Blind confidence - Judo article

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1

Is there no Judo tag?

Exerpted:

[size=4]Blind confidence
Paralympic champ’s visit gives a lift to new Blind Judo Foundation

Condensation fogged the storefront window of Cahill’s Judo Academy in San Bruno, and the air inside was warm and close as about 25 athletes practiced hip throws, foot sweeps and falling techniques on a long, narrow mat.

In the back of the room, renowned coach Willy Cahill instructed 20-year- old Lori Pierce while she was modifying a hip throw. She set up the throw several times, stopping at the last moment before actually throwing her workout partner, Mike Alperin, a 200-pound green belt. At one point the 69- year-old Cahill stepped in and placed the palms of his thick hands on her face and gently adjusted the tilt of her head.

“There,” he said. “Can you tell the difference?”

She nodded and resumed the starting position. Then, with amazing speed, she spun into her partner, lifting him off the ground, over her shoulder and onto the mat with a thud.

“Yes!” Cahill said to Pierce, who broke into a broad smile. “Again!”

…
…

Peck said, “The foundation has good momentum, but what we need is board members. We’re looking for people who are interested in the blind and visually impaired and who want to be actively involved.” Ross said the students at California School for the Blind are eager to take judo classes if the details can be worked out. She said money would have to be found for staff time and weekly transportation to San Bruno. “We’re working on finding funding, but we’re not quite there yet,” she said.

She hopes money can be found because the kids would clearly benefit from it as they do from other sports, such as in-line skating, kayaking and rock climbing.

“It’s pretty amazing the things these kids do,” she said. “It’s also pretty amazing how much they are underestimated.”

Original article and pictures at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/15/PNGC4C5LL51.DTL

Wait, blind kids do kayaking and incline-skating? Uh…

2

Judo for blind people seems like a pretty cool idea. I don’t know how well they’d be able to fight, but the breakfall training would definetly help avoid the accidents that must occur when the blind try to rollerblade.

3

I don’t see this “incline skating” of yours catching on. Skating up hills != fun.

Blind judo makes more sense than a lot of blind stuff, since it’s relatively easy to feel your way through a throw.

4

forget blind judo, i want to see blind kyudo!

5

In comps that don’t break contact I can imagine a blind judoka actually doing quite well for themselves. It’ll still be a disadvantage, but not such an insurmountable one.

6

Seen it, pretty awesome.

Article wise, it is great to see the handicap doing MA. wish more would do it.
Grappling arts are, in many ways, ideal for the physically challenged.

7

In my first judo tournament, first match:

I lost to a blind guy.

Whattaya want…I was like 12 and so nervous I froze! It was so embarrasing!

Not joke. He threw me for ippon in about 10 seconds.

8

Didn’t see it coming did you?

9

groan

Incidentally, I am legally blind myself (20/450), so I guess it’s not so bad. It’s why judo was the only sport I was good at. Nobody realized my vision was that bad until I was 12, so my hand/eye coordination was 5 years behind my age group my whole life. It made baseball, and basketball absolutely impossible. But it turns out I wasn’t klutzy…I was blind!

Took about 2 years for my coordination to improve after I got glasses.

10

Blind judo has been going on for a long while. In many competitions I’ve gone to I’ve seen blindguys fighting, even one of the brown belts at my dojo was beat by one.

In a sense they’re even better at Judo because they don’t look at their feet, and everything they do is by feeling, hearing, and technique; that’s how I was first taught to stop looking at my feet, they had us close our eyes and randori.

11

Yeah, we did that too, but there was always a smartass that decide that, this would be a good time to practise spinning hook kicks.

12

Answer may be obvious, but I want to make sure it is the same reason as mine, why don’t you want to look at your feet?

Can’t tell if this is a joke, though it is comign from a British guy.

13

It’s bad stance, you’re weight is going more forward, so you’re likely of getting thrown.

14

grumble Americans…

15

I fought a guy with a prothestic foot once. It felt like a club. I don’t think he was actually at to much of a disadvantage.

16

Did he beat you up for a while before you got enraged and pounded him into submission? (JACKSON! JACKSON! JACKSON!)

Heh, actually, if I lost an arm, I was just thinking of how I’d rather have it be replaced by a taser or one shot shotgun than just have a pincher or something.

17

Basically if I ever went blind I would continue grappling; I remember in highschool there were some really tough blind wrestlers; and since when wrestling a blind wrestler you had to stay in contact with them the whole match, no outside shots for example, any advantage sight may have given their opponent was greatly lessened.

18

There is a blind Judoka from Spain.He’s a 3rd dan I believe.Actually he might be higher ranked since I saw this arcticle on Tv years ago.But what I do remember is that he seemed to do quite we’ll for himself.Winning in tournaments against normal fighters.

19

Yes, blind judpkas and wrestlers are common and function under their own set of rules.

My attempts to get other disabilities recognised as being able to wrestle/grapple have not borne fruit.