Hello all,

Please excuse the length of this post. I have been a long time
lurker, but have never posted until today. I am hoping to get some
feedback and comments on a short seminar a friend and I have devised
to introduce martial arts to the blind.

Event Background: The Braille Challenge was a day long event for the
blind. During the day, there are short blocks of time reserved for
various activities. My friend had volunteered to teach martial arts
for one of these 15 minute blocks. He had several sighted assistants,
all untrained in the martial arts, so we had to design these exercises
to be very basic. This should benefit both the sighted volunteer
teachers and the blind students.

Martial Arts Background: I am a shodan in SK, with roughly 11 years of
experience. I have made brief forays into other styles, mainly
American Kenpo and Inayan Eskrima. My friend started in SK before me,
but left as an intermediate student. He is currently a shodan in Dan
Zan Ryu Jujitsu.

Seminar: I have broken down the seminar into 6 simple parts. The
structure is to teach a base drill, show an application on the base
drill, expand upon the base drill, teach an application on the
expanded drill, then expand again on the base drill, followed by
further application.

Drill 1: Have sighted assistant and blind student stand face to face.
The assistant will perform various arm grabs (cross hand, same side,
at the wrist, at the forearm, etc). The blind student will simply be
taught to identify the location of the back of the hand, the wrist,
the elbow, and possibly the shoulder. Lesson: Understanding arm
movements by extrapolating from the position of the opponent's hand.

Application 1: Sighted assistant will grab the blind student by the
wrist. Blind student will be taught to lever their wrist out of the
grab and grab in return without losing contact. Assistant will break
the grip and grab the blind student's arm in return. This exchange
will continue back and forth. Lesson: Escaping from wrist grabs
without losing contact with the opponent.

Drill 2: Assistant will circle the blind student and grab their arm or
shoulder. Student must turn to face the assistant. Lesson:
Recognizing position and direction of attackers.

Application 2: Similar to Drill 2, but as student turns to face the
attacker, one hand will trap the opponent's hand as the other rides
the arm and closes in on the opponent. The second hand should both
check the opponent's body and hopefully guard against further attacks.
Lesson: Closing the distance and preventing loss of contact with
opponent.

Drill 3: Against a simple continuous push to the shoulder, rotate the
body and establish a base while passing the energy of the push. Keep
contact with the arm that is pushing. Lesson: Reaction to negative
energy without losing track of the opponent.

Application 3: Similar to Drill 3, but as a base is established, the
student will pin the arm with one hand while the second hand rides the
arm up to the opponent's body. Lesson: Same as Lesson 2, but with the
added element of a moving opponent.

I understand that there are still a lot of "what if's" inherent to
this seminar, but I tried to gear the drills to the most probable
escalations of violence that a blind person might encounter.
Hopefully, it is simple enough that an untrained assistant can readily
work with a blind partner under light supervision, yet meaty enough
that the blind students will feel like they've learned something
worthwhile.

The Braille Challenege took place this past weekend. My friend taught
several assistants, and he said he was surprised at how quickly skills
were picked up and ingrained. Unfortunately, there were no blind
students interested in the program, so I could not see how well the
seminar went over.

This is the first seminar I have ever designed and would like some
feedback on the concepts taught and the structure of the seminar. Thanks.

Always Awaiting Knowledge,
Hai