Martial Arts as a Form of Therapy

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I am afraid that in writing this I am going to be misunderstood. I have a background in archaeology and constantly feel the need to correct people about various aspects of cultural history or certain traditions. I don't have an ego per say, and that is something more of an itch than anything. I'm not sure how else to describe it. It's an itch that has to be scratched. I never want to show anyone up. That's not my goal at all.

Recently someone energetically referred me to this article on how studying martial arts can be helpful in the treatment of autism. My initial reactions were that it was an extremely broad statement and lacked supporting evidence. However, the individual in question was very excited and believed it could help me focus and deal with my necessary stimming motions. Stimming motions and such are a serious problem for me.

I lack coordination and realize this would be a huge barrier to beginning any study like this. I also realize, however, that it could also be a step in the right direction to dealing with the lack of coordination that I grapple with. Naturally, that's directly connected to my diagnosis of autism and comorbid conditions. I would give anything to experience improvement in that area.

After doing a little searching on Wrongplanet, I've found other people even share my concerns about the commercialization of martial arts. Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm worried that I would never be able to get over the fact that each individual historical convention of just about everything isn't followed. To be honest, I'd like to be able to eventually get over my powerful debilitating obsessions.

Naturally, I don't function well without a schedule and can't function in social areas or classrooms either. I suppose in some respects I'm even only considering the idea out of loyalty to the individual that brought it up. I'm wondering, though, if I'd be able to get some benefit out of a particularly classical, internal school of martial arts. For instance, if I were able to find a correctly taught T'ai Chi Ch'uan class with an understanding instructor I think I would be able to maybe function properly. I actually have a bit of a background in Ch'uan.

Both my nearly 13 year old son and I, both somewhere on or very close to the autism spectrum, have been finding physical exercises useful for strength and "inside our body" confidence/control etc, aswell as enjoyable, but we aren't going to any "real life" classes; we are using free online videos of workout routines of varying lengths, ( from 5 minutes to over an hour ) in various styles, by various presenters.

I have been building up a timetable or schedule, which started off as a "mere" 10 minutes per day last October/November, 10 minutes which were a struggle to maintain, but we succeeded, and which is now between 30-45 minutes twice a day, ( plus a walk, weather permitting ).

We have been using a mixture of "Core" exercises, upper body/arm etc exercises with weights, regular cardio/aerobics, plus some yoga and callanetics stretching and flexibility routines. The "Core" stuff ( also often described a "bodyweight" exercises ) is interesting, especially as it turns out that it's pretty much what yoga has been doing for a century or more, ( only much more slowly :lol ), and seems to be the most important part of all strength training and "control of the body", etc.

At one point we were using some MMA/Mixed Martial Arts workouts, as a kind of cardio exercise mainly, ( though my son loved the whole boxing/kickboxing/combat aspect of it ), but we both began to find the presenters either depressingly "heavy"/earnest/severe/driven or simply silly, ( and in the case of one sensible workout it sadly went from being free to pay-to-view ).

The advantage of using online videos though is that you can customise, stop and start, pause, repeat, cut short, file away for a while, mix with others according to one's levels of competence/fitness etc, and do it whenever you are free, ( as well as laugh and gasp and chat unrestrictedly :lol ).

I started a thread here a while back about the videos we've been using, which might help to give you some idea of what's available. I'll just go get the link. I suspect that you would be able to find some MA workouts online by presenters/trainers who take historical conventions/accuracy etc very seriously.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt195567.html
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With both boxing and tennis, I have gotten a lot out of private lessons. I like the idea of taking two private lessons and then practicing some stuff on my own. And then perhaps group lessons when I'm a little ahead of the curve. Although even then, group lessons seem tedious, besides the point, never quite sure I'm doing it right, etc.

I did study judo pretty much from age 10 to age 17, with group lessons and still got a lot out of it. I studied boxing on and off on my own from age 42 to 46, with private lessons and practicing on my own, and got a fair amount out of that, too.

