Contact Lenses vs Glasses

Andrew Hamilton wrote: How bad is your astigmatism? I had a very mild astigmatism (about -0.25 diopters) and the laser surgery took care of it. -Drew

I have to check. Is laser surgery expensive?

Jeremy Young wrote: Andrew: Do you know if that surgery works for near-sighted people. Like VERY near-sighted people?

As far as I know, the best chances are at 3-5 diopters, but this information is at least 3 years old, so it might be a bit out of date. Basically the cornea is thinned out, so there is a limit at the very near-sighted site.
As for the price, I heard numbers around 6000-10000 € here in Germany, but I don't know if that is correct.

Ben Duckett wrote: . . . but with my eyes the best option is hard lenses. Apparently these are more likely to fly out . . .

I used to wear hard lenses and I don't think I ever had one come out on the mat (plenty of other places though; swimming pools, buses, roman bath museums . . .) but I did start to have lots of problems with getting dust in my eyes.

I've got daily disposable lenses now and they're fantastic; no cleaning, more comfortable and a bigger lens so I have fewer problems with dust.

Opticians have always been keen to tell me that a hard lens is the best option for me but my sight was actually better with the disposables. They're definately right for me.

Best,

Ed

Jeremy Young wrote: Andrew: Do you know if that surgery works for near-sighted people. Like VERY near-sighted people?

YES -- my wife was legally blind without her glasses, prior to LASIK ---- now she has 20/20 in both eyes, and sees better than I do!

(I'm slightly nearsighted - contacts help, but I'm fully-functional without them during seminars, if I'm in the first few rows for the demos)

One of my coworkers was extremely near-sighted until she got her eyes lasered in January. She's 20/20 now.

When I started aikido I wore glasses and when they weren't coming off my face the edges of the lens was scratching my cheek. Then I started wearing soft contacts. I've had the contacts for ten years and never lost one on the mat. They've come out while sitting in class, cooking, cleaning, working (I just love it when I'm all gloved up, got a test tube in one hand and a pipet in the other and one of my lenses pops out), snowboarding, drving, biking, and climbing but never while training. Just watch, I'll lose a lens in class tonight...

My brother, for a variety of reasons, doesn't wear contacts. He takes his glasses off if he thinks he'll lose them. He had the memory metal frames, and maybe he still does, but he takes his glasses off anyways. A lot of people in our dojo seem to have good luck with that approach.

In Shotokan karate we weren't allowed to have any metal on any part of our bodies in the sparring ring. So the extremely near-sighted who didn't wear contacts learned how to fight blind. Good training for a street confrontation, but it made life tough for some people in competitions. Then again, since we were allowed to punch (but no open hand strikes or gouges) to the head it probably saved a lot of people their glasses.

Peter-san:
Arigatougozaimasu! That was what i was hoping to hear!! I was told as a child that i am legally blind at a distance. I think it was 20/200 the last i remember. I may really need to go and see about this then! Thanks again!
Jeremy

Ben,
i have glasses and i just remove them when i train..... I dont have bad nearsightedness (big word huh?)
Regards,

I am not practicing a lot of Aikido right now, but I have pretty bad vision.
I do a lot of randori in Judo and Jiu-jitsu right now, and it doesn't really matter that much that I don't have glasses on...or contact lenses.

Not being able to see the guy that well kind of depersonalizes him in a way. And, as some of you may know, depersonalizing your opponent makes it easier for us to hurt him!

Just kidding.

Don't wear your glasses.
If you really were to see how large the guy is who is about to swing at you, then you will certainly wish that you had left them off.

That line about how you never saw it coming is over-rated.

Red Beetle

www.kingsportjudo.com

I just switched to one day contacts for Aikido training. Just got tired of taking the glasses on and off between watching the teacher and doing the practice. Should have done this long ago.

In situations where there is little instruction I don't need to wear either.

I do not wear either so my opinion may be invalid but from observance, I would wear glasses with a strap if glasses is your thing since alot of practice sessions in your local dojo are not too vigorous, or perhaps they are. If they are, wear contact lenses. In the cases you cisit a seminar, you may not want to wear either.

