Martial Arts for the handicapped

[OzShen]

Hi, I just joined this site.

What I wish to ask is if Martial Arts can be used as a form of physiotherapy for people with disabilities?
I myself was born with mild cerebral palsy. Because of this, my spine is slightly curved and the tendons in my legs and right hand are shorter than usual, meaning that I can't sit on the ground or kick any higher than the knee level without losing my balance. So which form/style should I study?

Just want to know what everyone thinks. Secondly, have there been any accounts of people with conditions such as or similar to Cerebral Palsy who have trained at the Shaolin Temple?

Thanks in advance.

[Uwe]

Martial Arts for people with disabilities

OzShen,

while I do not have the same medical condition, I am instructing very often people with disabilities (physical and mental). Therefore, there is one thing, what is quite often misunderstood, not only by instructors, but also sometimes by the people with any of these conditions:

The frame of mind is often that the persons consider themselves handicapped.

THAT IS NOT TRUE!!!
You are not a handicapped person, but a person with a disability. While it may sounds like playing with the words, the fact is: Put the person first and the disability second, and the equation will change.
As for your particular issue, I don't see why not, provided the instructor understands this.

Like when you said that you can only kick so high. So what? Just because somebody can't kick at somebody elses head, that does not mean that he or she can't be a Shaolin fighter. It actually can become an advantage, because due to the disability, certain techniques are sometimes implemented differently, and so-called "normal people" get their rear wipped to kingdom come.


Don't let the disability stop you. Just make sure the instructors knows it. If they are for real and not just after the money, they will help you develop according to your capabilities. Thats the key for any student, disability or not. Everybody is different.


Uwe

[arhat]

right on...

...there are a few people who face such challenges who train with us- one gentleman had polio, and was crippled. After many years of hard training, he often enters the temple, bows, and shoves his crutches into the corner. HE CAN WALK. It is such an accomplishment. It's like watching Rocky.

Another new student just started, and I am not sure of his condition but it reminded me of an old room mate who had CP. In any case, he did what he could. He was learning gong bu. When I moved his body into the correct (as possible) position, straightened his arm and turned his hand, when I let go he fell over. He would only do 2 movements when he had room to do four. So I said if he could do 4 to do them, don't cheat yourself, and by the fourth move he was in a good position and not falling over. He never thought he could do it, but there he was.

The basic premise is you can only judge ability against yourself.

In my opinion training can only help.

[doc]

I've got a kid in my school that I teach every once in a while; he has CP. His right leg is not too controllable, so the whole concept of teaching him forms as they should be performed is just not going to happen. But, I concentrate on his upper body abilities, and sanda, and the things that he can do, and he loves it. He's never going to master these gong fu forms (then again, neither am I, lol), but he can improve greatly within his limitations. And, that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Is practicing martial arts advantageous to people with disabilities? Most definitely. The continued practice of trying to control limbs, maintain balance, stretching, etc, all has many health benefits, to all, regardless of initial health. Will it cure a disability? Well, that's a matter of perspective, and a matter of what exactly you decide to call a "cure". Will practicing martial arts return an individual with bad cerebral palsy to normal, normal as defined by someone in the general population without cerebral palsy? Most probably not. Will it improve his ability to use his affected limbs? To a degree, all depending upon how bad the palsy is.

Cerebral palsy is unfortunate. I'll write more about it later (this damn hospital concept is keeping me far too busy...lol). But, what I would suggest is the following: Start easy. Go slow. Take your time. You might want to start out with some basic qi gong training, which entails stretching, stances, and slow movements. It will help with your balance over time, and might also help stretch some of your shortened tendons, to some degree. As you start to feel improvement, then start working in some sort of gong fu. The problem is, if you try to start with a class of people who are doing gong fu, it might be difficult for you to keep up, and it might cause some discouragement. As Shi De Cheng always says, "You climb a mountain one step at a time".

Go slow. Take it easy. And do it. It will help.

doc

[shaolinstylee]

Great post doc.....

Do what you can and try to expand on it.....
Thats just how you have to go about many things, no matter the disposition...

[TJQstudent]

From what I've seen, Martial arts training can be healthy or unhealthy for people with disabilities,
this is up to the level of skill and understanding their instructor can offer. IMO no person should be forced into unnatural position before his qi flow can allow him to. My instructor is not a gung fu
instructor, but teaches yang style taijiquan and various daoist qi gong exercises. He is also an experienced
TCM therapist. Some of his patients where in a wheelchair when they started out with him, but the combination
of steadily treatment with acupuncture and training in qi gong exercises modified so they could do them even with their limited physical abilities actually led to them being free from the wheelchair. The patients/students I refer to had what people here call chronical tiredness syndrome, I do not remember the exact medical term.

Almost all chinese martial arts are built on the same ground as TCM(traditional chinese medicine), saying that any illness is actually a qi/energy imbalance, stagnation or deficiency. So while some people might be in a position that will not allow them to train gung fu or even taijiquan, the chinese tradition still offers aids so they in time might be able to exercise in these disciplines.

