Imagine you’re hanging out by the pool in your wheelchair with a friend, and a group of thugs emerges from the bushes, knocks out your friend and rushes your chair. What do you do? 

Double amputee Ted Vollrath found himself in exactly this situation and he didn’t hesitate. He knocked down the closest attacker with two quick punches, grabbed a ninja star from his spokes and zipped it across the pool, right into the jugular of another assailant who was reaching for a gun. Vollrath then finished off the remaining thugs with an array of punches and body attacks, eventually dragging two of them into the pool and subduing them. 

If that sounds slightly (or extremely) fanciful, rest assured, Vollrath — reportedly the first wheelchair user to receive a black belt in karate — did do all these things … but he did them as the eponymous title character in the 1978 grindhouse classic Mr. No Legs. Without the benefit of Hollywood magic, however, the prospect of defending yourself as a wheelchair user can be quite daunting. What are the best tactics to protect yourself? Can a wheelchair user actually stave off attackers? And if so, how? 

Prevention and De-Escalation 

For 23 years, Kenn Perry struggled to find the answer to an even simpler question: Where does one go to learn adaptive self-defense? Perry, a polio survivor who uses crutches and a wheelchair, finally found a kenpo karate teacher willing to instruct him — and most importantly, he learned to explain why he could not perform an exercise and how to work with instructors to adapt the moves. 

Today, he holds black belts in kenpo and small circle jiujitsu. He founded the Willow Foundation for Adaptive Martial Arts and is a member of the Adaptive Martial Arts Association. In his 30-plus years teaching students of all abilities, he has been an outspoken advocate for adaptive self-defense and martial arts.  

While Perry has never faced a situation like Mr. No Legs, he did meet Vollrath at a self-defense conference, and he has used his skills to physically defend himself. His best advice for fellow wheelchair users is to never let dangerous situations get that far. Use common sense — don’t roll alone at night, avoid sketchy situations, and keep your head on a swivel. 

“If you’re doing self-defense right, it’s very much mental,” says Perry. “You’re hoping that before it gets too physical, you’ve already been able to de-escalate the situation or get out of the way. Your ultimate goal should be gaining good control of your chair, or whatever apparatus you use, and increasing your situational awareness so you can see challenges coming before they get there.” 

Awareness is also at the heart of Molly Hale’s self-defense instruction. She has been practicing Aikido for 38 years — 11 as a nondisabled student and 27 as a C5-6 wheelchair user. She is the U.S. representative for the Disability Working Group of the International Aikido Federation. With a fifth-degree black belt, she and her husband are opening a dojo in Northern California. 

“In a martial practice, you learn a 360-degree awareness,” she says. “So not only are you aware of what’s in front, but also what’s behind. We call it collecting the backside. Wheelers need to gather their ‘backsides,’ and engage in bringing energy from their back through the front of the body.” 

Learning to control breathing is a big part of this expanded awareness. “If one is holding one’s breath or seizing up, it can cancel out effectiveness,” she says. “Lack of sufficient oxygen creates a panic in the brain, clouding thinking and response.” 

Controlling your voice is perhaps even more important in conflict management. Erik Kondo, a T4-5 paraplegic with a third-degree black belt in small circle jujitsu, urges students to practice speaking and body language in front of a mirror. “The most effective technique to learn is how to use your voice to set boundaries and to send a message that you will not be easily victimized. Using your voice in a powerful manner requires practice. For many people, setting firm boundaries doesn’t come naturally.” 

When Conflict Is Inevitable 

Sadly, sometimes awareness and voice are not enough. “A highly motivated attacker will not be deterred by your voice and body language alone,” Kondo says. “Such a person will likely use violence to get what he or she wants.” Kondo founded his nonprofit Not-Me! Inc. to promote self-defense education to help wheelchair users and others in exactly those situations. 

Kondo stresses that people should be cognizant of the differences between the martial arts and self-defense. To explain the differences, he refers to David Erath’s The Ultimate Guide to Unarmed Self Defense, which notes that many forms of martial arts “were not made for self-defense in the first place; most provide no education or understanding of real violence. Many martial arts techniques will not work against a fully resisting, uncooperative opponent. In addition, most styles lack realistic training with and against modern weapons.” 

For Kondo, realistic training means being prepared for the unexpected and understanding what actually works and what only works in theory or against a compliant training partner. He takes issue with a lot of traditional instruction that doesn’t account for the variables that occur during real-world attacks. 

As an example, he questions the practicality of another adaptive instructor’s suggestion that wheelchair users should grab a frontal attacker’s hair or clothing and take a quick push backward to disrupt the attacker’s balance and cause them to fall forward. 

“Assuming the attacker has broken a strong verbal boundary and appears to be ready to physically attack or is in the process of grabbing, the wheelchair user would have to use one arm to reach up and grab the attacker and pull back on one wheel with the other arm to go backwards,” he explains. “This is a very weak movement. There is no power. Most likely the attacker would just counter-grab and pull the wheelchair user out of the wheelchair.” 

Kondo says a common and effective violent attack against a wheelchair user is to knock the person out of the wheelchair, either by pulling the person from the front, pushing the wheelchair over from the side, or knocking the person backwards with a pull from behind or a push from the front. He urges wheelers to focus on minimizing negative consequences by knowing how to fall without sustaining injury and how to protect the head once on the ground.  

“You must know how to use your arms and hands in such a manner as to both protect against continued attacks while simultaneously striking back and making as much noise as possible,” he says. “In the event of a violent assault, fighting-back methods could include eye gouges, biting, clawing, ear ripping, nose and eardrum penetration, neck and throat attacks, along with head and groin strikes. The overall strategy is to convince the attacker to willingly disengage from you by causing as much pain and injury as possible, while minimizing your own chance of serious injury.” 

Trust Your Body and Skills 

Perry urges students to think outside the box about what tools are available. “You have to understand that you have things that able-bodied people don’t think of that can be used very effectively,” he says. “If you can quickly remove the armrests off your chair, that becomes a club, and carbon fiber and aluminum and steel is a lot harder than bone. You smack a guy in the arm or a leg with that and you can cause a lot of damage very quickly.” 

Manual wheelchair users can also use their footrests to undercut an attacker’s balance. Perry recommends maintaining a 45-degree angle to your attacker. “If they’re coming in on a 45, you’ve taken away a lot of vital targets that they might want to strike, and you still have some ability to attack some of their vital areas. It also sets you up for an escape route. You know that if somebody’s coming into you on a 45, you can hit them and move them in one direction and you take off in the other direction.” 

For power wheelchair users, Perry says the key is to avoid a victim mentality. “Your mindset has to be different,” says Perry. “If you’re thinking because you’re sitting in a chair and can’t move your arms that you are highly vulnerable, you’re forgetting that you’re sitting in a 300-pound tank. When you hit your joystick, you’re on top of the attacker before he knows it, inflicting pain.” 

Hale emphasizes that what self-defense looks like for you will likely be different than what it looks like for anyone else. “Keep an open mind, and honor and trust the movement you have,” she says. “Don’t expect what you do to look like any classical martial art, because it’s all adaptive.” 

Unlike 35 years ago, when Perry struggled to find an instructor willing to teach him, now many teachers are willing to work with students of all abilities. Perry encourages anyone who wants to learn more to find an instructor who communicates well and is willing to push them. 

“When you’re in a dangerous situation, you need to have trained past your comfort zone. You need somebody that’s going to tell you, ‘That’s not good enough,’” he says. “If you find the right teacher, you’ll come up with approaches that are appropriate that you can make work.” 

Resource:
Not Me! self-defense nonprofit