COUNTYWIDE : Blind Teens Get Grip on Martial Arts

Blind and less than five feet tall, Shayla Gustafson would appear to be an easy target for a mugger or a school bully.

But for the past five weeks, Shayla and about 15 other blind teen-agers from the Orange County Braille Institute have been taking a martial arts class where they have learned how to punch, kick and even flip a much larger assailant.

“You’ve got to learn how to protect yourself,’ said Shayla, 13, moments after she tossed to the ground instructor Dan Gagnon, who stands a foot taller than the Anaheim girl. “He went over easy. I don’t know how I did it.”

It’s all in the technique, said Kris Eszlinger, who operates the United Studios of Self Defense, where the class is taught.

Eszlinger not only hopes the eight-week course will teach the teen-agers how to protect themselves but give them body control and balance and improve their self-esteem. He is teaching the students a modified self-defense system that compensates for their blindness.

“Because they can’t see their attacker, the students have to learn how to find them by feel,” Eszlinger said. The students are taught to not lose physical contact with their assailant. Beginning students who can see are taught to break free as quickly as possible.

“If the attacker gets away (from a blind person), they can come around and attack again from a different angle,” Eszlinger said.

Brian Nelson, the Braille Institute’s assistant activities director, said other Braille Institutes offer martial arts classes and the Orange County students were eager to have one of their own.

“I hope it will teach the kids self-confidence, which will carry over and make them want to try other activities,” Nelson said, noting that the institute also offers such high risk sports as skiing, kayaking and surfing. He mentioned one boy who in five weeks of self-defense courses has gone from being a self-doubting introvert into a nonstop talker who is full of confidence.

On this day, the students were learning how to rebuff an attacker who comes at them from behind, placing them in a chokehold with his forearm.

Because he could not visually demonstrate the moves for the students, Eszlinger told them step-by-step what to do.

First turn your head and place your chin into the crook of the assailant’s arm, so he cannot choke you, Eszlinger told the students, then put your arm straight out in front of you and then bring your elbow back hard into the assailant’s side.

With a little practice, almost all of the students had the idea by the end of the session and moved through the steps rather fluidly.

“This is a wonderful technique,” said Andy Del Castillo, 18, from Upland. Del Castillo, who will attend Stanford University this fall, was joined in the class by his 14-year-old brother, Tony. “I used to wrestle, but these are different techniques. What makes it interesting is we are also learning a little bit of the physiology that goes into the moves.”

Armando Lira, a muscular 19-year-old Placentia resident and a former member of Bolsa Grande High School’s wrestling team, used the technique to easily lift an instructor off the ground and slam him down. The sound of the instructor’s body hitting the floor drew applause from Lira’s fellow students.

“Somebody who thinks it’s going to be easy to take something from us is going to be surprised,” said Lira, who studies computer science and electronics at Cypress College.