Karate as Therapy | ART OF ONE DOJO

hi today is a bit of a special episode with an exceptional guest that i fully believe defines exactly what karate dough is and how it can be used to overcome your worst opponent [Music] many people train in karate and the martial arts as a method of self-defense but the interesting thing is how we define that we train so that we can protect ourselves from harm not just from the chance encounter with an attacker but from the person that we encounter and have to live with every day ourselves today's guest is a man named ian macleod who unfortunately after series of accidents has been left with a traumatic brain injury ian faces a level of pain and challenges that most of us would not be able to relate to now while the easy road would be to accept it and live with the limitations ian decided not to accept it and instead he turned to the martial arts as a method to reclaim his life ian and sensei shared his story with us to remind us that the martial arts is about learning how to fight but that fight doesn't always occur out in the streets we are tbi survivors for a reason we survive i absolutely love this quote and this actually hits a chord on what we want to talk about today this episode isn't just about overcoming minor inconveniences but it's about dealing with reality facing real pain and real obstacles that most people can't relate to ian can you tell us a little bit about who you are what life was like before and what happened to change that well as i said brain injury survivor that pretty much honestly says it all not an easy road to to travel and once you actually have it it's difficult to constantly be defending who you are when people can't see the injury itself my my brain injury is an accumulation of numerous concussions over over many years doing many different sports many different accidents and whatnot started playing ice hockey in in the mid 70s and it was extremely rough and tumble time it was a lot of head injuries which back then nobody actually knew what hedge injuries really were i've had several car accidents i was in a motorcycle accident i could crush between two trucks then in [Music] 2016 things really came to a true head i had three three accidents in the span of six months i had a rear end accident so a front to back head injury and a couple of months after that i was t-boned my car was just destroyed when somebody hit me and a few months after that i was in an elevator that fell three stories and that was a totally different concussion so front to back side to side and then up and down i guess the struggle with that is they're just concussions but when they're 12 13 and on and on and on the compounded damage is is very difficult i had to basically relearn to walk learning that my balance was destroyed and having to to just read he learned to completely stand on my feet and go from there i guess my last concussion after that um my son and i were playing in in the pool at the building i was living in at the time we were practicing froze in the pool and he absolutely booted me in the back of the head surprisingly as that sounds it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me because i was having all these chemicals being released into my brain which were causing me to become very aggressive and this last concussion at least shut off the part of the brain that was producing those chemicals so now i'm back to being the charming person i am today i find it actually really extremely fascinating that you did decide to turn to the martial arts what made you continue down this path of the martial arts and can you tell us about the art that you chose well what what chose me into martial arts is i was having zero success with western medicine very few doctors here at least canada believe that you can get a brain injury from numerous concussions i've been having great success dealing with a um eastern practitioner of arts he's a shaolin monk and he's helped me a great deal in i guess mid-2017 september i've got my son involved in martial arts i was asked to join the program but i was far too injured at that point and so i started in the parent child program that my son said runs at the school so parents can obviously train with her with their children it's a tremendous experience well i met sensei porter through her other job as a as a mediator and uh when i had set up the appointment to actually meet her i was waiting in her office and she she walks in in her key apparently i'm the only person she's ever done that with and i was actually immediately put at uh at ease because i actually be believe people who train or black belts they believe differently and so that really put me at ease right then and there and she knew me before my injuries she knew me before this 2016 so she had a really good idea of who i was before i started training um sensei is just an incredible person he reached out to me for a different matter a different occupation i'm also accredited family mediator and a parenting coordinator i've been so for 20 years and he ended up becoming my client he and his his ex-wife were my clients so i've known ian for a long time um because of the ghee we talked about some martial arts and i told him that i was going to be opening my own school and perhaps after all the legal stuff was done that maybe he or his son in particular would like to join and train and he signed up he and his ex-wife signed up his son almost right away so i decided to to turn to martial arts instead i figured that would be the best way to learn how to control my body because it's all about