TACTFIT for Disabled

[Marcinek]

Dear Coach Sonnon:

My name is Matt Marcinek I am 26 years old and have cerebral palsy, I can’t walk. Despite this fact, I have been training in judo for the past 5 years (currently holding the rank of Nikkyu-second degree brown belt) as well as training in BJJ and wrestling.
I also have been doing a modified crossfit program with a trainer on and off (unfortunately more off than on, not being able to drive yet inhibits my ability to make the gym as much as I’d like)

The past couple days, I have been watching videos and reading up on your TACTFIT system and it is really interesting to me. I was wondering, if the time ever comes, do you think it would be possible for me to become certified in teaching it?
Grappling is my life and I think I would enjoy being able to teach combat athletes new and dynamic ways to get in shape.
Thank you for your time, and all the resources you put out,
Matt Marcinek
www.Disabledgrappler.com

PS: i also sent this to your facebook page but I figured this would be a more direct form of communication, because i would think you get a ton of junk mail on there

[wildman]

hello Matt


my name is mark wildman. i would like to start out by saying that i couldn't respect what you are doing more. i took a brief look at your website and i plan to read up on it later this evening, but i wanted to ask you some quick questions to help me get a better understanding of your situation.

a bit of info on myself. My step sister had CP so i've been very familiar with this disease most of my life, and my mother was an equestrian therapist for my entire life up until last year. she worked with all manner of special needs individuals. her experience had some carry over to me so i've thought alot alot alot about your particular conditions.

first question? Can you stand? you said you couldn't walk currently but does your body support weight straight down through the legs?

second question? could you walk in the past?

third question? what type of specific ground mobility is part of your judo training?


its great to make your acquaintance. keep using this forum, i think you could get alot of good ideas here.

[Marcinek]

Hi Mark:
Thank You for your response! I will answer your questions the best that I can, plus I would like to give you a little more insight into who I am as a person which I hope will get you a better idea as to why I’m here
1). I can stand for short periods of time unassisted. Maybe I can hit a minute, I’m not very sure but they are short periods. Since you have some experience in dealing with individuals with CP, you know that balance in a lot of cases is a big issue. That is why they do horseback riding with young kids to help develop their balance and core stabilization by sitting up in the saddle. I actually rode for a very brief time when I was little about 19 years ago when I went to Easter seals. It was pretty fun
2) No, I have never been able to walk by myself, I have to use a walker or other device to ambulate.
3)I’m not sure how to answer your last question in regards to specific mobility techniques that I use, so, I will tell you the movements that give me problems.
“Shrimping”- the shrimp drill, getting knee to elbow. If you or anyone else has ever done ground based fighting, then you know how paramount the shrimp drill is to success and not having it kills me. I believe that it is my lack of hip strength and hip mobility that doesn’t allow me to have this movement and since I struggle with coming up to one knee its been a problem
“locking closed guard”- I cant really lock my feet around my opponent in guard so I play an open guard game a lot and need to use my hands to defend myself
I’m sorry I couldn’t give you more on that last question but I’m going to tell you a bit more about myself and my goals and hopefully, in a roundabout way I can give you a clearer picture of myself and my goals things like that
When I started judo almost 6 years ago, I was hooked like a junkie who wanted his next hit, or that little boy who catches a glimpse of that little blonde girl at recess I was in love. I loved training, I loved competing, I loved everything- except losing.
Right now, as it sits, my competition record is 0-70, 70 straight losses. That doesn’t sit well with me and I will do anything I can to try and improve. A lot of people will say that my wins and losses don’t matter but they do they matter to me-the only person they should matter to
I also plan to start working extensively with my bjj coach privately next month through the summer and going over what works from each position and how to get myself in good position to “hide” weaknesses
I am looking into yoga cause I heard that that’s great for both grapplers and disabled people In general although, no places around me have experience working with disabled people
TACTFIT appealed to me cause it was dynamic and focused on my applications for my sports with a mix of bodyweight work , yoga, and seemed very practical
I will be honest another reason I inquired about possible certification is, being disabled and finding a job is not easy and my brother owns his own personal training business and I thought maybe I can bring something unique either with him or at my training academy where we have a crossfit affiliate.
One day, my ultimate goal is to not only be a champion but to raise champions as a coach, as a trainer, I just believe in love combat sports so much and believe that they add so much value to a persons life and pass on such great lessons
If you go through my blog, some my posts are pretty “down”and a lot o times I read it and am like “jesus, get your head out of your ass” but I wanted to make sure that it was all “real” exact emotions so people can realize what I go through
I apologize for the long diatribe and if you have any questions, I’m an open book.
Look forward to all interaction,
Matt

