Parkinson's Disease vs. Toyama Ryu

By Mike Femal

One of the goals of Martial Arts is to improve the connection between mind and body. I have been practicing Toyama Ryu Battodo for the last 16 years and it has changed my life. I was recently diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease. My whole world seemed to change. When put on Sinemet as a test, I realized that I had been experiencing aspects of PD for the last 10 years. It has been a struggle between the training and the disease. One strengthens the connection while the other is breaking it down. Toyama Ryu focuses on moving with stability. One of the first lessons of Toyama Ryu is to re-train people about how to walk. It was strange to see that the walking therapy for PD is very similar. It seems that I found the perfect physical therapy even before I needed it.

My neurologist has not quite figured me out. I show some aspects of PD but not others. She always shakes her head when a do the walking test. “You just don’t walk like you have Parkinson’s” she says. I don’t walk like I did 16 years ago either. I used to trip over my own feet. Toyama Ryu changed that over the years and I can not walk like I did if I wanted to. I have come to realize that my world did not suddenly change with PD. It will only change if I let it change. When we went to Japan I was worried about how the PD would affect my Toyama Ryu. By the time we returned I was aware of how Toyama Ryu had affected by PD. There are many aspects of PD that I can not control, but my training in Toyama Ryu helps me deal. I will admit that it is the medication and not the martial arts that has made it so I can sleep and night.

For me, Parkinson’s is about painful cramping muscles, fatigue, and some involuntary shaking. During the day I try not to take any medication. I have a desk job as an engineer and can not afford to affect my thinking. Going to the dojo is my physical therapy. Sitting in seiza is agonizing, but I still do it. The warm-up exercises are brutal on my stiff shoulder. The kata aggravate my elbows. If I listen to the pain, I would stop training. Then I would have given in the disease. Toyama Ryu is my weapon to keep that connection between mind and body. It is also my passion to keep moving. I love Gekken practice. This is type of sparring with stiff padded swords. Most people think it is painful to get hit, but my own body inflicts worse than my opponent can. While sparing I don’t feel the pain and can live in the moment. Later it all catches up with me, but that is the trade-off I make.

Most people with PD fit within a personality profile. It seems to define us long before it shows any physical effects. We seem predisposed to be truthful, ambitious, industrious, serious, single-minded, rigid, introverted, slow-tempered, and harm-avoidant. These seem to be pretty good traits for a martial artist. Having a hobby that involves swinging extremely sharp swords may not seem harm-avoidant, but I am a stickler for safety rules in the dojo. Some people comment about how well I keep my emotions hidden. I do try to keep calm, but the Parkinson’s has more to do with the stoic expression. People may think I am arrogant or aloft, but that fixed expression has more to do with the slow tightening of facial muscles, than anything going on in my head. In some ways PD defines me, but I do not want to let it control me. I keep fighting it and appreciate the support from friends and family that keeps me going.

Unless the medical field finds a way to stop or reverse the effects of Parkinson’s Disease, it will eventually win over Toyama Ryu in my life. It will slowly steal the power and speed from my cuts and make my movements unsteady. For now, I keep following the path, and keep leading my students. I see my teachers farther down the path, and I keep putting one foot in front of the other to follow them.

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Parkinson's Disease vs. Toyama Ryu