Instructor has agreed upon she may need to demonstrate from gaurd position. Thanks everyone
     
  10. iHeretic

    iHeretic Not-for-Prophet

    Let us know how it goes :)
     
  11. ats

    ats Valued Member

    hi

    i would really recommend asking the advice of Al Davison at Martial Hearts..
    he's easy enough to track down online by either searching for martialhearts or astral gypsy.
    Al has a wealth of experience and is a really approachable and charming fella.
    i'm sure he'd do his best to offer any advice he could.
    i think he also visits MAP, though i never thought to ask what his user name was (doh!)
    please wish your student the best of luck in the upcoming gradings..

    all the best

    andy
     

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