MA and Visual Impairment

[TheOriginalName]

Hey all,

A few weeks back i had my normal 2 year eye test just to ensure everything is good and get minor corrections to my glasses if needed (and update the look naturally).

Anyway, this time i got some bad news. I'm going blind in one eye. I've been told about 10 years. Naturally i got a second opinion - confirmed (and yes, i got a third as well........not good news).

So after spending a couple of days feeling sorry for myself i decided i just needed to get on with life and see as much as i can for the moment!!

So my question is simple - does anyone know of people who have visual impairments doing martial arts??

I can see myself (yea alright - bad choice of words) continueing my BJJ easily. I'm not sure about my MMA and weapons training as i won't have depth perception anymore.

Anyway, i'm not looking for sympathy - i'm over that stage - just looking to find out if there are other poeple in a similar position.

Cheer

 

[arnisador]

You have a good attitdue! I wish you good luck.

We have a legally blind player where I study BJJ. You wouldn't know.

Judo has always been great for the blind, but with vision in one eye you have more options. I'm not sure I'd risk a retinal detachment in the good eye via MMA, personally. What do you want out of teh martial arts? Self-defense? A sport? A hobby? Exercise and weight loss? A cultural connection?

 

[Sukerkin]

That's nasty news, good sir .

If there is nothing to be done to halt or reverse the condition then the solace I can offer is that one of my fellow iaido practitioners only has one eye. It affects his forms a little but he's a newcomer and so that's only to be expected. Once he starts to work on his zanshin and metski I can see that only those forms calling for peripheral vision on his blind-side will require some adaptation.

 

[Brandon Fisher]

I am legally blind and I was born totally blind. I have studied karate and some kobudo for going on 24 years and though it can be difficult at times its very possible to do. If you have one good eye to work with at least one that can be corrected with glasses then you are much better off than I am as mine can only correct to about 20/60 or 20/70. I would not continue doing MMA as the risk of damage to your other eye is to great in my opinion. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime take a look at this video: http://www.mogulsinc.com/Channel6cframe.htm

 

[bowser666]

I just wanted to mention that I admire your enduring spirit and that you won't let something like this get in your way. Great quality!

 

[MJS]

Hey all,

A few weeks back i had my normal 2 year eye test just to ensure everything is good and get minor corrections to my glasses if needed (and update the look naturally).

Anyway, this time i got some bad news. I'm going blind in one eye. I've been told about 10 years. Naturally i got a second opinion - confirmed (and yes, i got a third as well........not good news).

So after spending a couple of days feeling sorry for myself i decided i just needed to get on with life and see as much as i can for the moment!!

So my question is simple - does anyone know of people who have visual impairments doing martial arts??

I can see myself (yea alright - bad choice of words) continueing my BJJ easily. I'm not sure about my MMA and weapons training as i won't have depth perception anymore.

Anyway, i'm not looking for sympathy - i'm over that stage - just looking to find out if there are other poeple in a similar position.

Cheer

Well, first off, I'm sorry to hear about this. As for knowing someone who has eye problems...yes, I do know of someone. He is one of the head gentlemen in my Arnis organization. Yet, watch him do stick and knife work and if didn't know him, you would never know of the condition. Now, I don't know if its always been like this, or if his sense of touch has improved, but once he lays hands on you...again, he's on you like glue, can feel your movement and you'd never know about his eyes.

Keep training and don't let this get you down.

Mike

 

[TheOriginalName]

Thanks for the responses people - lift my spirits to know that there are other people out there in worse positions than me who are still training, gives me plenty of hope.

And thanks for the encouragement. Naturally i have my up and my down days - the thing is that feeling sorry for yourself does nothing exept make you feel worse. So may as well get up and do something (at least that's what i've learnt from life so far). Plus it could be worse - i could be blind in both eyes, i could go blind and deaf or a heap of other things that is far worse than going blind in one eye....... but i will miss being able to drive.

For the moment i'm going to focus on my mma and weapons training - get as far as i can with them whilst i can still judge distance. Then when things get bad i'll move my focus to BJJ whilst maintaining my other basics.

Again thanks one and all.....

 

[Sukerkin]

Just another data point in the optimism column. The chap I mentioned who does iai with me is also a karateka and reckons that you learn to compensate for the lack of binocular vision pretty well. Given that he also drives a car and doesn't crash I'd say he wasn't fooling himself :rei:.

 

[Drac]

My Instructor Father Greek is blind in one eye and that NEVER stopped him from training....

