Teaching Karate from a Wheelchair

[crushing]

The thread "Contemplating adding Tae Kwon Do along with Combat Hapkido" http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62039 started by gkygrl started to get into some of the issues of disabilities and the martial arts. After reading through the thread I immediately looked up information on a local martial arts guy Frank Thomas Sensei (not to be confused the baseball player).

I considered posting the following as a reply to that thread, and then I thought it deserved its own thread, then I just kind of dropped it altogether. Well, now I am very encouraged to post it as quite unexpectedly I had lunch with Thomas Sensei today as he joined my GM's regular Wednesday lunch. I wish I had the chance to talk to him more; perhaps he will come to more lunches. He is serious about martial arts and at the same time has a great attitude and wonderful sense of humor.

Here is some more information on Thomas Sensei: http://www.ymkkarate.com/bbelt/fthomas.html

And, from the same site his thesis on Teaching Karate from a Wheelchair. http://www.ymkkarate.com/senseithomas/teaching_karate_from_a_wheelchair.pdf

Even though the thesis has a focus on Karate, much of the information contained in it can be applied across the martial arts.

 

[IcemanSK]

There is also a gentleman who is with Combat Hapkido who teaches from his wheelchair. Forgive me, I don't recall his name.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

There is also a gentleman who is with Combat Hapkido who teaches from his wheelchair. Forgive me, I don't recall his name.

It is JR Shmidt.
Here is his Myspace page, which links to his Defense-Ability website:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=129036147