Please don't take a bunch of blows to the head during training because all that stuff about post-concussion syndrome, and even cumulative lesser blows, is largely true. And just like football helmets don't really protect, neither does boxing headgear.

I take Aikido at a dojo associated with the US Aikido Federation (USAF- part of the Aikikai Foundation still headquartered in Japan by the founder's family). I enjoy Aikido because most of the historical traditions are followed, although the art itself was only really developed in the 1930's in Japan.

The most important thing for me is that it is a non-competitive art, every thing is practiced in partners, most of it is learned at your own pace, and there is no sparing (this decreasing your chances of injury. Not sparing is important to me because I do not react quickly to an unexpected object moving towards my face. Most people will at least flinch when you move your hand to their face quickly, I do not respond, thus increasing the likelihood that I will be hit. Although in the upper belts a free form is practiced for testing (but not regular classes) called randori when two to four people act as attackers at one time against the person being tested - this allows the person being tested to show the variety of techniques they know.

Another wonderful thing for me is that practice is very structured, and the rules are spelled out. This means I know exactly how to behave at all times, and how to act to the different people in the dojo - my sensei, and my senpai (older student). Most classes I also get in a good cardio workout, so I count the three times I go each week as my weekly exercise.

In daily practice everything is practiced in two person kata (predefined form) with one person giving a predetermined attack (the uke), and the other person receiving and redirecting the attack as part of a defense (the nage). There is nothing left to guess work in any part of practice. We also practice with wooden weapons sometimes and that is fun too.

My sensei knows that I have AS, and need to have instructions 'spelled out' in detail. He, and my other classmates are very understanding if it takes me a few extra times to learn a technique, or if I need extra instruction on the details of the technique. They are also understanding if I get sensory overload. I can leave the mat at anytime if I become over whellmed and need a break, or if the neighbors are blasting the bass on the radio, and it is very disturbing to me, I can put in some soft earplugs during class.

Well you might be in trouble with your need for historical accuracy...
I have done karate in two different clubs, slightly different styles. And there is no such thing as historical accuracy although everyone claims it. Karate has history (and today and future) very similar to church history, where everyone claims to have the truth and continuity and labels everyone else as heretic. I just tried to ignore it, and found a club where there was less talk and more actual excercise and where I personally liked the style better.

Karate helped me develop a huge amount of social skills. Just handling the closeness and attention of a partner and keeping your attention on him was something I don't do voluntairly and therefore practicing it made me better at handling people. But - that was before I self-diagnosed myself as an aspie. After that I gradually came to better terms with myself, lost the need to constantly change myself to compete with others in every field and then I lost the motivation to put myself through such torture what a training with partner embodies. Haven't been to a lesson for long time already.

My new obsession is gym. And surprisingly this has brought some noticeable improvement in balance and also I somewhat feel more in control of my movements though I havent tested it yet in anything challenging. I'm starting to think that any kind of excercise can improve balance and coordination.

I think you should simply choose something that you can do with pleasure (enjoyable process or due to feeling of pride).

I'd say you have hit the nail right on the head! As someone who is now happily and comfortably agnostic but who was in a strict, doctrinaire church as a teenager, this rings true.

That also has shades of being my experience (the myth of being Mr. Spock, who knows as much medicine as Dr. McCoy and as much engineering as Mr. Scott) In my middle years, I am more confident, just being me!

For personal reasons, the issue of martial arts is a very sore one. When I was a little boy my grandmother tried to force me into a karate class as a way to correct my self-esteem problems. I didn't function right and refused to go. We now understand that was due to mental conditions diagnosed much later. Naturally, my self-esteem then as now was extremely poor.

My grandmother since passed away, and I have a complex where I look back on the situation and am overcome with guilt. I'm sure it has something to do with grieving. I'm subconsciously rationalizing that if I had just succeeded like she wanted me to I would have her still with me. That's not the case, of course, but I'm sure we all understand the way the mind works.

