I know it sounds really patronising, but I always think it really good when someone with a disability is so determined. The courage is must take makes me feel so weak minded it’s unbelievable. But with the right determination it doesn’t matter IMHO - some of the best blues guitar music is by blind musicians, hell I can’t play with my eyes open compared to that!
As for the Vietnam vet, well that guy’s got to be brave to start with, he’s been through a war!
As for the topic, it’s not where you get to, it’s how far you travel.
I’m glad this topic hasn’t been spammed or trolled, although I suppose Ralek’ll be along soon to tell us how his shrapnel wound is superior.
I appreciate that, but it’s nothing really. I don’t consider myself to have any courage at all. I never looked at going into the martial arts as some quest to prove my worth. I just wanted to join because I love the martial arts like everyone else.
i dunno . .. if i were crippled i wouldnt want to fight from a wheel chair. not exclusively anyway what if you get knocked out of it?
seems like you’d be pretty much fu cked then.
but i did see this old kung fu flick called crippled masters. and this one dude who couldnt walk on his legs walked on his hands with his legs folded and up behind him. this dude had huge shoulders and i don’t see how they could have faked it. at one point he tripped some guy up with his hands and the grabbed ahold of one of his crippled legs and choked his opponent with it.
i know it was a movie but it was still cool as fu ck. i think i’d try and learn to walk on my hands if i ever got crippled. if i couldnt do that i’d learn how to turn my wheelchair into a weapon along with good hand skills.
I have friend who has been the inspiration for much of my training, and started me on the road to gung fu.
He has severe agoraphobia, ans well as severe irritable bowel syndrome. Which has put him on a disabled pension.
He is the most absolute kick ass martial artist I have ever met, not so much with empty hand, but with just about any weapon.
The fact that he can’t go to classes anymore, and can in fact bareley leave his home has hardly effected his commitment to training, except when he is so sick as to be confined to bed.
If someone told him he had to fight in a special disabled category, he’d be really insulted. Despite the fact that one good blow to the stomach would put him out of action for nearly a week.
My point is, that if you are going to create a disabled category, then how do you define “disabled”, and then how do you determine whether or not that person ‘has’ to fight in that division.
There is big discussion in social anthropology today about how to categorise “disability” and whether it is a valid way to categorise in the first place.
Why not simply allow competitiors to enter in the events just as anyone else, and only exclude them if their participation poses a condiserable risk to themselves or their opponent (outside of the obvious risks involved in fighting).
Nunchaku, you really have to get over the whole ‘fighting girls’ thing. Really. And very cool that folks in your kwoon spar full-on with you, that’s the only way you can stretch yourself.
Disabled martial artists: well, obviously, their disability limits them in certain ways, and they would have to develop skills to compensate for whatever limitation. That could make them pretty dangerous.
It comes down to the skill of the practicioner, I suppose. I mean, unless you’re that “human caterpillar” guy (born with no arms or legs), you have the potential of being an excellent martial artist if you apply yourself consistently.
I did a little online searching, and found a bunch of stuff about a woman named Lydia Zidjel of the Netherlands. She’s in a wheelchair and has blackbelts in karate and aikido. I found this pic:
What is your problem, GunnedDownAtrocity. You think I’m a liar or something? TKD not a good martial art? Woman not able to do it? Just what are you getting at?
Anyway, JasBourne, I don’t think I need to get over it. I don’t even have a strong position on the subject. All I did was make the topic so people could talk about it.
GunnedDownAtrocity, you are not disabled so you don’t know what you would do. I have never gotten knocked out of my wheelchair in full contact sparring and I have never heard of anyone who has either. And you have no idea what people are capable of knocked out of their wheelchair. I know that if for whatever reason I was not in my wheelchair that I am still very capable. I might look stupid walking around on my knees, but I could and I’d have enough balance to hit hard.
“What is your problem, GunnedDownAtrocity. You think I’m a liar or something?”
now that you mention it … yeah i do.
"TKD not a good martial art? "
i see good tkd artists like i do good christians. they are few and far inbetween and don’t really make up for the rest of the useless wastes of space. in any case, that’s not what i was getting at.
“Woman not able to do it? Just what are you getting at?”
if anyone wanted to do martial arts from a wheel chair i can think of a hundred other arts that would be better suited than a style that is mostly kicks. and i thought the kicked but comment was funny too considering.
“I might look stupid walking around on my knees”
now i’m convinced you are a troll, and a stupid one at that. if you are paralyzed you arent going to be walking on your knees. if you lost your lower legs, yet still had knees to walk around on, you would likely get decent prothstetics so you wouldn’t have to do ma’s from a wheelchair. christ there is a olympic runner on prothstetics and we have a jeff.
i’m all for people with whatever disability continuing, or even starting, mas. i also believe if they learn to adapt what they are learning to suit them better, they can go as far as anyone else with it. actually, that should be the goal for anyone. sounds to me like this is what jeff has done. he doesn’t sound limited at all.
the diferance beteen you and him is i actually believe him.
I am sorry, but you are the biggest fool. You know nothing.
I am not paralyzed, and both my legs are intact. If you must know, my disability is Osteogenesis Imperfecta. You moron insulting me and being so quick to judge. Oh yeah, being paralysed or having no legs are the only reason to be in a wheelchair. You are a fool.
As for being a liar, I can’t prove to you I am telling the truth, but you have no reason on the face of this earth not to believe me. And what in the world is wrong with me being in TKD? If you take out the kicks you are left with karate hand techniques. The reason I chose this school over any other karate school is that my brother went there for a year and the instructors are incredible and are of the most qualified around.
And the phrase “kick butt” is just a phrase. I kick butt as much as a race car flies down the track. I don’t even know why I’m explaining this because you obviously know that.
You are the one trolling. You call me a liar with no logical basis whatsoever. Then you pretend to know something about my disability when you know nothing at all. I demand an apology.
Thanks for the link, JasBourne. What I thought was funny about it were what it said under the three pictures if you put them together.
Dragonfire demonstrates getting out of double arm grab.
Dragonfire defends against attacker from behind.
Dragonfire uses bycicle as a shield for defense.
LYDIA ZIJDEL throws Dragonfire to the ground. lol
Anyway, sorry I had to get mad at that guy. I hope he didn’t ruin the topic.
