We recently completed a series about teaching elderly people how to defend themselves. Now, we’re looking at training people who are blind. You can read the first part here.
Train the Cane
Canes become an extension of a blind person’s body after training and regular usage. That is an advantage for blind people. They are used to using a cane and can respond defensively almost as fast as a martial artist trained in using a sword or other weapon.
I want blind people to think of their canes as “weapons” when necessary for self defense. Canes are often between four to five feet in length, which gives the defender an advantage. A blind person must learn how to use every advantage they can when attacked by a sighted person. Learning how to use the length of a cane to stop or at least slow an attack is one of those advantages.
I have found it helpful through almost 60 years of teaching self defense and martial arts to understand the unique needs of every student. I often tell students that they are “unique, unrepeatable miracles of God,” because they are! Every student is unique.
If you’ve never trained a blind person in how to use their cane for self defense, let’s begin by understanding what it’s like for them. Here’s a short video from a blind person’s perspective.
Developing a self defense program for blind people will depend on the makeup of the class. Teaching individual members of your martial arts class will be different than teaching a class where all students are blind. Another possibility is having a class made up of totally blind and legally blind students. Each student is unique, and each type of blindness is also unique.
If you are teaching alone, you can develop a system of showing one group basic movements to drill while you are showing another group a different set of basic movements. You may find that a well-trained blind person can help you with the training. Or, you may have another Black Belt instructor who is interested in learning how to train.
The difference between “totally blind” and “legally blind” is basically this:
- Totally blind – “a complete loss of sight”
- Legally blind – “corrected vision of 20/200 in their best-seeing eye. If visual aids such as glasses can correct a person’s vision to 20/20, they are not considered legally blind.”
[Source: Industries for the Blind and Visually Impaired]
Training That Works
I’ve often said that the best self-defense system for a person is the one that works for them. The same is true for a blind person, whether totally blind or legally blind. In the case where I had about two hours to train 150 totally blind people some basic self-defense skills, I focused on basic escapes from grabs and holds, to using their cane to inflict extreme discomfort to their attacker. I also emphasized the importance of yelling loudly directly into the attacker’s face or ear. I taught them how to use the grip end of the cane to strike an attacker in the chest, throat, or face. I also taught them how to quickly raise their extended cane straight up to catch the attacker in the groin or to stop them from approaching. They did very well and gave me great feedback that helped me better understand their interest in and need for self defense. Helping people build confidence is a big part of what self defense instructors can do for their students,.
That’s a lot of material to go through with a large class in two hours, but I knew I’d probably never see most of them again. They lived in many cities across the state where I taught and had all come to a central location for training. As an instructor, you have to determine the best type of training given the specific teaching environment. If you’ll see someone only once, you want to equip them to be able to defend themselves in a way they understand and can replicate while you’re with them. I knew that many of the students would see each other on some regular basis, so I encouraged them to continue to practice together.
I’ve taught other classes where only a few people were blind (total and/or partial blindness), but they attended the class weekly. The advantage of that kind of ongoing class is you have more time to train them in ways that will deepen their understanding of how self defense works. They practice during the week and bring lots of questions and ideas to the next class. People who know the importance of learning self defense make for some of the best students. They are motivated and focused. That’s a great combination.
Next Time
One of the first lessons I teach blind people is how to develop a sense of ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ that supports their increased senses of ‘hearing’ and ‘smell.’ I’ll explain how that works in the next part of our special series, Protecting the Vulnerable.
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