An instructor in Hung Gar once told me I would never be able to train successfully in Gung Fu because of my poor motorical capability(from my epilepsy) combined with my asthma. Then I was 13. Now 18, no longer epilleptic and having nearly average motorical skill, I'm more than ever convinced that this "instructor" did not comprehend the game wich he claims to master.

whoah, sorry that post got so lengthy.

[doc]

The patients/students I refer to had what people here call chronical tiredness syndrome, I do not remember the exact medical term.

It's called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Some people believe that it actually exists, most likely caused by some sort of virus, others feel that it has as much legitimacy as those who claim to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from watching the Vietnam War on television.

You have to be careful with a diagnosis such as this. Some patients use it to further their opportunities to obtain various types of disability support, others use it for all the other various and sundry reasons that those with "chronic" disorders use to continue their "lifestyle". It's a complicated issue, one which I won't get into now.

The problem with CFS, is that sometimes it's used mistakenly, as a diagnosis for people, who present with fatigue, when the correct diagnosis is not obtained. People with some sort of unidentified infectious illness, or, the beginnings of a more dangerous illness, who complain of a terrible lack of energy, might be given the label of CFS, when in fact, something more serious is brewing. People with undiagnosed anemia, blood dyscrasia's, cancers, various neurological illnesses, fibromyalgia and other serious disorders might initially present with unexplainable fatigue, and subsequently mistakenly be given the diagnosis of CFS.

On the other hand, you can find people who are just incredibly lazy, complaining of having CFS.

It's a tough one to deal with. Truly is. The amount of things that can cause fatigue in humans is immense; I just suffered from one hell of an episode, when dealing with these damn steroids, both being on them, and coming off of them. When you diagnose someone with CFS, you most definitely have to make sure that you're not missing something.

Something real. Or something imagined.

[daodejing]

ozshen, acupunture has an excellent trackrecord of successfully treating bell's palsy and similar nervous afflictions. I'd recomend finding yourself a good acupunturist to visit in addition to your martial arts training.

[daodejing]

CFS eh? We call that any one of a number of types of Qi defeciency. Most likely spleen, lung, heart, or kidney yang defeciency. But it really depends on the symptoms which accopmany the fatigue. Personally I think CFS is bs. Its not that I don't think these patients are tired, its that I think the doctors have no idea why they're tired so they made up a term for it. Funny how in many cases what's labeled into one disorder in allopathic medicine is usually several different diagnoses in TCM.

[doc]

That was partially my point.

And as for Bells Palsy, a run of steroids does wonders. Not treating it adequately can lead to permanent damage.

[TJQstudent]

The diagnosis I'm talking about is "myalgic encephalopathy," I'm pretty certain this english spelling might be wrong but you see what I'm talking about. I think it's probably the same as CFS, but you tell me cause you're the doc. I know a person who suffer from this who is also allergic to the drugs they give her, and for her TCM and Qigong was the way out of it. Also I'm sure it can act as something some doctors will "rest on" when they don't know exactly what's going on - much like the great amount of children and teenagers getting the diagnosis ADHD in Norway today.

Anyway, I'm slipping out of the topic here; From my highly subjective point of view the bottom line would be that martial arts, and especially the "truly" traditional ones which are not only based on sports competition, can be combined with most disorders, disabilities and even handicaps: if one can find a good and respectful instructor that has enough knowledge of his art to know how to help any student, that is..

And a propos: the "can't train seriously/successfully in gung fu because of epilepsy, and you never will" argument, any opinions? My personal opinion that is B S with a capital B and a capital S, and a proof of that specific instructors lack of knowledge..

[doc]

Same thing. My commentary on CFS still holds.

As for training with epilepsy, I agree that people that have disabilities can, to some extent, train in the martial arts. And, that training can be helpful. I'm in the process of starting a special program out here for people with multiple sclerosis, parkinsons, CFS, etc, at the school. The stuff is helpful. But, there are limitations.

Not all can do it. Not all will benefit. And your commentary on those with epilepsy ALL being able to train in the martial arts is just wrong. Some people have pretty severe epilepsy, and, are really unable to exert themselves to some degrees, because their epilepsy is easily triggered. Some, suffer from pretty incredile fatigue because of the medications that they are on.

The best way to present this, is to say that training in the martial arts can be helpful to those with disabilities. However, some people are so limited that they really are unable to practice the art in any way, shape or form. In medicine, as in life in general, you just can never say never. And you can never say always. There are limitations. There are always limitations.

You can say that.

[TJQstudent]

I can not remember saying that *all* epileptics can train in the martial arts, what I ment is that discarding a potential student because of mild epilepsy is a poor attitude from a martial arts instructor; a true martial arts
instructor does not only look for potential medal-winning students.

Anyway, this thread was not about my situation nor about epileptics in the first place, so I guess we should leave it at that. Personally I just want to communicate that through decent soft qigong and treatment many students that would be refused from gung-fu instructors could come a long way. IMO the truly decent instructors know about the many possibilities the chinese martial and medicinal tradition serves, and if he/she meets a student which is not able to train in gung fu he should be able to suggest other instructors/therapeuts in this very same tradition with knowledges in another field than himself. So whatever your disability, finding a decent instructor to discuss your situation with him is a good thing to do.