Pull no punches : Adults with disabilities combat challenges through martial arts
Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008
Paul Hickerson walks past a student, stops, and asks her to do a palm heal strike.
Later, some students line up to do their forms — a series of punches, kicks, blocks and stances they memorize.
One struggles with a move but then, with a little instruction from Hickerson, gets it right.
She beams and then continues the pattern.
“ Whenever we get our forms down, we get a black stripe, ” says Linda Gragg.
The black stripe goes on her yellow belt.
Her teacher, Hickerson, is a trained martial artist who also happens to be the director of residential services at the Elizabeth Richardson Center in Springdale, which helps adults with developmental disabilities.
His students have a variety of backgrounds and skill levels.
A few of them — there are about 10, but it fluctuates — are in the Intermediate Care Facility in Springdale and learn life skills on a daily basis. Most are working to live independently in the Medicaid waiver program. This often means they work at Richardson Industries, a sheltered workshop, and live in apartments.
All are members of the martial arts club at the Elizabeth Richardson Center.
They are striving to become martial artists through a man with a lengthy background in the discipline.
“ I’ve been in and out of martial arts since 1978, ” said Hickerson, who pushed to get the martial arts club going a couple of years ago.
Even though it may take a year for this class to get to the point of what could be expected from other students in three months, Hickerson said he will work until his students succeed.
“ I’m honest with them. This is a real school. I’m not just here to make them feel good, ” said Hickerson, who still manages to instill confidence and good feelings in his students when they work. “ I’m here to help them become real martial artists. ”
An experience Hickerson had instructing martial arts in the mid-1980 s in Pine Bluff has affected his teaching today.
As an assistant to a tae kwon do instructor, Hickerson tried to teach a man with a disability without any accommodation, something he was told to do, and “ it just wasn’t feasible, ” he said.
“ He didn’t stay very long, ” Hickerson said. “ That kind of bothered me. That kind of stayed with me. ”
He decided that if he ever had his own school, he would work more on leveling the playing field so everyone is trained according to their skills levels.
Nine of the students in the martial arts club at the Elizabeth Richardson Center have yellow belts, and one, Windy Smith, who is in a wheelchair, has a green belt, indicating a more advanced level. She took martial arts outside the Elizabeth Richardson Center prior to being a class member.
Smith and Gragg often lead classes when Hickerson cannot be there, and in teaching, they learn.
“ It’s harder to teach everyone else, ” Gragg said.
The martial arts club is based in tae kwon do.
Hickerson has a wealth of background in martial arts, which he describes more as a lifestyle than a hobby.
He has studied Wado Kai and White Crane Gung Fu.
He lived for five years in Japan, where he had met his wife while part of an exchange program through the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. He eventually earned a psychology degree from the UA, where he later earned his master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling. He did his internship at Richardson Industries.
As an undergraduate, he had a minor in religious studies with a concentration in Asian studies because of his interest in Japanese religions.
During his stint in Japan, he studied under Miura — a man he also calls “ teacher. ” As a result, Hickerson is third-degree Iaido black belt and first-degree Jojutsu black belt. Iaido is drawing and cutting with a samurai sword, while Jojutsu is using a short staff to strike and block.
Hickerson said he has seen much student improvement since the martial arts club at the center started in August 2006.
“ Their leg strength and kicks are much, much stronger than when we started, ” he said. “ They have built up their dexterity. They’re more on target. Balance is a very big one. That’s where I’ve seen the most improvement. ”
Hickerson said he also has seen more discipline.
“ We are more organized, ” he said. “ They each have their favorite exercise, and if I skip it, they remind me. ”
He said club members are focused on techniques and let him know if there is a problem with them.
“ They have the knowledge; it’s just forging it, ” he said.
Members of the class are a team — working together on their movements, sometimes going their own way but quickly returning to the tasks at hand as they learn, grow and get better.
“ Elbows up, ” Hickerson tells student Josie West during a recent class.
“ Sorry, I forgot, ” she says as she makes the adjustment.
Hickerson encourages the students to practice their forms outside the club’s course on Mondays.
He said he would like to expand the class to twice a week but realizes that the clients already have busy schedules. Other recreational opportunities for the clients are swimming on Tuesdays, bowling on Wednesdays, yoga class on Thursdays, and art and healthy cooking classes on Fridays. Also available are team sporting events and Special Olympics.
Staying active, Hickerson said, is key to helping this population.
“ It’s very important, especially for this population, to improve and maintain their balance and dexterity, ” he said. “ People with developmental disabilities tend to age one to two times quicker than the typical population, so we really need to focus on keeping them moving, keeping them active. That’s what I’m trying to do. ”
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