The Best Martial Arts For Blind & Visually Impaired People
Training martial arts as a blind person can be extremely challenging. Much like almost everything else in life, being blind is going to make “simple” skills more difficult. This is especially true when sparring against a resisting opponent who has a visual advantage over you. To put things bluntly, if you are boxing and one person is able to see a punch coming, whilst the other isn’t, there is really only going to be one winner.
When training martial arts as a visually impaired person, your goals should primarily be self-defense and fitness. Sight is such a huge advantage in martial arts that this is not a disadvantage that can be overcome in order to compete professionally. Of course, if you are only blind in one eye, or have partially impaired vision, this is something that is often not a big deal. When training, you’re not going to be on the opposite side of the room to your opponent. Thankfully, almost every martial art is performed face-to-face with not much distance between competitors.
In short, blind people do not have super-human abilities like Daredevil. It is going to be challenging, but entirely possible to learn a martial art to a high level of skill. All that depends on this is how much time and effort is put into learning.
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Striking Martial Arts
Striking martial arts are not recommended for the blind. The reasoning for this is relatively obvious since there is less close contact than there is with grappling. A person may be throwing an uppercut, jab, or haymaker and a blind person would not be able to discern which technique was coming their way. Even if you have a mild visual impairment, the recognition of which attack is coming your way is going to be delayed. Reaction time is absolutely crucial in striking martial arts such as boxing and kickboxing – which is why it is not advised for the visually impaired.
Not only this, but you are also going to struggle when being punched at specific angles. Even being blind in one eye is quite a big drawback when boxing at any kind of serious level, due to factors such as response time.
Wing Chun
Wing Chun is the only real exception to the rule of striking arts. Even still, it would be best not to train at full contact since as a blind person you are still at a huge disadvantage. This can be somewhat overcome since Wing Chun is one of the very few striking martial arts that requires you to be in close contact with your opponent at almost all times.
Hand fighting and trapping does not require as much vision compared to traditional western boxing or traditional boxing. By controlling the wrist and hands of your sparring partner at all times, you can pre-emptively know where they are going to move next from experience. Once you have mastered the basics, this will allow you to stay one step ahead of an unskilled practitioner.
Of course, it is advisable to not train full contact sparring in Wing Chun if you are blind. This is because a fist or elbow strike will hurt you a lot more if you don’t know it’s coming. Instead, you can learn Wing Chun whilst semi-contact sparring, which thankfully is common within this martial art anyway.
How To Learn Martial Arts As A Blind Person
Learning a martial art may take a while longer to pick up if you are blind due to the fact that you cannot see the technique being performed and replicate it. Instead, everything must be taught in a physical way and with verbal methods. Whilst these are both fine, they are not ideal and give a small disadvantage over a student with regular vision.
However, learning martial arts is really no different than learning most skills whilst visually impaired. In fact, it is quite a lot easier than blind soccer or even learning to walk down the street unassisted. You’re obviously not going to have the same learning path as people with regular vision, but you will find your own way of learning, even if it takes longer. You will likely find that some techniques work a lot better for you than others and will not have the same traditional “style” as your classmates. This doesn’t matter though, in martial arts nobody is exactly the same and everyone has a different set of techniques that they excel at.
Grappling Martial Arts
Grappling-based martial arts are by far the best choice for blind people. The fact that there is a lot of non-stop physical contact means that you do not need to use your eyes in order to know where your opponent is. Not only this but much of grappling is based on “feel” and understanding weight distribution.
This is not something that can be learned through visual means and is a completely different skill. Anecdotal stories of sparring against blind grapplers mention that their pressure on top is better than those with 20/20 vision. Being blind may give you an advantage when it comes to non-visual skills since you’re already pre-accustomed to them – whereas a non-visually impaired person will only have minimal experience within this field.
Furthermore, there are several examples of blind judoka, wrestlers, and BJJ athletes having success in competition. This proves that blind people are able to train and compete in grappling martial arts without any huge disadvantages.
Examples being:
Clinton “The Blind Grappler” Terry
Judo
Although judo may be daunting at first, after you both grip up, vision advantage is somewhat nullified. At this point, it is a game of cat and mouse in terms of who can score the first ippon.
The negative of learning judo is that it takes a lifetime to master even if you have 20/20 vision, so without this it will take even longer. Even though vision if not a requirement, it can help to know when the opponent lifts their foot from the floor. This is something which is not hugely obvious from just feel alone – especially if you are new to the sport.
In terms of technique, there is nothing in judo that a visually impaired person cannot do. Both stand-up and newaza are equally as “easy” to learn and require muscle memory rather than anything visual. Judo throws are not simply something that can be viewed once or even ten times, and then performed. Instead, they must be practiced thousands of times which involves repetition and complete body coordination.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
As you will already likely know, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art that is almost exclusively performed on the floor. Due to this fact, there is also almost always a non-stop physical contact between each participant. Whilst in bottom position you’re able to feel the weight of the opponent and feel where it is distributed. Granted, you cannot see where arms are placed, but as soon as they grip you will know exactly where they ara – and of course as BJJ is pure grappling, you do not have to worry about unexpected strikers.
In the top position of BJJ, it is a similar story. This time you must distribute your own weight in order not to get swept to the bottom. In terms of submissions, you brain will already understand where arms and legs are based on your body position in relation to your opponent. It is easy to finish submissions such as a rear naked choke or kimura without vision, so this makes BJJ ideal for the blind.
Wrestling
Wrestling is a sport that takes hard work, courage, technique, grit and determination to reach the highest levels. Thankfully, full vision is not required since you are in such close contact with your opponent.
If you are completely blind, of course it is going to be difficult to stop no prior contact double leg takedowns. However, once you have a standard collar tie, technique is going to be a lot more important than vision. Wrestling is a sport that is both very fast paced and technical. Fortunately you don’t need good eyesight in order to know that somebody has grabbed both of their arms around your legs. Neither do you need good eyesight in order to wrap your own arms around the waist or ankle of your opponent.