That being said, I'm actually in the best shape of my life for entirely different reasons. I lost a lot of weight running. In fact, I wrote on Wrongplanet before about how I'm actually considerably underweight. I've gone to the other albeit equally unhealthy extreme. I wasn't looking at martial arts as a way to get fit. Instead, it just seems that a friend's otherwise well-meaning intentions set off a trigger. So now I'm feeling guilty about the whole thing.

Ounion, I never would have thought about looking for serious programs online. I'm certain it isn't difficult at all to tell great stuff apart from the junk. Do you believe I should look at things like that? While I still wouldn't be working on anything social, the idea seems really promising from a balance and coordination point of view.

Nebrets, your words certainly gave me a bit of hope. I'm very familiar with Aikido from a historian's perspective. Ueshiba Morihei-sensei's are more admirable than many in the field of modern martial arts, and he never attempted to explicitly claim that he was resurrecting any particular theories from the past. Moreover, he was greatly influenced by Omoto-kyo philosophy.

As a gentle aside, I would prefer to ignore any negativity towards religious doctrine for the time being if that were possible.

1) Not sure about autism, but it helps you as a human being: fitness, coordination, sense of progression etc.

2) Right on. Any martial art will make your coordination better. In my opinion, choose one without excessive acrobatics (like tae kwon do). Go for boxing classes, they're awesome (you don't have to go into the ring, read n. 4)

3) NO martial art will follow everything. They aren't even "martial" anymore, but have changed through generations to adapt to a new context. Even traditional martial arts are changing. Boxing began without gloves, for example. Don't worry about it.

4) If you got the money, get a private instructor. They are great, motivate you personally and work towards what YOU want. You may want to train boxing but not actually fight (except shadow combat... no hard punches), for example.

5) Ch'uan is bad for your health. It's known to kill human beings out of sheer, massive boredom (I kid, if you like it, go ahead. But I find it does not give you the same level of fitness as other styles).

Good Luck!

Point sparring only works to an extent, it doesn't teach a person to tolerate pain and it doesn't train them for a full contact bout or sparring, full contact sparring is a necessity. Just go in the deep end and join a boxing class to learn basic coordination and the basics.

http://www.rosstraining.com this website offers some great books and tips on how to condition your body for boxing or martial arts and if you follow the program strictly with a strict diet, you will be very conditioned. P90X can also help which is a mixture of yoga, explosive lifting and high intensity training so I would recommend that you start on something like that since it's only 90 days.

If you are looking for something more therapeutic and less damaging, you should try Qi gong as that has been known to have therapeutic benefits, yoga is also good and I suggest you train Yoga when practising any form of martial art as it will build your core and agility. Thai boxing is a great form to learn as it's simply about mastering the basics as opposed to learning different forms that aren't as efficient.

I've been in Tae Kwon Do for about 6 years now, I can not even began to tell you the difference it's made in my life. There are a lot of programs out there that let you move at your own pace, and from my experience in teaching martial arts, I can safely safe that there are a great many people who are not very coordinated at all, but with hard work they can still succeed. I would suggest possibly finding a more traditional style with an instructor who uses a lot of structure in their classes with that's what you like. Also, about the historical aspect of it, like someone else mentioned, the martial arts are always evolving. I have never met an instructor who claims that they are following the original, historically correct way, so if you're able to find someone who doesn't think that way, maybe that would help? Then you don't have to think about the historical context really...if that makes any sense. For instance, the instructors I am with now are always looking for new ways to do things, so there's not really a long history behind it...I'm not really sure this is coming out right but hopefully you'll understand.

Also, I don't know about the helping with autism part, but I have always found forms (a pattern of movements in a specific order) in particular very calming. I would do them over and over and over again, way past the point where others we already bored with them. Now I can do them if I'm really hyped up about something, or angry, it helps to let out aggression for me. So that's why I would imagine it would be helpful.