[wildman]

my competition record is 0-70, 70 straight losses. I will do anything I can to try and improve.

that is probably a record more deserving of respect than any i have ever heard of before. you must have moxy coming out your eyeballs. honestly i don't think i've ever respected a record and/or statement of intent more.

could you tell me more about the Classification of your CP to help me understand it more
Spastic
Ataxic
Athetoid/dyskinetic
Hypotonic




no places around me have experience working with disabled people

very true. in reality it is extremely difficult to find people with that experience and education. most likely you will never find your "mister miyagi.' you will probably have, and it seems like you are already on the track, to become your own.

because there is a limited amount of "real" well thought out therapy and training for someone in your situation, it seems to me that your goal of potentially moving into the field of training could be reasonably realistic. there is a large large opening in that particular market. not under the crossfit model of training, but under a more specifically thought out and specifally addressed model like CST




TACTFIT appealed to me cause it was dynamic and focused on my applications for my sports with a mix of bodyweight work , yoga, and seemed very practical


tacfit and tacfit commando are all of those things. because of your current limitations i would encourage you to examine other programs and concepts before tackling those 2 programs. those programs assume a specific amount of basic mobility at the beginning in order to progress.

because of your current limitation in standing, i think that should be the prime focus of your training for now. it may not appear at its outset to be as "sexy" but the stronger a foundation you can build the better your long term progress can be. banging your head against the wall trying to master movements that are beyond your current level of motor control sophistication will be annoying and emotionally.... crappy.

do you already have the resourses....
intu-flow - the basics of joint mobility and progressively complex skill development. essential for improvment of your rolling. it may have to be modified in the beginning for you. i have plenty of simple ideas for that.
body flow (book) - the pre-prasara manual on biomechanical exercise (think of it as fighting specific movement for your sport)
be breathed - a basic spinal rocking series that can and will help your supine movement.
the big book of clubbell training. - you might as well read the basics. i have ideas about how you should begin training, but i'll need more info to come up with a starting point.

question? how is your upper body strength. many CP people i've known have only had issues from the hips down.???

these recommended sources are the basics of the information at which you should begin your journey. these are the things and concepts that the tacfit evolutions are based on. begin at the beginning, no?




One day, my ultimate goal is to not only be a champion but to raise champions as a coach, as a trainer, I just believe in love combat sports so much and believe that they add so much value to a persons life and pass on such great lessonst

i think that is a great goal, and i support your efforts entirely.

[Marcinek]

Hey Mark:
Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it. I don’t see my life as being a big deal. I’m just a kid trying to be successful at his life’s passion. Everybody has to be passionate about something in life and my passion just happens to be the combat sports and I refuse to have my disability be an excuse or some type of crutch for poor performance on the mat.
My classification of CP: I’m sure I was told exactly what it was when I was younger but a couple of fun nights in college seemed to knock out that memory LOL No, but seriously, I would say that my CP is a mix of spastic and atheoid CP.
Spastic because the left side of my body, really my left arm has a high amount of tonal spasticity. When I was younger my left arm was not even usable. I used to hold it closed and up like a claw. Around 15, I had tendon release surgery, and I’m now able to open and close my hand. Some of the spasticity still remains though and it is not as fully functioning as my right arm.
Atheoid-obviously because of the problems balancing, standing, and holding posture.

No, I don’t have any of those resources as of yet. I actually didn’t know where to start. Yeah, if I can get loose enough to start rolling around that Scott does in the intu and body flow stuff that would be awesome and I think my progress would skyrocket!
If you have any other questions, like I said, I’m an open book
Thank you again,
Matt

[Marcinek]

Oh, I just realized i didnt answer one of your questions, My actually very good. Obviously, from what I told about my left arm, it is weaker and there is a strength discrepancy there but at the risk of having a little bit of hubris here. My arm strength is very good.

I am known at my academy for my grip strength, my training partners and best friends credit me for their armlock and triangle choke development and I routinely am asked by partners 200 lbs + to drill armlocks because they feel if they can armlock me they can armlock anyone (right now i am heavy at 164lbs but i normally compete at 145) and a lot of times they struggle to break my grip

[Miykael]

Grappler's toolbox might be another program that may help you, it has a lot of the body-flow movements and specific grappling exercises.