UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Are there any martial artists among us?
I noticed Sweet mentioned Aikido (one of my favourites). I do Ju-Jitsu and Judo but haven't done much recently due to a certain two-year old. I am thinking of starting again quite soon however. I think both of these arts / sports are OK for KC because they up close and personal but karate and the like might be more difficult?
Any feedback?

Matthew, as this is a KC related question, I think you will get a better response on the main forum.

Matt

I dont think youll have issues to be honest if you are careful. Ive seen people wear the plastic wrap arounds when training which protects the eyes and the lenses....but again best check with Optician!....

What Ju-Jitsu do\did you do?..I did Kempo for 8 years under Hanshi PB (street fighting based) but i know theres loads of variations of JJ

J

I used to teach wing chun, the rgp's often flew out .

I, found sudden head movements caused problems.

Punches to the face were hit and miss


i find the lenses no longer fly out with the piggy back.

I now have a 4 year old daughter, tried Tae kwan do

and Karate , have to wait till she reaches the age of reason before I can teach her, probably never.

The JJ that I did was Mushin Budo, pretty much straight forward Aikijutsu really. Mostly throws, holds, locks. Some weapon work too, but centred on self-defence and what you would be likely to encounter on the street. Once you got to 1st Dan, you got more weapon stuff. After I moved to Scotland I found it difficult to find a JJ club. It seems to be more Tai-Kwon-Do up here. But I found a judo club and found that interesting. Got to 1st Kyu before re-prioritising, study and family over sports and social! I could slot back into the Judo OK I think. Lots of clubs and hopefully patient instructors so I can get the feel of it back.
On the KC, both JJ and Judo are not into excessive head movement. I can see how Kung Fu could result in lenses flying everywhere! I think I would actually take my lenses out. In Judo, you are close to your partner and moving for an early grip. Once you've gripped you are looking to sense your opponents moves and balance. You don't need to see brilliantly for that. Similarly JJ doesn't major on kicks or strikes that need hawk-eye eyesight and hand/eye coordination. Far from it! JJ(or at least the I way do it) is not a precise art. I can see well enough to move off the line of attack and then do something once the opponent is close. Gozo Shioda ( a famous Ju-Jistsuka) once demonstrated his techniques on a whole room of black belts, leaving them all lying on the floor. He was eighty odd at the time! I don't suppose his eye sight was that sharp.
I think from my point of view, KC shouldn't bar anyone looking to do close in style arts. Stand-off styles like karate or tai kwon do could pose more of a problem, I suppose but I don't confess to knowing much about that!
Can anyone from those disciplines comment?

Hello there!

I do aikido but am very very new to it though i love it!!! It is hard to pick a sport that you feel happy with but i don't really worry about my eyes with this one.

Hoping you can carry on with some!! Sweet X x X

I just started taking Northern Praying Mantis king fu

How do find it?

Matthew

At University I did Aikido and played mens hockey. I later gave up these sports in order to devote my time to sky diving and what is now called "cross hiking". (In those days this latter was known as 'fell running').

I wore lenses and goggles when sky diving.

I wore glasses when playing hockey.

I sometimes wore glasses while fell running, but usually did not as I found it a positive advantage not to be able to look a long way into the distance. It kept me focused on the next foot-fall!

I did not wear lenses or glasses for Aikido.

Andrew

I Always wore my lenses once had one break following a punch.


My fellow instructor ended up with a detached retina following a jab to the eye.


For any serious stuff we would now wear masks.


Those were the days.