 

[Guardian]

Hey all,

A few weeks back i had my normal 2 year eye test just to ensure everything is good and get minor corrections to my glasses if needed (and update the look naturally).

Anyway, this time i got some bad news. I'm going blind in one eye. I've been told about 10 years. Naturally i got a second opinion - confirmed (and yes, i got a third as well........not good news).

So after spending a couple of days feeling sorry for myself i decided i just needed to get on with life and see as much as i can for the moment!!

So my question is simple - does anyone know of people who have visual impairments doing martial arts??

I can see myself (yea alright - bad choice of words) continueing my BJJ easily. I'm not sure about my MMA and weapons training as i won't have depth perception anymore.

Anyway, i'm not looking for sympathy - i'm over that stage - just looking to find out if there are other poeple in a similar position.

Cheer

Not in the same position, but remember my friend, 10 years is a long time and advancements in technology are coming out every year. Keep the faith.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Not in the same position, but remember my friend, 10 years is a long time and advancements in technology are coming out every year. Keep the faith.

TheOriginalName,

He's very much right. Huge changes in science happen. They may be able to complely correct your problem by the 10 year period.

But... presume they won't. That way you can go ahead with your life and not let it interfear.

Personaly, I see no reason for you to quit the martial arts. Protect the good eye, yes, quit, no....nor only no but heck no!

You might want to adjust your strategy now as to how you would fight with just one eye. I'm sure there are 'blind spots' (sorry but you really will have those) and you will have to adapt your methods to cover those.

Adapt and overcome! When you really think about it, that is the 'Do', the way, of martial arts.

Deaf

 

[chinto]

Hey all,

A few weeks back i had my normal 2 year eye test just to ensure everything is good and get minor corrections to my glasses if needed (and update the look naturally).

Anyway, this time i got some bad news. I'm going blind in one eye. I've been told about 10 years. Naturally i got a second opinion - confirmed (and yes, i got a third as well........not good news).

So after spending a couple of days feeling sorry for myself i decided i just needed to get on with life and see as much as i can for the moment!!

So my question is simple - does anyone know of people who have visual impairments doing martial arts??

I can see myself (yea alright - bad choice of words) continueing my BJJ easily. I'm not sure about my MMA and weapons training as i won't have depth perception anymore.

Anyway, i'm not looking for sympathy - i'm over that stage - just looking to find out if there are other poeple in a similar position.

Cheer

yes and my impairment means that I do not have any true depth perception as well.. makes sparring harder then for some one who does have binocular vision... weapons are about the same i think.. ( i never in my life had binocular vision.)
I study both unarmed and weapons combat..
I do agree I would consult a good physician and optometrists about weather MMA is something you may want to change to some other kind of art to protect the eye or not.

 

[ChingChuan]

I've been blind in my right eye since I was 8 months old (because of congenital cataract or something, I don't know the exact word in English), so I don't have any depth perception at all.

Sparring does get a little bit more difficult, especially because my range of sight is impaired (I can't see attacks coming from the right) and because I don't know the distance between me and the fist/kick/whatever. This means that I often respond a bit too late - still in time before it hits me, but just too late. This is because objects coming at me (fists but also tennis balls etc) tend to 'disappear' and then 'reappear' - apparently, my brains can't keep up with the speed or something. So, sometimes, you'll also be faster than your brain can handle (which is really annoying) but you'll get used to it...
Fortunately, it doesn't really matter (though it's still annoying in techniques where you need to grab a leg on a certain spot). However, I think you can easily continue MMA, as long as you keep training your reflexes & speed. Reflexes are really important, as you might not see a punch coming at you, but you can still feel it and respond instinctively.
Also, never forget to tell your training partners! As they can see in 3d, they can often spot things you do incorrect (like responding too late, hitting the wrong spot etc.etc.)

You also might develop trouble with 'mimicking what the teacher does', eg. he teaches a new technique by demonstrating it first and then having you do it on someone. It took a long time for me to correctly observe what he was doing, his position etc - in 2D vision it's apparently harder to guess the position of limbs etc. However, after 2 years of martial arts training, I'm getting used to it and the problem now only occurs with techniques that are really advanced. Your training partners can also help you with this - as they can see the correct execution of the technique, it's no trouble for them to correct you etc.
The only way to overcome this problem is to practise it .

