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Deaf Event – Matt “the Hammer” Hamill

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Joel Kagan

ASL IV

March 15, 2016

Deaf Event – Matt “The Hammer” Hamill

        

        On Friday night, March 11th, I went to a fantastic deaf event that featured the wrestler Matt “the hammer” Hamill.  I learned about the event from my dad, who is an alumni of Massapequa High School, where the event took place.  In fact, forgetting that I’d be on Long Island because of spring break, my dad was actually planning on attending the event himself (he wrestled in high school and likes to support the community).  The fact that I am an ASL student and was on spring recess, made it a particularly great event for us to attend together.

        Matt Hamill is a relatively famous wrestler, with many wins on his record.  After an amateur career, he became part of the Ultimate Fighting Championship community.  He is also deaf, which is an unusual characteristic within the wrestling community and sports world. As I learned throughout the evening, deafness did not hinder Hamill’s wrestling success; Hamill was, in fact, the first wrestler, who is deaf, to win a national collegiate championship.  Reflecting Hamill’s popularity, the auditorium was packed with both hearing and non-hearing people.  While there were people of all ages, the majority of attendees were teens and young adults (hearing and deaf) who were very excited to see Matt Hamill in person.  

The evening started off with the showing of the movie The Hammer.  This is a movie/semi-documentary that depicts Hamill’s life, mostly his high school and college years.  Prior to going to this event, I did not know that there was a movie about Hamill and it provided a good background for me to know his story.  The movie had subtitles as many of the actors signed and the movie was made for hearing and non-hearing audiences. Of particular note is that Hamill was not brought-up knowing sign language.  Hamill was mainstreamed and learned to read lips and use his voice during childhood and adolescence.  This created a particular isolation for him as he was not fully immersed in the hearing community nor was he fully accepted by the deaf community.  Growing up, he struggled with many issues that are typical to teenagers, however, these were notably compounded by the isolation and frustration brought on as the only deaf person in a hearing environment; Hamill was bullied and struggled with acceptance throughout his early life.  The movie did not shy away from the emotional turmoil Hamill experienced while growing up.  With the support of his grandfather and, most particularly, his stepdad, wrestling became Hamill’s outlet and an area where he particularly excelled. Hamill was strong and motivated and became a winning wrestler, so much so that he was a star college wrestler at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and, as an adult, a highly prized amateur and professional fighter.

While the film depicted much of Hamill’s life as it related to wrestling matches and victories, the most moving part of the movie, for me, was in relation to his personal life.  Hamill grew-up lip reading and speaking and was not taught sign language as a child.  This status led to various struggles in and out of school.  When he got to college, Hamill could not fully integrate with the deaf students who signed.  While he did go on to learn ASL, the intermediate years were notably difficult.  Hamill did not fully fit-in in either the hearing or non-hearing world.  Once he embraced signing, Hamill quickly became fluent and was able to feel comfortable among his peers who were also deaf.  Although the movie might be described as having a “feel good” ending, it also portrayed the very real and difficult issues Hamill experienced as a deaf person in a mostly hearing world.  As the movie portrayed, Hamill’s determination and perseverance were vital to his successes both on and off the wrestling mat.

The highlight of the evening took place after the movie, when Hamill took the stage.  The audience went wild.  Hamill is very charismatic and seemed genuinely happy to be at the event.  He signs fluently in a relaxed style.  He addressed the audience in sign, saying he hoped everyone liked the movie and that he was touring a little bit for events as well as training.  Although there was an interpreter, I focused on Hamill’s signs and was able to mostly follow along.  I did not know some of the signs he used, most of which related to sports and wrestling.  For instance, I did not know the signs for wrestle, compete or champion.  Given the other words in his sentences, I was able to figure out what Hamill was signing; I looked up the signs that stumped me when I got home. The floor was opened to “questions and answers” and this was very interesting.  Because I was sitting in a row in an auditorium, I was unable to see what the person asking the question was signing (if they were signing; some questions were oral) because his/her back was to me.  I noticed that, once the lecture started, people’s use of signing space decreased, since the auditorium was very crowded. However, when audience members stood up to ask questions during the Q&A session, their respective use of signing space increased. In these instances, the interpreter stated the question and Hamill signed his answer.  Most of the questions had to do with Hamill’s schedule, i.e., when was his next fight.  The most interesting question, to me, had to do with what advise he would give a young deaf person who wanted to go into sports.  It was obvious that this was an important question to Hamill, who took a few seconds before answering.  He signed that you had to keep pushing forward and believe in yourself and not let anyone stop you from reaching for your goals.  He further signed that this applied to everyone and everything, not just in relation to sports or only for deaf people. This was Hamill’s message for the evening and it was enthusiastically received.

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