discipline there's there's consequences to all your actions i actually discovered i was training that gojira i just wanted to get into the into martial arts i had no idea what korate was about in any way shape or form when i did this over the time i've actually been here at the dojo i've learned a fair bit about what goju is about the hard soft way it just resonates greatly with me that i live such an extremely difficult life i suffer pain so much pain and yeah um but goes you that's what it teaches you you know there's hard parts in your life and it can teach you to enjoy the softer parts of your life as well more taoism even though i am truly injured i i have a purpose where i can actually help a lot of other people with disabilities as well after four years of training i'm much more calm and able to deal with people and now we have several disabled students both children and adult here in the dojo they're really seeing that they can change and improve their lives after hearing my story and i've seen shared this with my chronic pain groups my brain injury groups all over the world so they can see who i am and fully understand how far i've come in fact i still keep the mobility scooter that i first started coming down to the dojo in in one of the change rooms that's not in use because of the code restrictions and it's a reminder now and when people come in here and talk i'm able to actually show them what i what i drove into the dojo they're just astounded at what i'm able to actually do now i want to ask you a question because i i saw you make a post at one point that uh doing the martial arts and doing the goju it actually helps quiet your minds can you walk us through that process of when you're actually in training so when you're running a kata you're just you're training yourself to completely tune out the outside world and everything that's going is going on there while you're you're running a beautiful kata it's it's very easy to accept pain when you when you train when you do something physically active it makes your day a little bit happier to know you've done something actually productive which releases a lot of chemicals in your brain that allows you to max some of the pain that's going on and then when you're at home at night you're able to say well i hurt this bad today on this mentally exhausted today because i actually did something i didn't just wake up and hurt so it's tricks i've learned to to trick the body into accepting pain there's no point in just sitting at home um crying about the pain it doesn't go away it just doesn't so it's it's easier and better to trick the brain into accepting the pain so they don't become a vile nauseous person to to those around you that end up tending to hate you over time when when when you're just down on yourself before the interview started i was so nervous i i threw a few hundred punches at the monkey war and the the bean bags that we have on the concrete blocks just to get some of the attention out of them by martial arts for for people with brain injuries is absolutely astounding i recommend it to all the people in our brain injury groups that i'm a part of so can you tell us a little bit about your school overall school overall is non-sport non-tournaments non-competition i teach lessons here and i have a very old school philosophy about what training what martial arts is what gojuru is and it is about balance you know i have the intention of students enjoying their training i don't want it to be militant i don't want it to be so harshly structured that they're not enjoying so i have a nice balance between some fun and laughter however when kata begins it's serious it's it's hard so we have to harden this off every person's program in here is designed around who they are individually so it's amazing that way so she's taken in full consideration to my extreme injuries she's got so many degrees it's absolutely incredible so she has a real understanding of so many different things when i first started training one of the one of the aspects that was being presented to me was this is going to be a safe place for training nobody will ever make fun of somebody else because they can't throw a kick properly or they can't speak properly which is uh it's really important we do have now a number of people with disabilities and you know mental health issues he that trained here at the dojo so it's been extremely exciting to see everybody work so well with everybody else can you tell us what your what was your hardest challenge so far in class on the mat i couldn't understand when i first started why my body able to do anything just completely failed being able to move my body turn you know it was so difficult so i guess the the just trying to re-teach my body how to do its job uh was the most difficult thing at that time that was i guess four years ago so the last six months i would assume for me the most difficult thing is actually training with the children every second that you're that you're working with them is teaching me how to control myself and not get excited when they can't do things that i've just really learned to do myself their children it took me four years to to count to 10 in japanese four years they do it after a couple of weeks of training here so i've learned already now that i'm going to have these bad days where i can't remember stuff and what i did yesterday i might not be able to do today because my memory is just not there so we take it now really more in stride do you have a favorite drill or exercise in class to be honest with you i enjoy every second everything