‘I compete at their level’: How a Chilliwack martial artist compensates for diminishing sight

Martial arts competitions have frequently been compared to a puzzle with a particularly painful consequence for failure.

But when Ben Forde steps onto the mat, he knows he will have a little less information than the competitor he hopes to outmaneuver. That’s because when he was 16, Forde’s world began to go fuzzy as a genetic condition robbed him of his vision.

Forde had earned a taekwondo black belt when he was 13 but left the sport soon after. By the time he returned to the spelt in his late teens, he had to re-learn not only techniques he had learned as a child, but how to employ those against a competitor he couldn’t see clearly.

Today, a decade and a serious injury later, Forde is finding new ways to disorient and surprise opponents who can see him clearly—until they can’t.

‘Elite-level problem-solving with dire consequences’

Forde started taekwondo when he was just seven. By the time he was 13, he had his first-degree black belt, signifying a range of proficiency in the martial art. Soon after, he quit the sport. When he was around 16, he began losing his sight due to a genetic condition called Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, or LHON for short, which causes eyesight to degrade over time. A couple years later, he re-started taekwondo; a year later, he got his second-degree black belt.

Forde: It is a genetic condition passed down from mother to son or mother to daughter. It's not passed down through the father's genetics. The root cause of the condition is mitochondria deficiency. I actually started losing my sight when I was 16. Before that I had 20/20 vision. Now I have what is called 80 over 1600 acuity, meaning I've lost about 80% of my vision.

I still compete with people that are fully sighted and all of that. So I compete at their level.

FVC: Can you kind of equate that to what you can see now, or describe what you can see?

Forde: So for me, my vision is worse from the central to the peripheral, so I see better out of the corners of my eyes than I do out of the central field of vision. The best way I would explain it is that everything's really blurry for me, but also bright. So I wear sunglasses a lot of the time.

FVC: What made you restart [taekwondo] even after you started to lose your sight?

Forde: I've always just had a fascination with martial arts. I always thought it was so cool how people could do these different things. The best way I've heard martial arts explained is that it is elite-level problem-solving with dire consequences. I really like the problem-solving, because you're in a match with an individual and they want to test their skill level against you. It's not like you want to inflict violence upon that person. It's like: ‘This is a problem that I can solve, and if I don't solve it, there's a consequence for not solving the problem that's in front of me.’

FVC: You’re describing more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge.

Forde: Yeah. Of course, there is the physical aspect of it. Like if you don't have the endurance to keep up with them, that's going to set you back. But just like you would go to school and learn math or something, it's a skill that you develop, and if you don't have the skills to input into the martial art, then you're going to be a step behind. So there's definitely different skills and abilities that you learn. Like if you're stronger, of course you're going to do a little bit better.

FVC: What was it like returning to the sport while you're experiencing the loss of your sight?

Forde: It was really challenging in the beginning, especially because it was so long that I took off of it. And then I also had the other challenge of the visual impairment.

For me, a lot of it was just relearning what I forgot. Then also, if I was sparring with somebody— that's something that we would do at least once a week—I had to figure out a way to work around my visual impairment. That was a challenge.

FVC: How did you do that?

Forde: By paying more attention to their movement patterns. It became a puzzle. You'll notice when you're [sparring] with somebody that they pick up a rhythm, or they have this one move that they like to do. They have a game that they want to impose on you. This is the thing that happens in sparring, and then you need to solve that. So waiting for your timing or being closer.

In taekwondo, competitors use punches and kicks. The emphasis on precise strikes made Forde’s visual impairment a particular challenge. But he still found ways to compensate.

FVC: How did that change your approach to the sport as you're adapting to not having full sight? Do you feel it made you better in a certain way?

Forde: The way I've learned to approach it is that nobody ever starts at anything and is good. You might start with talent, but that talent needs to be refined to become better—so being able and being willing and enjoying ‘the suck.’

The thing that I've also learned—I forget which philosopher said this, but it was true—is knowledge is knowing that you know nothing. So the more that I learned, the more that I learned that I actually knew nothing. I could become better or learn a skill, but the more information that I got from it, [I realized] there's these other details that go along with it.

FVC: You're talking about it being something like a puzzle, or figuring out how to respond to your opponent, and usually that comes with processing information and then turning it into your own movements. Vision is a source of information, and so it's interesting to hear you talk about how you compensate for that.

Getting more physically intimidating wasn’t just about adding power—it was also about shaping how his opponent would behave. 

Forde: For the striking, I would go to the gym and lift weights on the side as well. So I try to be stronger than my opponent. So if I was to strike them, there would be more of a consequence, so they'd become more hesitant to come forward to me. That was one of the workarounds that I had.

A lot of the time, once I would start doing a feint, they would become more flinchy, so that I was able to [impose] my game upon them. In martial arts, there's a defensive and an offensive cycle, and if you're able to put your opponent more in the defensive cycle, then you're going to be imposing your game versus them imposing their game upon you, making it easier for you to dictate the pace of the match.

Around five years ago, Forde broke his foot during a kick. The injury required a metal pin to be inserted into his foot and brought a warning that another injury may force doctors to remove the pin. “That sounded like not a good time,” Forde said. The injury prompted him to quit the sport. But he hasn’t left martial arts. Last February, he began practicing jiu-jitsu, a martial art that more closely resembles wrestling, with competitors using various holds on their opponents. Forde has continued in the sport this year and claimed victory in his class at a Prime Jiu Jitsu competition in Burnaby in February.

Jiu jitsu not only poses less of a risk for Forde’s repaired foot, but he said the sport also is easier to navigate given his sight deficiency. 

Forde: Taekwondo is a lot more challenging than the jiu-jitsu, because with jiu-jitsu, you're able to feel where [an opponent’s] body is.

The sport has its own unique demands, however.

Forde: I learned really quickly that I thought I had decent cardio, but my cardio is actually not that good for jiu-jitsu. So I had to increase my cardio because anybody, I don't care who you are, if you're tired, you make more mistakes. So if I increased my cardio, then I was able to think more clearly through the match, so I was able to make better decisions and better movement patterns. So there's workarounds for each individual sport. You just need to spend a little time in it, and then analyze what you're doing.

Forde has never competed against another visually impaired athlete. And he knows he can’t hide his lack of sight from opponents. The Fraser Valley’s martial arts community is relatively small, but even if it weren’t, he approaches the mat with a cane and the referee guides him to the centre of a circle. 

Forde: The ref will offer me to start with a grip on my opponent so I can find them. Every time I tell them I want to compete with my opponent on their level.

FVC: Do you think you come in under-estimated, or with a certain respect already?

Forde: In the beginning, potentially, but jiu-jitsu, especially in local competitions, is a small community, so your name will get around. So for my last competition, people remember me from my previous competition, so there's already a bit of understanding that I had a capability in that aspect. But for sure there's a doubt.

FVC: Do you get the same sort of enjoyment out of jiu-jitsu as you do out of taekwondo?

Forde: More, because I'm able to understand it more. And since I'm able to feel my opponent, I'm able to feel my mistakes, versus somewhat guessing what my mistake is in taekwondo for the sparring aspect. And there's a little less structure, per se, in jiu-jitsu. In taekwondo, you have to learn breaking. You have to learn this pattern. And then you work on your kicking.

I was never really a fan of the patterns and stuff. They look really cool—like you can watch a YouTube video of them being performed—and you can see the art aspect of it totally in that display. But I was more of a fan of competing person against person and testing my skill level in that aspect. So in that way, I enjoy the jiu jitsu more.