[real-eyes] Fw: [SFL-L] another adapted sport

I thought this article was too cool!  Makes me want to try it.  Anybody want 
to boot some head?


KAMPALA (AFP) - His name stirs amazement in coaches, while trainers
gush over his
skill and competitors quake in fear. Bashir Ramathan is an
intimidating boxer --
even though he is blind.
Ramathan, 36, lost his sight in 1995 but refused to let that stop him
from resuming
his boxing career, three years ago.
Peers call him "the German" -- a reference to Germany's tenacity on
the football
field, mirroring Ramathan's in the ring.
"I was told by my parents I could do everything," Ramathan says, as
he jumps rope
outside of the East Coast Boxing Club, a dusty, concrete facility
that opened last
year.
"Most people were surprised. They say, 'How can this one play?'"
The thumping sounds of fists hitting punching bags echo from inside
the gym. Boxers
dance around each other, brightly-coloured gloves flying. Their feet,
some in sneakers
and some bare, skid across the floor.
Ramathan bobs and weaves among the athletes, playfully sparring with
them. Both he
and his opponents are blindfolded in matches, putting them on a more
equal level.
But he admits he had a difficult time adjusting to his disability.
"It forced me to become strong," he says.
So did a string of other misfortunes.
His mother died the year before he lost his eyesight. The year after,
his grandmother
died.
Then, unable to cope with his blindness, his wife left him the
following year, taking
their daughter with her.
"I had to learn how to be alone," Ramathan says, leaning against a
wall with cracked
paint.
Doctors told Ramathan his optic nerves had become paralysed and that
he would never
see again. So he adapted.
He learned how to do simple household tasks and run errands by
himself. And he started
to train again for the sport he began as a child.
Every morning, he takes a two-kilometre (one-mile), hour-long jog
with a guide who
runs alongside to prevent Ramathan from hurting himself. He then
heads to the gym
for weight-lifting and training.
"You find other blind people sad at home. I say to them, you have to
move. If you
stay like that, you could bring more sickness on your body," Ramathan says.
Wrapping protective gauze around his hands, he explains how he has
fought in over
15 matches since he resumed boxing. He is undefeated, he boasts.
Behind him, headgear and gloves clutter wooden benches. Massive
punching bags hang
from an exposed roof, as sunlight beams on a circle of boxers exercising.
One of the boxers, 25-year old Robert Sembooze, says he was wary of
entering the
ring with Ramathan for a blindfolded match.
"Boxers fear to compete against him blindfolded because Bashir can
sense faster than
others and is very sharp," Semboze says.
"If there were more blind boxers, he could be a champion."
Others praise Ramathan's agile movements and fine-tuned reflexes.
Ramathan admits boxing is more difficult without sight, but says he
has learned how
to "see" with his ears.
In matches, he listens for the breathing and the footsteps of the
other boxer to
guide his own actions. When the floor is too padded to allow noise, a
coach stands
outside of the ring to shout directions to both blindfolded boxers.
His coach, Hassan Khalia, 45, attributes Ramathan's skill to his
talent for listening.
Khalia says that he now uses words, instead of demonstrations, to
practice moves
with the boxer.
"Before he became blind he was a boxer -- I knew being blind would
not hurt him,"
he says. "He's still one of the best."
Walking to the bench press, Ramathan laughs when told of other
boxers' trepidation
about fighting him.
"They've realised that I am tough. They thought they could just box me 
around."
He aspires to be a contestant in this year's Paralympics, but lacks a
sponsor. A
builder before he became blind, he says he has been forced to rely on
his mosque
for sustenance.
Boxing is what helps him forget his disability.
"There are no differences here, we are all the same," he says,
gesturing around the
lively club.
"Boxing makes me feel more and more normal."

         Skype name: budkeith

"It is not true that
      people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old,
      they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams."
          Gabriel Garcia Marquez



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