I vividly remember Toyoda-shihan slapping the glasses off his uke on several occassions and they would go flying across the dojo. With a slap like that, even your contact may lose its position. Just a thought.

Monty Collier wrote: I do a lot of randori in Judo and Jiu-jitsu right now, and it doesn't really matter that much that I don't have glasses on...or contact lenses.

Its a little different in judo randori though, you maintain a grip throughout and you're too close really to see much anyway. I used to find my randori would improve sometimes if I shut my eyes and went by feel alone - if you've never tried it, give it a go, you might surprise yourself how much information isn't coming in through your eyes anyway.

Sean
x

I prefer to train with contacts, but when I first started wearing them I kept getting dust in my eyes. This meant taking out the contacts, cleaning them, and putting them back in. It turned out that I was blowing the dust into my eyes when I was on the ground in a pin and I tapped out. The only solution I've found is to close my eyes when I tap.

- Mike

Or clean the dojo - yuck.

Peter Rehse wrote: Or clean the dojo - yuck.

We sweep before every class, so I'm not sure where it comes from. A lot of other groups use the room (it's a university club) and I know some of them, at least, don't clean it.

I should also add that I have really sensitive eyes so it doesn't take much for my eyes to get irritated.

- Mike

At first I didnt wear my glasses and spent the lesson squiting to see what was going on.

The I used to wear my glasses on the mat, but got fed up with them flying off during iriminage.

Now I wear daily disposable contact lenses which I put in just before I get on the mat.

My dojo is very dusty, but I rarley find any problems of dust irritation in my eye. I have found these to be the best way for me to practice.

i am a newby and after i read this thread decided to use daily disposable contact lenses.. seems users of them are happy generally

thank you very much all for information

I've been practicing for 14 years as one of the "blind as a bat" club without glasses or contacts. I do generally wear contact lenses, rigid gas permeable. I have signicant astigmatism, but just shy of where Toric's would work. I get great vision with my gas perms, but they have flown out a few times, or gotten dust in them (OUCH). But overall, I prefer to practice with them in.
When rolling with glasses on, my whole world bobbles and my peripheral vision is not as good as with contacts. I can't see a thing of what is demonstrated without. I did try regular soft lenses without the astigmatism correction for a few weeks and dumped that after a weapons classes. Lack of astigmatism correction can impact your depth perception and when you are working with weapons, really, NOT a good to have to deal with that.

Contacts definitely, and in lieu of that I train near blind instead of wearing glasses. Invariably, when I would train with glasses on, they would get bent all to heck, or fly off, which made them a danger to anyone who might fall on them.
Of course, training near blind is a challenge, especially when doing weapons, but it does seem to soften up my focus quite a bit!
Good luck,

-Will

Disposable contact lenses. They are perfect and I have no problems. Since I don't wear them for most other things, I can use one 'daily' pair for a few classes and just wash them in between. The few times I've forgotten them and had to train in my glasses it was a pretty big frustration, as I had to keep taking them on and off and rushing to the back ledge where I'd lay them for safekeeping. No way I could see the demo without them, and no way I felt safe doing most techniques with them. I was partly afraid of damaging my glasses (even without major mishaps there's enough twisting to really lower the lifespan), and partly afraid of hurting myself on them (eg having them broken or pushed into my eyes). There are certain things that are OK in glasses, but many many things that aren't.

I have trained with people with glasses and they all always seem to be taking them on and off, but one guy who comes occasionally is dan ranked and apparently still hasn't found it necessary to get contacts, so I guess it can be done.

I've been using sports goggles for a few years, and they work great. My eyes don't really do contacts too well.

I've just learned to deal with being blind. Its not too bad for me though, I can see well enough to know if a punch is about to hit me.

I wear soft contacts and have no problems at all through all the breakfalls, etc.
My daughter wears glasses in class and so far she's been ok, but we're going to by her some prescrip sports goggles for class.

I preferred lenses while training, gives you freedom
I had a laser surgery about 5 months ago, it costs (intralase) about 600-700 € in Istanbul (World eye hospital), and I am happy with the result. As I know, the hospital also has a branch in Amsterdam. There are a lot of foreigners coming to Istanbul for surgery...soft lenses are ok, surgery also