DMA Check In

Name
Joshua Powell

Style
Kuk Sool Won

About Me
I'm a second degree black belt in this martial art. I live in Centennial Colorado in the USA. I was born with a dissability called cerebral palsy, and I have had to have several sessions of physical therapy, and a couple of surgeries to get me to where I am now. When you do talk to me try to be as simple as you can...I don't understand what people talk about most of the time, my comprehension is good which is why it took me about 13 years to get my second degree. I am almost entirely blind in my left eye so I will need to get something to help me see to continue with Kuk Sool. I hope to get to know alot of you soon so PM me

 

Spinal degeneration and stenosis

Name
Alan

Style
Hapkido/TaeKwondo

Degenerative Disk Disease of Cervical Spine, spinal stenosis and eventual Myelopathy. Had three C-spine operations, two anterior fusions, Then a four level expansive Laminectomy ( C4-C7 ). Read about it if you want.

speed bag for rehabilitation

No more grappling, throwing or sparring head contact. That's OK, I'd rather be able to move from the neck down....

To ALL friends on DMA, It matters not if our joints, senses or appendages are altered. It matters not if your emotions and Psyche are altered. To our agoraphobic, depressed and anxious friends, be strong.

I think a MARTIAL ARTIST is born of the HEART, and if you believe in your chosen MA, its philosophies, principles and positive affects - and if you practice them to the very best of you ability, or disability as the case may be,
then you ARE a Martial Artist. Do not judge that fact by the ability of others, who may have little insight into the life you live. Go Placidly...

As my master told me when My spine interfered with my own training, "If you can no longer be Hercules, Be Sophicles. The world needs both..."

And if you think you CAN'T hit the speed bag in a wheelchair,... guess again. speed baggin' from wheelchair

Peace & love and health to all DMA.

 

hahaha! God I love your disclaimer!

 

Name: Ben

Style: Aikido, Qigong

About me: Only just started Aikido and Qigong in the last couple of months but am now thoroughly hooked. I have no idea what "style" of Aikido or Qigong I do, though. I practice from kneeling and from my wheelchair, which I use daily for all things. My condition has only just finally been diagnosed today (aged 24!) as Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystophy which is incredibly rare (I'm only the 15th diagnosed case in the world).

 

Hi there Ben,

Welcome to the forum and to the mad world of Martial Arts.

How many years did it take to be diagnosed? Whos your Instructor and how did you find your instructor?

 

Welcome, your in the right place to ask questions. Enjoy your martial arts.

John Runer

 

My name is Christopher.

Martial Art Past:
I have a dominant history in Goju Ryu (as handed down through Toguchi), a general background in TKD, Jujutsu (as taught through GJR and TKD), American Karate, Kickboxing, JKD, Chinese Boxing, Taijiquan, and Qigong. I have been heavy into research for over a decade. I started in 1979.

About Me:
I have bursitis in my shoulders. I have a bad knee. Two weak ankles (from stomping ing GJR for years - on the concrete!). I have a cataract which is caused by a rare inflammation, so doctors either avoid wanting to take it off, or I get to be a guinea pig, or I get offers from gung-ho young kid doctors who want to prove themselves.

As A Result:
I have developed my own style since many of the others tend to insight pain in my shoulders due to repititious (and sometimes useless) movements.

I practice and teach (privately to family mostly, and close friends). Someday I hope to go public and promote it online. I used mostly knees and elbows (muau thai), along with jujutsu takedowns, open hand strikes, and low kicks. It is called Shogerijutsu Naibu Karate-Do. It is a very loose, relaxed way of doing things. It combines both external and internal methods of fighting. It works for me, and I suppose that is what counts.



Those are my thoughts for the moment.

 

Greetings

Greetings. My name is Paul. I have a mild form of fool CP. It only affects my legs. I do not use a chair, but do have balance issues and cannot kick. I am 36 years old. I have been a MA enthusiast since the first time I saw Kung Fu on television as a kid. I am a first degree black belt in Shaolin Do kung fu. I've been studying for 12 years. My instructors changed all of the kicks in our material to knees or elbows. This helped my balance issues as well since most knee or elbow strikes are thrown while holding on to your opponent. I am currently learning more grappling. This is because I am basically a striker trapped in a grapplers body. I work at an adult day program operated by ResCare. In addition to direct care, I am also the fitness and MA instructor. The next step for me is to compete in some semi-pro grappling tournaments, and move on to full contact MMA competition. I have a great deal of light to medium contact tournament experience, so that seems to be the next logical step. I've been told I have fast hands, and better than average upper body strength. I suppose the ring is the best place to find out if I do or not. I am curious. How hard do you guys spar? In my 12 years of training I have received a broken nose, been knocked out, and had more split lips and bruises than I can count. IMO it is better to get knocked on your butt in class and get helped up by a friend, than for the first real hit you take to be from Bubba the mugger. I feel this is especially true for anyone with a disability since we give the appearance of a very easy target. Anyway this is me saying hello to all. Peace, love and happy training.

