Dojo etiquette
When you start your judo session with greeting (rei) try to avoid a line up shoulder-to-shoulder facing the front of the dojo, in rank order. Invite and welcome each participant sitting on the knees in a circle, where all are equal to each other. Greet in your native language and comfort the students by letting them know you are glad they join the class.
Methodology
Make sure that the athlete is very active with the personal body. This creates a situation in which the personal awareness increases. Quite often people with a disability do not have a very positive image of their personal body. This is the result of bad experiences and personal failures. This will influence the self-confidence of the athlete and therefore the athlete will become less active which creates more fear for failure and so on. Important for the athlete is the feeling of success. Through small steps from easy to more difficult the athlete will grow and therefore the self-confidence will increase and the fear for failure will decrease. Since judo is very much about working together and helping each other, the rate of success will increase. This success will lead to a better participation in the sport, which will lead to more motor and sensorial experiences. These experiences will benefit the personal awareness of the athlete. Furthermore the athlete will learn his personal strengths and more important how to control them.
Conclusion:
Learning judo skills for the disabled has to by practical moving playfully on the spot and experience of anticipative reaction of the opponent.
Contact between people with and without a disability can be difficult. Feelings of insecurity, clumsiness, fear that you may hurt or insult somebody or that they will hurt or insult you are common. These insecurities occur through unfamiliarity. How to deal with people with a disability?
People with a disability are just like normal people. Generally they are able to assert themselves very well. Offer help if necessary but make sure that help will be accepted. Do not assume that you are the person who knows what is best for the person with a disability or illness. The person can perfectly decide it himself and talk directly to the person himself and NEVER via a teacher or social worker.
Of course you can talk about someone’s restriction but do not start a conversation about the disability by asking intimate detailed questions. On the other hand do not ignore the disability. The disability is part of somebody’s life. Nowadays many expression like “Watch out!” or “will you come along with me?” are used. Think before you say something but you do not have to avoid the subject. That could be insulting to the person as well. Besides, people with a disability are perfectly able to put things in perspective! Follow the basic rules of human contact, have respect for each other. If you don’t understand someone that be honest and say it, that is much better than pretending that you understand.
When you help someone with a disability, it is good to say exactly what you are doing. Try not to exaggerate but gently warn; ‘we start within five minutes,’(to an autistic judoka) or ‘I put you on two wheels for a second’(people in wheelchair.) Tell a blind judoka in which situation he comes into. Introduce yourself by using the five W’s ( who, what, why, where, wherefore) keep it simple and clear
