Advice please! Martial Arts for the visually impaired

[Nick_UKWC]

My girlfriend is visually impaired. Her disability doesn’t actually affect the clarity of what she sees, but causes what she sees to shake very slightly all the time. This can be very tiring on her and uncomfortable after a few hours of concentrating or using her eyes a lot. It also means she has no depth perception.

 

I think all sides of martial arts, physical mental and spiritual, would be of benefit to her and she’d quite like to start learning something. I’ve obviously recommend Wing Chun as I enjoy it so much and it also has quite an emphasis on touch sensitivity, something she could be good at without putting to much strain on her eyes. We’d really appreciate any feedback from anyone that can relate to this situation and offer some advice.

 

Thanks a lot

 

Nick

[P.A.L]

if falling doesn't hurt her eyes ,think about Aikido.

[White Warlock]

Those with visual disabilities benefit greatly from sensitivity drills. Wing chun offers this in large quantities for stand-up. However, i've found wrestling and bjj to be prime for the visually impaired.

 

Someone with visibility issues cannot afford to 'spar.' She needs to go for complete and utter dominance as soon as an assault is committed by her, or against her.

 

If she's going to be studying wing chun, have her watch the techniques, but perform them with her eyes closed. It may be that she has become dependent on her eyes too much, and with a disability such as hers, this could be fatal in an actual confrontation. She needs her eyes only to deal with the initial assault. From then on, she needs to close her eyes and feel the way.

[delta1]

Wing Chun is what immediately came to my mind. And, since you already do it, it would be even better for her to have someone who understands to work out with. Grappling systems might also be good. The best would probably be Taiji, but not the healthpeace and light- crap usually taught. White Warlock was right (we allways are- little insider joke there ), she'd probably do best with an art that has a heavy sensitivity focus.

[Shane]

I think that either a form of Jujitsu or Judo would be good for her. I have a friend who's a Judo black belt and he comes in to work with our Jujitsu class sometimes well I found out awhile back that his Instructor is almost completely blind. Judo works a lot off of grabs and holds so that would be a major bonus right there. Jujitsu in my opinion would also be good for her depending on the school.

[Reklats]

Definately give some type of grappling a try. Something like bjj would be practical, and minimize excessive mat impact. Plus good eyesight is just about the last thing you need.

[jONN13]

In San Diego the Judo Nationals was not to long ago.

 

Anywayz there was a woman who was blind competing.

 

Being the nationals and all I was totaly impressed!

[dingyuan]

Consider little abot Tai Chi.

[ncole_91]

I think she should go for it...

[iolair]

Her disability doesn’t actually affect the clarity of what she sees, but causes what she sees to shake very slightly all the time.

Albino?

 

Anyway, I used to do Judo as a teenager with a partially-sighted guy called Ian Rose, who did very well with it:

 

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/athens/IanRose.php

 

(I last practiced with him around 1988/9, but I see he won a Paralympic medal at Athens this year).

 

, so a grappling art like that where you can feel where your opponent is may be useful to consider.