I don't think you will have any problems with weapons training if you don't have them with unarmed work... Of course, you'll need to be careful, so don't go fencing without a mask on or something, but weapons training doesn't really differ from unarmed training, does it? I've trained with sai and with a long stick and never encountered problems (apart from observing how it was done).
I also train iaido and jodo (bokken and jo).
In jodo I've encountered a 'real problem', also related to depth perception. In the 1st kata, there is this 'circle blow' (someone attacks you, you evade and hit him on the wrist with a circling movement). The problem is, I can't see whether the jo will strike the attacker's head (which isn't right) before it hits his wrist. But I think that will resolve itself with a lot of practise.
In Iaido, it's a bit hard to look like you've got zanshin when one eye looks in the wrong direction (the bind eye tends to be a bit cross eyed, even though it has been surgically corrected twice) but I don't think that's a real problem... It looks a bit weird, yes, but I can't do anything about it.

So... I don't think you should worry about martial arts training when you've lost an eye... It certainly makes things a bit harder, but if you are willing to continue training and practise hard, you'll surely overcome all problems that arise...

 

[jlhummel]

As bad as you might think this is it is not the end of the world. I was legally blind until I was 3 (very badly crossed eyed and 80% blind in left eye) I had surgery and got 90% of my eye site in my right eye and see well enough to pass my drivers license eye test with out glasses by my 20th birthday. I still cannot see out of my left eye. I have some periferral vision in it but if I lose my right eye I would or could never read or drive using my left. I just want you to know it has never stopped me from martial arts or any sport. Im not the best at baseball or softball player, high flys are hard to catch but otherwise i am one of the best hitters on my softball team. I was a all state football player in high school in michigan and I was a state champion wrestler and a college wrestler in michigan as well. I have been in martial arts since I was in 5th grade Judo, Karate, wrestling, modern Farang Mu Sul. like I said this is not the end of martial arts for u. Just need to change your perspective is all

John

 

[Josh Oakley]

Two things I've doing with my students:
1) Student is totally blind in one eye because he has no iris. I train him just like I train other students, but we spend more one-on-one time together to ensure his moves are correct.

2) Students needing glasses I make train in kata, sparring, etc. with their glasses OFF. Two reasons: If they get in a fight, they can't guanantee their glasses staying on, and I also get student after student saying their vision improved!

I'm no optometrist, however. I don't even have bad eyes. This is just what I have noticed to work well for my students.

 

[jim777]

I lost my left eye to cancer when I was 2, and it hasn't bothered me. I don't know how your transistion will be, but simply having one sighted eye isn't that big a deal honestly. It's actually pretty convenient sometimes for ignoring people :lol:

 

[Kacey]

A friend of mine - another middle school teacher - has been losing the sight in his left eye for a couple of years (a problem that - no matter what they tried - couldn't be controlled; the surface of his eye has gone white), and there was some concern that he might lose the sight in his right eye as well, although they seem to have stabilized that one. He's a softball coach at one of the high schools in my district - it annoys him, because he has to move his head around a lot to see everything, and he has no depth perception - but drawing on his past experiences and being able to just distance by relative sizes, he hasn't had any particular problems he couldn't overcome, even as a softball coach. So if his experience is any guide - you should be just fine after you've adjusted, and since it sounds like it's a gradual progression, you should adjust well. I'm sorry this is happening to you - with any luck, they'll find a successful treatment before your sight is gone, and stop (or better yet, reverse) the problem.

 

[jim777]

Loss of depth perception isn't an automatic thing though with partial blindness, though it can be a problem for some. I have two motorcycles and ride them regularly, and you couldn't do that without depth perception.

 

[ChingChuan]

Well, the thing with depth perception is - there are quite some ways for you to perceive depth with only one eye - but for certain occasions, you really need two eyes. This is, for instance, when you need to catch a moving object, or when you need to guess the distance between two very similar objects (staircases anyone?). However, I still have some sense of 3D because there are also cues in my surroundings, like the size of objects (smaller objects are farther away than bigger ones) etc. etc. etc. So, you'll never completely lose your depth perception, but it will be different (or so I am told - I don't know the difference between 2d and 3d vision).

And, well, I think that the best way to cope with this problem is not to worry too much... Everyone is different, perhaps your brains can cope with the change very well etc, so there's no other way than just finding out and trying what you can still do and eventually improving the areas that are more difficult for you.

 

[chinto]

Loss of depth perception isn't an automatic thing though with partial blindness, though it can be a problem for some. I have two motorcycles and ride them regularly, and you couldn't do that without depth perception.

actually you can. you can do it with size and shadow and such. I have ridden motorcycles and by definition I CAN NOT HAVE true depth perception!!! you have to have binocular vision to have true depth perception! if you doubt this please contact your local optometrists or optomallegorist and ask them.