Compensating for lack there of

[Eirren-Kendo]

Yo,
I have an eye problem that literally renders me without depth perception. so you might say I live in a 2-D world. I have been praciticing Kendo for a little more than a year now, and I am somewhat running into a wall right now. I have a few tricks for knowing distances, such as using the shinia to measure, counting my foot steps in my head, and basing distance on the size of my opponets and how that size changes with how close or far they are away. Even with my little bag of tricks I still need a few more. So I was wondering if anyone might have some suggestions or maybe there are some other mono-cloptic kenshi who have already learned the ways of dealing with this? :pirate:

[ben]

Wow that's an interesting hurdle to overcome! It sounds like you're doing everything you can for now. I can only suggest that the longer you do kendo, the more you will find ways to judge maai. By grounding your body in kendo's very rigrous and simple forms, you can use your kinesthetic sense (i.e. how your own body is/moves in space), coupled with those measuring devices you've alredy described, to work out the best opportunity to attack. If it's any consolation, most of us are half-blind to what constitutes a real opportunity a lot of the time. We just throw themselves at our opponents without much prior judgement. Your "handicap" might in some ways free you from becoming caught up in some of the kendo sicknesses, by limiting some of the often unnecessary sense-data that kenshi base their decisions on.

I don't know who first said it, but it is axiomatic in the Eastern martial arts that every strength is also a weakness and every weakness a strength. Working out exactly how is the challenge.

b

[supernils]

I have no experiance of such a problem but my suggestion is that you try do copy the Owl's way to move its head.
You know the way they move it up and down, from side to side. In that way they see how things are related in distance. As they appear to move compared to each other if they are in different distance.
This will maybe look strange but it might help.

People with stereo vision can compare this with closing one eye at the time and switching back and forth.

[JSchmidt]

I used to practice with a Japanese guy with only one eye and he was annoyingly good at judging distance...so yeah,it can be done...experience, I guess.

Jakob

[nollaig]

Just a thought
what Yanai Sensei says
No defence, just attack

as soon as you reach your desired maai
go for it
if an opponent realises your rocket powered in attack you will upset their timing
you will control the pace of the fight and have an edge

my 2 pence worth
what do others think?

[mingshi]

I used to practice with a Japanese guy with only one eye and he was annoyingly good at judging distance...so yeah,it can be done...experience, I guess.


The same guy also said something about people disappearing when they go for Gyaku-dou... :D

[Tato]

Yo,
I have an eye problem that literally renders me without depth perception. so you might say I live in a 2-D world. I have been praciticing Kendo for a little more than a year now, and I am somewhat running into a wall right now. I have a few tricks for knowing distances, such as using the shinia to measure, counting my foot steps in my head, and basing distance on the size of my opponets and how that size changes with how close or far they are away. Even with my little bag of tricks I still need a few more. So I was wondering if anyone might have some suggestions or maybe there are some other mono-cloptic kenshi who have already learned the ways of dealing with this? :pirate:

Well, this kind of problem isn't so unsuall, I've the same, as well as many people more. In my case this problem don't prevents me to develop my kendo, because I manage distance without much trouble. Only in some circumstances I can't calculate distances (low light, small fast moving objects, low contrast). I've read that the degree of disability varies a lot, to a point where some people never notice it unless they pass a specific test.

Recomendations? Train a lot, try to develope an automatic distance feeling.

Courage.
Rei.