Deaf instructor arouses fresh interest in martial arts

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 10, 2005 | by Jennifer McLain, CORRESPONDENT

FREMONT -- "Ahhh!"

Young martial arts student Brittany Dike sticks her tongue out, jumps up and down, and smiles as she defeats her opponent in a stick- fighting drill on Tuesday.

Eleven-year-old Brittany, who has an orange belt, looks forward to her martial arts class every week at the Self Defense Institute in Fremont. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she and four other girls get to slap hands, kick at and swat one another.

But their beginning martial arts class is a little different from the others at the Self Defense Institute, which was established in 1992. In between grunts and giggles, there are no loud commands from the instructor.

Only silence.

That's because the students and their instructor, Antony Johnson, can't hear. Since January, Johnson has taught one of the few deaf martial arts classes in the Bay Area -- and the only deaf class in Fremont.

Even at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, there is no martial arts.

Johnson learned from hearing martial arts instructors

more than 20 years ago. Although he found other ways to communicate, he said through an interpreter that it would have been easier to have deaf instructors.

One parent, Barbie Dike, enrolled her deaf daughters in a hearing martial arts class, but they eventually lost interest.

"They liked the other class but they didn't feel involved," she said. When Dike heard five months ago that Johnson would be offering the class, she was ecstatic, she said through an interpreter and one of Johnson's students, Amanda Kahn.

"In this class, they can ask, 'Why are we doing this?' 'What are we defending from?' The other class, they wanted to stop," Dike said.

Jolene Mahoney-Beaver also was hoping for a sport that her daughter, Brittany, could feel a part of.

"Brittany is very shy, so it's nice to have (Johnson) because communication is more direct. If it was a hearing class, it would be harder, and there would be no direct communication for her," Mahoney- Beaver said through an interpreter.

The girls get paired with each other and with Johnson and Kahn, who helps with Johnson's class. As they perform the drills, they laugh, sign to each other and execute the drills their instructor shows them.

Though Johnson teaches them the importance of obedience, patience and honor, they also have time to have some fun.

For more information, call Self Defense Institute (510) 657- 5558.