we do in this dojo because the fact that i'm actually in here baby being able to do it is so joyous you know it just makes me so happy i'm i'm i'm the bad guy in class that laughs and giggles because i actually able to do stuff i uh i laughed at the end of running sanchi and khadat one of my dojos because i actually did it really well i was just so happy i was able to get through the actual kata with her kicking me with her punching me and focus on the actual kata itself it was just an incredible experience for me so you talked about your challenges and you had to learn to walk again and how to control your emotions again so people who have not had a tbi they can understand that concept of it but what is something that a person might not understand or a challenge someone might not understand about a tbi you can get angry at something when you don't have a brain injury and get over it pretty quickly when you have a brain injury it can go on for a very very long time you don't just get to switch off problems they can ruminate with you for hours days or weeks for some people i think that the biggest struggle on a daily basis is what is his mental state at the time so one of his challenges is learning how to lead the outside world outside once he bashes the threshold and bows in to leave all that behind is what ian has been working on i face a great deal of discrimination because to be honest with you i look really good um you know i look fairly fit i look very strong active but you can't see the turmoil that's going on inside the head and people just don't understand it well you look good you sound good i don't understand what your problem is you can't see his injuries so somebody else out in the world will assume ian was at the local store and he was trying to purchase a bottle of wine for a dinner that he was going to and he was having an off day people with brain injuries often slur their words the woman behind the cash made an assumption she assumed that he was drinking that he was intoxicated in fact he wasn't because he had just finished teaching here at the dojo he assists me with the children and he had just finished assisting me and she refused him service outright refused him service and the security guard came running in and there was a big issue somebody with a brain injury who somewhat slurs their words encounters a person who makes an assumption then is demoralized and that happens a lot a lot of assumptions happen because you can't see you can't see the cast on the arm what is your message for anyone out there who might have a disability or a challenge and they're looking to join the martial arts and they're kind of on the fence what advice can you give them give it a try interview the sensei don't just walk into a class if you need to feel comfortable somewhere and walking into an unknown place isn't a comfortable thing for you to do a good sensei would set aside time a sensei would say yeah sure come on and let's have a chat a sensei can have a profound effect on your life one way or another right the wrong sensei for you can do damage right the rents right sensei can lift you up i would like to um first congratulate you on your recent uh brown belt uh achievement and as you continue to train you you're working your way towards black belt what does that milestone mean to you and what are your plans afterwards uh realistically for me once i grade black it means i just learned the basics and the real training is actually starting it's it's a great milestone to teach me that i know absolutely nothing my future is to spend the rest of my life attempting to perfect myself and pass on what i've learned to other people who have injuries like myself hopefully have my own class to actually just people with disabilities being a part of so and i think that would be a wonderful thing to do well some of the great grandmasters in history you know they began their past and karate to overcome sickness and weakness ian you walk through health yet you still hold your head above all the flames you've used your training to not only improve yourself but to stand as a beacon of inspiration for others who might be facing similar challenges if anyone were to walk away from this video with only one message what do you want that message to be never give up on yourself never stop trying if you stop trying you might as well just get ready to die because that's what you're basically doing so never give up always fight how can people find you if they're interested in reaching out to you or joining your classes go online on my website uh call me chat with me i have no problem with people reaching out if if they don't live in my area then i'll do online classes if that's what makes you comfortable with covet a lot of people still don't want to leave their homes so we'll do private online or you can join the class that's going on in here online right uh it's always possible to train to say no i can't train is very defeatist you have to say yeah i can do it ian said i can do this and he did well thank you so much ian for your time today and for letting us walk a little bit with you on your journey you might not have your black belt yet but you're already showing us what a true martial artist looks like thank you so much erica to kosovo so if you are facing some challenges in your life that are having a negative impact i sincerely hope that this gives you the inspiration to step onto the mat either literally or figuratively ian teaches us that you don't have to accept your boundaries but you can learn to push them today sir you are our sensei [Music] you