 

Welcome Bentmonk, fantastic to have you here. How did you find us out of interest?

I look forward to hearing more from you

 

Happy To Be Here

Hi Melanie. A good friend of mine sent me a link to this forum. I am very happy to have found you guys. I look forward to many good discussions and new friendships.

 

hi all, i am french and i am 32 years old. i am paraplegic in wheelchair since 15 years after motorbike crash (spinal cord injury paralyzed in both legs).i practice martial arts since 20 years, i ve never stop training it's a passion and a life style since the begining. my style is taekwondo and hapkido so i study and adapt lot of differents styles (karate, aikido, kobudo, self defence......). I m very happy to have found this forum. thank you all.

 

Hi
Name: Andy

Style: Nothing yet - trying to find something suitable.

Previous styles: Heaven & Thunder Fist Kung Fu, Tai Chi

Disabilities: Mainly lower back and orthopaedic right leg. Leg is a bit shorter than left due to what's believed to be an unseen dislocated hip at birth (which kind of messed the whole leg up) femur is a bit rotated (although nothing like the 45 degrees it was a few years back) patella likes to wander off, and there's a permanent fracture of the right fib.
Other stuff is related -shoulders are a bit screwed from using crutches for a couple of years at a time (more than once!)
Injured my low back about 17 years ago and it hasn't been right since.
Lower back is rough at the minute, so is my neck due to a car smack abour 6 months ago.

I'm looking to get back into the arts - I only did about a year or so of Kung Fu & Tai Chi, but enjoyed both. Stopped the Tai Chi because we went on to swords, and there wasn't enough room in the Dojo (getting jabbed in the back whilst running through a form is a bit disconcerting )
Kung Fu was ok til I kept messing my ankle up doing spinning kicks - didn't find out til later that my fib was still busted....
Based in Bedford, UK

 

Welcome Andy

Glad to have you onboard - seems you have been run through the mill a couple of times with the old injuries - pleased to hear you haven't been put off! Best of luck

 

Hi Andy -- you might try Tai Chi again ... but I'd avoid Chen style. Tai Chi can be easily adjusted to work with most of whatever is going on. I was very fortunate to find Master Ricky Leturia here in Oklahoma City. He taught at the VA Hospital for some time so he is familiar with adjusting his teaching to suit the needs of his students. Since Tai Chi has a long history of being a life long pursuite most well qualified masters are familiar with how to adjust your training.
http://www.kungfuokc.com/school_website_2.htm

Name
Bill (Yeah – it’s a 4 letter word)
Watch your mouth and I’ll try not to hit you with my Bible.

Style
Tai Chi Chuan – Wu Style , also interested in Qigong though mostly as it applies to Tai Chi and generally making my guts & joints feel better. With the possible exception of Immunosuppressant drugs, Tai Chi is probably the best thing that ever helped my medical issues. It’s what keeps me healthy.
Other things I do for fun
Hitting people with my Bible (Oh yeah -- I stopped that a while back)
Reading every thing in sight (especially the Bible I'm not going to hit you with), Church, (Yes, I'm one of those "Born again Christians"). Talking to hear my head rattle, Christian Apologetics (A new interest -- I claim no profound capability -- yet...), Music (I’m a nasty guitar player – with only a bit of work, you can tell the difference between me and a cat who’s tail was just stepped on), Working on my house, Making friends, and writing bad prose. (My poetry is worse by the way.) Oh – I left out running with scissors. I used to do distance running – until I developed a small but painful problem with one of the disks in my lower back – walking doesn’t hurt so I do that instead.

About me
In 1983 The U. S. Army decided it didn’t need an Artillery Officer that had Crone’s disease. (G’bye Captain, have a nice life doing something other than you’d planned!!!) They decided they may not be unable to provide me with the medications I needed (in order to stay out of the hospital) if they picked me up and sent me who-knows-where in the world. So the Department of Defense kicked me out and handed me to the Department of Veterans Affairs – who rated me as 30% disabled. You wouldn’t even think disabled if you saw me on the street – but I’m grateful to the VA for the free medical care and almost free drugs. The generosity of the American people (through the Department of Veterans Affairs) has kept me out of the poor house and able to torment the world with my verbiage. In more recent times I’ve had bone density problems … perhaps started by some of the medications they once put me on for years. Tai Chi seems to have slowed – perhaps reversed that as well.

