Andy Tullis / The BulletinSean Ertsgaard practices kicking self defense coach Jimmy Smith in the groin to stop Smith from taking his cane. Other techniques include biting an attacker's hand to leave a mark that will serve as evidence of the attack and help police identify a suspect.

Sean Ertsgaard’s steel cane helps him maintain his balance and step forward without falling down.

It’s also part of a self-defense arsenal the 31-year-old with cerebral palsy can use to injure an attacker and escape to safety.

“Rake, Bite, Poke,” Ertsgaard said as he demonstrated a few of the tactics he’s learned while studying adaptive self-defense at southeast Bend’s Smith Martial Arts for the past four years. “You don’t want to stay there (when someone is attacking you). You want to get away.”

Learning how to defend himself has increased Ertsgaard’s level of confidence and strength. He now hopes to share these gifts through a series of one-hour workshops he and trainer Jimmy Smith, the owner of Smith Martial Arts, are running at long-term care facilities across the region.

The cane

Ertsgaard’s cerebral palsy interferes with his sense of balance, his muscle development, his motor skills and his ability to stand up straight. And, like 42 percent of the people with this condition, he also has a severe vision impairment that makes it hard to make out someone’s face or the ground at his feet.

Ertsgaard’s cane helps with both of these problems.

“I use my cane to make sure what I see is really there,” he said, swinging the cane in front of his feet and planting it firmly on the ground with every step during a walk through the parking lot at Smith Martial Arts.

But Ertsgaard hasn’t let these mobility issues stop him.

He plays bocce and bowls at competitions put on by Special Olympics of Oregon. He does work with Abilitree, a local group that helps people with disabilities gain their independence, and does research about materials to find out what combination of wood, steel and tape would make him the best cane.

“The problem with steel is that it’s heavy,” said Ertsgaard, who’s saving his money so he can buy a wooden cane and cover it with tape to boost its strength.

He has also studied various martial arts, including adaptive self-defense, poekoelan and taekwondo, for about 20 years.

But Ertsgaard’s desire to lead a public, active life also has its consequences.

Ertsgaard was riding a bus with his sister about four years ago when a man who made him feel uncomfortable climbed on board. He was worried the man, whom he had had run-ins with in the past, might get belligerent and try to attack him or his sister.

But then he remembered one thing that set his mind at ease: his training.

“I was prepared,” said Ertsgaard, who is still bothered by this encounter even though nothing came of it.

The class

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics issued a report in May that found 36 out of every 1,000 people with disabilities were victims of rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault or simple assault in 2013. That was more than twice the violent crime victimization rate for people without disabilities.

“Because disabled persons are often perceived to be powerless, helpless and unable to protect themselves, they are often targets for violent crime,” wrote Dr. Julie Madorsky, a former professor at Western University’s College of Orthopedic Medicine who was paralyzed on her left side.

Recognizing this situation, Madorsky urged physicians to talk to patients who had disabilities about “sensible, precautionary steps” they could take for their own safety in an October 1990 article she published in The Western Journal of Medicine.

Those steps include learning ways the person can be more confident and assertive to dissuade a would-be attacker, ways they can talk to a would-be attacker to delay any physical contact until there’s a chance for escape and a series of quick moves so they can create their own opportunity for escape should a fight ensue.

“Current consensus favors being prepared and practicing for an assault situation so that the first two or three moves can be sufficiently devastating to provide time to escape, seek help or sound an alarm,” Madorsky wrote in her article, describing the strategies rehabilitation centers and other programs that served the disabled taught their self-defense participants.

Smith uses a lot of these strategies in the self-defense lessons he gives to Ertsgaard, crime victims, bullying victims and groups like the Central Oregon Beer Angels. They pull together a series of quick movements — each of which has a number so people defending themselves can keep track of them — that are done in a rapid succession so they cause as much harm as quickly as possible.

“Self-defense should be so easy everybody can do it,” he said.

When Ertsgaard and Smith practiced these techniques last week, they went through a series of exercises where Ertsgaard hit a punching dummy in the face, the ears and the chin with his cane. Smith then put a plastic, boxing glove-size face on his hand and held it in several positions so Ertsgaard could practice his moves as if the attacker were taller than he is, about his height or coming in from a different angle.

They finished their lesson, which left Ertsgaard short of breath due to the exertion, with exercises where he faced an attacker coming from behind, where he faced an attacker when he didn’t have his cane and where the attacker tried to pin him on the ground. Ertsgaard escaped from each of these vulnerable positions using a series of kicks, punches and bites they had practiced in class.

Martial arts programs in several states, including New York, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio teach people who have disabilities similar techniques they can use to escape an attacker and get to safety.

Smith and Ertsgaard are taking their self-defense training in a new direction by teaming up with Abilitree to run a series of workshops at area long-term care facilities across the region. They’ve offered these demonstrations at Whispering Winds and Aspen Ridge so far this summer and have set up appointments at three other facilities before the end of October.

“They really enjoyed it,” said Sandie Nowell, the life engagement coordinator at Aspen Ridge. “They were soaking in everything he taught them.”

Though she didn’t get a chance to see it in person, Nowell said she could tell the five or six Aspen Ridge residents who attended Ertsgaard and Smith’s self-defense course got a lot out of the experience because they were demonstrating some of the techniques they learned to the receptionist when it was over. She said she’d like to have them come back and would try to get together a bigger crowd for the next workshop.

Whispering Winds Activities Director Helen Garrett was also impressed with the course and has already scheduled a second workshop for Oct. 12. She said her residents, who don’t think they have that much strength because of their age, felt empowered watching Ertsgaard overcome his limitations and fight back.

Smith has also been impressed by what Ertsgaard has been able to do.

That’s because Ertsgaard builds his confidence every time he stands before a crowd of strangers to talk about self-defense, crack a joke or demonstrate a new technique. Smith said this is making Ertsgaard stronger and helping him be a better person who isn’t afraid.

“My confidence has gotten better,” Ertsgaard said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, mmclean@bendbulletin.com