Training for the disabled

My sensei is working on a training program for the disabled. I have put some sample videos on my website here: http://www.warriorpages.com/videos/handi-capablekarate/index.html.

I thought it would be a huge success, but it hasn't taken off like I would have thought. Any ideas on how it could be improved? Thanks.

 

The one thing that comes to mind is to visit a VA center and speak to a director .Ask them about any options there are to help some vets with this . I live in a town with a VA senior center and they are very aproachable more than you would think. Other than this i cant think of any more options that i may be able to give you advice about.

 

I've seen disabled martial artists do some awesome things, which is why I thought this was such a good idea.

 

Great ideas. Also, you can get ahold of the VocRehab for the V.A. and the state you are in. I was a personal trainer at one time. I had the patrons of the Institute for the Deaf, also folks that were using the gym for strengthening. You may want to talk to brain injury centers for some guidance as well.

 

That's a fantastic idea.
Seems well done too.
Shame it's not doing as well as you'd hoped but we are in a recession and that's a fairly niche market.
Good luck with it as that is the sort of initiative that should succeed.

 

Good idea and best of luck. Here are some comments, please take them in the spirit they're intended because i think people of disability have as much right as anyone else to good quality martial arts teachers and training.

First, who came up with the 'handi-capable' title? Here in the uk any reference to 'handicapped' as a way of referencing disabled people is definitely a no-no (given its origin) and might be putting (politicised) disabled people off?

I haven't seen all the video, are there people with other disabilities (audio/visual impairment etc) on it?

This one might be the most obvious, but do karate blocking techniques simply tranferred to a sitting position (this is how it appears on the video) really still work effectively? EG doesn't the wobble of the wheelchair reduce power, control and effectivness? Wouldn't you really have to look more carefully at the dynamics of the technique in that particular situation, and possibly how wheelchairs could be modified (like they have been with other wheelchair sports). I'm also thinking of how slow and uncontrolled the turns in the Kata performance appear in the video clip- more wheelchair modifications?

Are there Kata that might be more useful than others (i'm thinking maybe of Naifhanchi in Wado where lower body movement is deliberately restricted)?

What about other arts and what they can offer, even things like Sticky Hands/Push Hands, from the Internal arts, could be useful for training, even though not officially part of Karate (i find them very useful for developing sensitivity and holding/grappling skills)

Do you cover real self defense situations, and how to use available objects as weapons (including the wheelchair itself maybe?)

There is a tendancy amongst the able-bodied to patronise people with disability generally, and i expect this is the same in Martial Arts. I like to be as straight as i can and hope you find these comments useful.

 

Thanks for all the great feedback. I will pass these along to my teacher.

 

This was a really great response, and I wanted to address each in turn.

Definitely taken in this spirit. You've given some excellent fuel for thought.

Not sure where the title came from. I'll definitely bring this to her attention as it can be such a volatile topic.

Not yet. There is a plan to expand this to other disabilities, but I think the lack of initial response has slowed those plans.

Perhaps over time we'll come up with ways to modify the techniques; however, I'm a firm believer that Karate blocks can be easily converted to joint locks & escapes (see here) which could be of use in a wheelchair.

The curriculum is base on the Shuri-Ryu curriculum which does include Naihanchi, but not until green belt. I agree, that could be a particularly good kata for being seated.

Good idea, but we'll probably have to rely on outside experts for some of this.

Not yet. Everything covered is basic, but Shuri-Ryu requires us to be able to fight standing, sitting, kneeling or lying down, so we do work fighting from a seated position, which should translate well.

Very useful. Thanks.

 

Seeing as we are discussing this I'll put in my two-penneth.

A kata that would be fantastic for wheel chair users would be Tensho (I've done it sat on the toilet more than once ).
It's all mainly upper body and has some very usable strikes.
The upward koken strike would be very practical on an attacker stood over a person in a wheel chair.

I'll second the recomendation for some sort of sensitivity exercise. Hubud for example. Much variation and great for redirecting grabs.
I know Iain Abernethy teaches a variation of hubud in his Karate so it doesn't have to be a purely filipino thing.

There's some great footage of a wheel chair user doing some cane combat so some sort of simple stick drills would be a great addition also. See some here...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgHjI7Mm8nw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgHjI7Mm8nw[/ame]

There's a wheel chair user that goes to my gym. His personal trainer gets him to do all sorts of padwork and punching combinations. That's be a good addition for health benefits as well as the obvious self defence aspects.