# Kenpo for physical disabilities



## Maltair (Dec 1, 2004)

Here is a post from my sifu on another forum. I thought I would post it here with the one response and try to get some more info for him. Wasn't there a web site some where or an organization that delt with Kenpo and disabilities?
Thanxs

hi all

i'm a kenpo instructor out in the pacific northwest and have recently taken on two students with physical disabilities. (one is wheelchair bound with low arm control and one has one paralyzed arm). can anybody help me with the following questions:

1. what are the best books/websites/articles about teaching martial arts and kenpo to people with physical disabilities?

2. are there any special olympic/paralympic events for people with physical challenges?

3. is there anybody in the oregon/idaho/washington area who is also training people with physical disabilities, who i might communicate and coordinate with?

thanks a lot, all.

jason

Response:
*Defining the toolbox*
First of all what you need to do is make an in depth evaluation of which body parts are under motor control and of those that are you need to evaluate exactly what they individually can perform from a motion standpoint. In essence what you are doing is defining weapons. From that a base move should be defined and a style built around that. You must define the physical vehicle that will channel the kenpo principles. You must always sublimate yourself to the principles. Do not have people doing things that they will never be capable of excecuting. 

Disability implies a more limited toolbox of weapons. You must determine what exactly is in the individuals toolbox and then build from there. What I am saying may seem vague but it really is not. 

I have worked with disabled people. My son is 13 and severely disabled. I know exactly what movements he can control and which he cannot. Because of that I know what I can ask him to do and what I cannot.. 

Respectfully,

Bob Hanes


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## getgoin (Dec 1, 2004)

I have trained several people with disabilities, here are a couple of the rough ones. Rough I mean rough in setting training goal and limits, also establishing a base to work from because they suffered injuries. When a person is born with a disability it is easier to work with because the bounderies are set for you. If a person is disabled from a injury, it is a learning process for both of you. It is also very dificult for the student because they are used to being able to do thing and now thier not. Normally I can tell how fit a person is within one lesson. It took weeks to learn what each could do and couldn't do. Then I had to plan around that and adjust the techniques and lesson plan for them. 

One fell from a 150 foot cliff and landed on his feet, shatering everybone in feet, legs and cause spinal damage, that was a tough one. He has such limited use of all partof his body from shoulders down. His doctor told him to come and do MA to help with therapy. It took six months for him to be able to get his foot more then 6 inches of the ground without help (balance). But after his body started to adjust and relearned what it needed to things moved quickly.

Another was hit by a van as he walked down the street on his way to work. He was in a wheel chair so everything had to be adjusted. I put aside the forms and worked on techniques and drills with him. I knew he was getting therapy to walk again. The therapsit had him walking in 2 years with braces and cruches. We started to work him in his braces every now and then (we called his therapsit to find out what we could and couldn't do with him at that point). Another two years and all he neaded was a cane to walk. He wasn't perfect, but it was damn good. Then the kicker of all kickers happend. On his was home from class, in his wheel chair (it was too long of a walk for him) some guy in a van hits him, again. He was back in the chair for 3 years this time. The last I heard he is back into braces, trying to walk again.

A gentleman came into tmy school in cruches. He was part of a military experiment that put him into coma for 6 months. He couldn't walk when he woke up. He had theraoy for 1.5 years and was progressing nicely. He had no flexability though. He came in to increase his range of movement, he felt that he was getting stronger and would eventually recover, at least most of the way. For a year I worked his balance, flexabilty and stamina doing gross motor skills and stretching and drills. He came back in about 4 months after he stopped coming. He wanted to show me the pictures of him sky diving (tandum), he had a big grin on his face. I don't think I will ever forget that look.


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