"Deaf men have been perfecting their self defense through ASL for many , many years."
The way it was written certainly could have sounded like ASL is the feared but deadly form of martial arts where you'd sign the deadly "V" letter and do the famous Larry-Curly-Moe-Eye-Poke. Of course, this Deaf guy meant that martial arts can and have been taught to Deaf people through the use of sign language to communicate the techniques in self-defense martial arts. Now, the hearing guy in turn didn't quite understand what was the other guy was saying but the response was funny:
"Please, cite some independently verifiable reports of someone besting an attacker through the deadly use of sign language..."
That was the funny part.
Now, the disturbing part was seeing that this Deaf guy managed to go about "informing" other Deaf people about martial arts, street fight, army combat and such even though, as best as I can tell, he has no real martial arts or self defense training to offer advice on what one should or should not do in certain dangerous situations. That's the sad and dangerous part.
Why dangerous?
The person lacked credibility to offer advices to others on how to do self defense. He offered no references, no names, no credentials to speak of, no names of dojos, no websites, no videos and plainly no proof of his skill to warrant the "teaching" of Deaf people on martial arts. Credibility is everything.
It is a sad fact that there are people out there who think that reading a few books on martial arts or combat art make them experts would be justified to "teach" others about self-defense. Making claims that "I sent many people to the hospital" isn't credible to believe. Saying that ought to be a red flag to others to be wary of that person putting up a bunch BS.
Now, there are several Deaf martial artists who do martial arts instruction. Just because there is a Deaf martial art instructor, it's best to ask for references and history from this instructor you are seeking to train under. Any instructor should be happy to provide you the details and references. If not, then that should be a warning sign. And if he or she continues to refuse to provide references, then it would be better to find another place to do your martial arts training even if it means a hearing instructor. I cannot stress this enough that the responsibility lies with potential students on making sure they have the right and best people in the business of martial arts who know sign language.
There is a difference from those who do the walk and talk versus those who only do the talk and not from people whose "expertise" came from reading books or took self-defense classes a few times as a kid. A street fighter doesn't mean the person is good at self-defense whether it's with a knife or a baseball bat. It could mean that the person is willing to break the law just so he/she could fight you in a nasty way. Either way, it doesn't mean one is better than the other. It's a matter of discipline and executing the right techniques that wins out in most cases. It could be a simple move or a complex one that would match the situation.
The video below shows how one pimp became that "street fighter" while his "lady" tried to hold him back because the white guy told the black guy to stop hitting the woman. This guy is Jay Lee who is a self-defense instructor for the Houston Texas Police Force. The incident happened while he was teaching a group of police officers and decided to go outside to break up the fight between the pimp and his woman.
If the video above doesn't work go here.
Once you choose your martial arts to train, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to "cross train" by visiting other dojos to learn from their martial arts. This was routinely done on occasions with my Aikido instructor in Alamogordo where we, as students, would visit other dojos with their permission to learn about their martial arts such as Karate and Tae Kwon Do. Aikido is one of the best known Japanese martial arts there is. Steven Segal who is currently a 7th degree black belt in Aikido where he became the first Westerner to open a martial arts school in Japan.
You choose a martial art that you believe is best for YOU. If you want to be a street fighter, then choose that path. If you want to be an excellent knife user then go that route. Kicking? Try Tae Kwon Do. Mixed martial arts? Practice your wrestling, grappling, boxing, Muy Thai and JuJitsu.
Now, a "street fighter" doesn't necessarily mean the best. It means that a person is willing to break the law in order to purposely fight and cause injuries or death. Just like the pimp in the video below who thought that by being the aggressive "street fighter" would mean he'd win fight. It didn't quite work out that way, did it? Although in any street fight incidents one may never know if a person is holding a gun or knife. Still, to have common sense and the smarts a person trained in martial arts should know these into consideration anyway. The best way to avoid these things is not to get yourself into these predicaments or place yourself in a location that would put yourself at risk. Self-defense is to be used as a last resort, even if it means injuring or killing someone.
The names below are Deaf/deaf/hh martial arts practitioners who are either instructors or advanced students familiar with their own martial arts and self-defense that you can contact for more information.
Joe Brouhard on Taekwondo (instructor). He is Deaf and signs.
Mike McConnell on Aikido since 1997 (2nd Kyu) and wrestling. Also, go here for an article on Mike on Aikido that was done a few years ago under "Aikido and Deafness". He is hard of hearing and knows sign language.
Matt Hayat on Ryukyu Kempo Tomari-Te, Tae Kwon Do and Isshin Ryu Karate Do. He is deaf and knows sign language. He developed a signing system for martial art called "Martial Signing".
Matt Hamill - UFC fighter (205 lbs), mixed martial artist - boxing and wrestling. Deaf and fluent in ASL.
Jeremy Jackson - UFC fighter (169 lbs), mixed martial artist - submission, karate and boxing. He is deaf. See story about Jackson.
If you know somebody that could be added here, let me know.
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