When, as a beginning Special Needs judo teacher, I was learning more about the art of teaching people with a disability, I got a remarkable telephone call from a parent.
Gwen Reekers
This father said: my daughter is in a wheel chair, she has epilepsy and it would come in handy if she learned how to fall. If she will fall from her wheel chair she won’t hurt herself as she does now. Well. Everyone is welcome to our judo club irrespective of their restric-tion but it was new to me to have to counsel someone with tetraplegie. The first thing I did was to lift Gwen from he wheelchair and put her on the tatami. That in itself was quite a relieve for her: to practice a sport without her wheelchair, and even to live it up physically without having to be careful. I soon saw the possibilities for this judoka. When sitting she has a reasonable balance, her right arm was very strong and soon she could turn to her side very quickly and lift up and lay down her upper body. The greatest drawback were her legs. They were usually in the way when she had to turn herself to her tummy and again to her back. In the beginning actions and techniques had to take place at the side of her. I started with sitting beside her, let her take hold of me with one hand and let her pull me over her. In the beginning just with her right arm, later with her left as well which she used as a hook because of the rigidity of this limb. From kneeling we soon turned to standing techniques: Gwen was sitting on the floor, took hold of my lapels or sleeve and very quickly turned to her side while holding me. So you had to fall over her. There was no other option. In the beginning you could avoid this by resisting strongly but soon she became so dexterous that you were on your back before you realised what was going on. With the greatest of ease the sideways throws became slantwise from the front and from the back. Eventually we also started with holding her from the back and Gwen would turn with her right arm. She got hold of your middle and, while sitting, executed O-Goshi-guruma.
Then came, right as well as left, Ippon seoi-nage. Left by means of her hooked arm, while with her right hand she took hold of her Uke. And right while reaching with her right hand under the armpit she reached over the shoulder. That these techniques were not quite harmless to the Uke is shown by the may nosebleeds Gwen caused.
The next step was to let Uke defend himself. After Gwen had gripped the sleeve and given the usual pull Uke stepped over her with one leg , then Gwen pulled again by putting her body and shoulders on the floor, while she kept pulling with her right arm. As soon as Uke was behind her she sat up very quickly, pulling Uke around and off balance so there was no chance of him stepping over her again and he fell flat on his back. Gradually Gwen became so adept at this that Uke had to become very good at breaking his fall if he wanted to remain unscathed. She once threw Edward so hard he became rather anxious as soon as he had to do kata with her.
On top of that we taught her De-ashi-barai and other sweeping techniques. This tested Gwen’s coordinating actions to the utmost: just a bit too early or a bit too late and the throw would fail. As she could only use her right hand to do this sweep it took her a long time to master it. Gwen was a real competition judoka who won many prices. She was strong enough to throw an opponent over herself and get him in a strangle hold. Well, she was more like a vice really. After Gwen and I went with a group of 8 judokas to a tournament in Sweden, where Gwen did a demonstration, she entered almost all tournaments in Holland and did a lot of demonstrations. Many a judo specialist who saw her at work came to have a talk with her and spoke of his admiration. It must have been quite something to see a woman enter in a wheelchair and see her doing judo quite free and unhindered