After the Army, I taught public school for 14 years (Mathematics, Computer Science and Social Studies). (Those of you who think you have great courage – try that for a while.) During this time I was a teenage do nothing’s worst nightmare. (I once spent a year tricking a classroom full of video game addicts into learning something about programming by using the code for simple video games as examples and assignments. One of them got the first good grade he’d been given in years.) I have considerable experience teaching students with learning disabilities in the regular classroom. I wish I’d known how much Tai Chi can help your ability to focus – it would have been a huge help to some of my students at the time. (Anyone is welcome to pick my brain. Teaching of all kinds has much in common.)

Today I work for a company that publishes educational software. (It’s much more boring and predictable than teaching teenagers but pays the bills better.)

I love people – they’re the most interesting things God put on this planet. I welcome constructive criticism from those who do the same. (How else can I better myself? I’m so close to my own problems I can’t see them clearly.)

Hopefully you’ll discover that I’m especially fond of wickedly sharp-witted people who keep their sense of humor within easy reach. (I’ve been known to put a burr under their saddle and let them run.) I usually get along with everyone – even the ones that I DO hit with my Bible. This entire site seems to be full of people who are not afraid to think. It will be fun.

Faith and Laughter are the two best weapons against any kind of pain.

 

name

Jason Keaton

Style

Brazilian Jiujitsu, Boxing, muaythai, wrestling, judo, and some more traditional stuff.

I was born almost completely blind but as I got older my vission improved so it is not as bad now. Still pretty bad.

The cons is I cannot get a seeing eye dog. Dogs are totally sweet!


I am really psyched that there is a forum for disablled ma'ers. Pretty cool!


JK

 

hi all
i thought that i would introduce myself and here seemed to be the place to do it.

name
Melissa

style
Taekido

general info
im 18 and i have been doing taekido for a little over two years and enjoying it immenlsy. im visually impared and have been since birth, i have about half sight in my right eye and am almost blind in my left. the main problems that i run into when training is with depth perception. seeing the instructor becomes a little hard at times as well

well thats about it, any questions feel free to ask

catch ya later
Blinky

 

hi good people

Heres my intro-

In the past i've studied Tae-kwon-do,Ju-jitsu and Hap-ki-do.

Then at age of 28 my CNS started going haywire resulting in loss of blance,muscle control,memory and vision.

And if any-one can explain to me how to get font size larger as it appears to me
then i'll be realy gratefull.

Has anyone got any suggestions for methods of 'ki' generation-
i m currently atempting Dan-Jun breathing techniques and am curious about Systema.

Best wishes to all

 

hi sonj

increasing font size is suprisingly easy, if you are using a computer that runs windows then it can be done through the control panel. if not then there are programs that you can get that will enlarge the stuff on your computer screen. i use one called zoom text, a little old now but still does the job well

hope i helped

blinky

 

Hello fellow Martial Artists, Let Me discribe some of my shortcomings. First I have 5 herniated discs in my back, Diabetes, Heart Disease(5-way by-pass in 2005), Diabetic amyautrophy of the muscles(it just means my muscles just deteriate). In 1997, after 23 yrs of training every day in Martial Arts my legs started giving way on me due to Diabetes. I fell a multitude of times(ultimately ending up wearing braces). I no longer could train in Martial Arts. For 9 years I didn't train at all. Then a close friend of mine who trains in Ninjutsu and at the time Kenpo asked me to help him with his students. I once again tied my belt around my waist and started instructing again. At almost 50 years of age I was having a ball. Then one day before class started My 5th degree Black belt(trained in my Art of Tearai-Te-Ryu) asked if I would hold a kicking shield while he kicked. I had no idea with what power he would Kick. Needless to say he destroyed my left shoulder. my Gi now proudly hangs on the wall in my house where it will stay. I now am a Martial Artist of the mind. Anyone that's trained for years knows that battles are really won by the mind. To out think your opponent is the ultimate goal. I still am called on by friends to speak on the mind of the Martial Artist occassionally.


Martial Artist Forever
Martin Howell

 

Welcome Martin

Martial arts is not jsut the physical act - heres hoping we can all remain martial artists for years to come

Look forward to learning more about you