How often do you get banged up?

[BlueDragon]

Last spring I wore down my hips so much that I had to take a month off from all sports just to let myself heal. I think it is important to take a a couple of days off every couple of weeks so your body doesn't get worn down to badly.

[SaiFightsMS]

Yes Bluedragon, and the older you get the truer that is.

 

Shotochem I have to agree that many of our martial arts related injuries are related to mental lapses.

 

I think the type of thing that gets me into the most trouble is over training. Going too hard for too long without adequate recovery time.

 

 

[shotochem]

Sai, I know what you mean. I was pretty hurting before the holidays because of overdoing it. A few extra days off and it feels

 

like Ive gotten a new set of legs. Im trying to

 

do more stretching to avoid any extra problems.

 

 

[SaiFightsMS]

Actually the most beat up I got trying to train was when I switched from foam training nunchaku to the wooden ones.

 

I have had some hand eye coordination problems and I have to say sparring and nunchaku really make improvements in that area. It is like either improve or get killed.

 

 

[AnonymousOne]

I have been battered and bruised and the worst place that happened was when I was in Japan. They are brutal and I personally dont think that improves anything but your determination to keep training.

 

You need to harden your body where your body gets blocked alot, forearms and shins namely.

 

Getting hit often is or should be an accident. Often its done by egotistical people.

 

Back in the 1970's when I first started training, in the dojo was a husband and wife team. They were Shodans and I was 1st Kyu.

 

The husband was an excellent Karate-Ka but a man of great ego. I constantly beat his tiny little wife in Kumite. Well, one night I leg swept her and put her on the ground in front of the whole dojo. I just reacted, there was no evil plan in it, but he didnt take it that way.

 

So the next time I sparred with him he beat me to a pulp and there was blood everywhere. Our Sensei (at the time) saw it and did nothing. I was infuriated.

 

I increased my commitment to training. A year later they left the Dojo.

 

Years went by and I kept training. In 1995 they returned to the Dojo. Near on 20 years had passed. I have a memory like an elephant. They were made to start at white belt again and once they got to brown belt they could attend Dan grade classes.

 

I saw them come in and get changed and I had a pile of pride inside of me, which was not a good thing really. But I remembered what this man did to me and I decided, not so nobly, to settle the score.

 

I had also heard rumour's that at the Dojo he was attending, not head (Hombu) dojo he was treating some other students badly.

 

I felt a lesson was in order. Anyway... we went through the warmups, basics and kata as we usually do and got onto Kumite. It was a big class and he finally noticed me standing before him. We were doing Kihon Kumite, one step sparring. As we were about to start, our sensei told the class to ensure we attack strong and hard. Now this is a big guy. 6'5" and about 220lbs.

 

He stepped forward with a lunge punch to my stomach. Along with his big ego he likes to attack big. So I side stepped and before he had stopped moving I had countered with a jab to his head. He was surprised at that way I excuted it. I could see what he was thinking in his face. Then he had to change over to the left side. He attacked again. This time I spun around backwards as he was moving, backed into his body, rammed my elbow deep into his gut and the judo flipped him onto his back and I countered again with a downward front kick, using my heel, to his head. I held this blow back.

 

He got up and we changed partners again. As he moved away to the next guy he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

 

Then we eventually got to free sparring. By this time we had been training for almost 2 hours and those that arent fit find themselves lacking in performance at this point.

 

Once again he found himself facing me. Fortunately my sensei was some distance from me and I felt I had some latitude. As we were going through the bowing I asked the guy if he remembered me. He said he did. I said "Thats good, its been a long time, I will be sitting on your Shodan testing committee".

 

So... we started sparring. Now this is a guy that is not intimidated at all. In fact he came at me like he wanted to test me. Now remember almost 20 years of constant training for me had past, I had also spent a lot of time in Japan.

 

Clearly this man, was no match for the training I have had. I am not being egotistical here, I am stating plain fact. 20 years difference in training makes a huge difference especially at the school I am at and apart from this my 6 days a week of training had been going on for some 10 years.

 

He went to attack me with a front kick. He telegraphed his movement and I saw his foot lift. So what I did was slam my right front kick, not pulled, deep into his stomach. The wind was thrown out of him and then I foot swept him on the ground. He slowly got up and others were still sparring. I told him to proceed. I stood completely still with my hands by my side. I nodded and said "Well, go on". He lifted his fists into a sparring position and started dancing up and down on his feet as to tell me "I am fit, I can do this". I know this man and he was trying to tell me what happened didnt matter. He then went to attack me with a lunge punch. As he stepped forward, as his foot was slightly off the ground, I swept his foot out from underneath him, he crashed again to the floor. His wife was two people away and she leaned forward to see what was happening. I told him to get up. He did. I stood there again with my hands by my side motionless. I nodded at him again to proceed. This time he attacked again with a lunge punch, I side stepped to his right, countered with a front kick to the kidney and again foot swept him to the floor. This time I knelt down and countered with a single point fist and held it only millimetres from his eye and did a really loud Kiai.

 

By this time he was really humiliated. I could see it in his face. I had taken him to the floor 4 times. As he got up I said to him "You need to work on your fitness and speed, and dont stop training, you lose your technique."

 

He clearly understood the message I was sending. After this I only saw him once a week and he was much more respectful, not only of me but of others, so much so that others commented on it. Very few saw what happened but I am glad his wife did. She is a really nice person and I suspect she spoke to him about it.

 

The moral of my story is this. Those that are below you may one day be above you. Either way have respect for people.

 

 

[spinninggumby]

At my traditional kung fu school, it was not uncommon to walk out of sparring class with bruises all over your arms (not from getting hit, but from blocking), not to mention cuts/scrapes or broken noses. Many of these injuries don't even occur from your opponent, it may be because you burned yourself on the mat/carpet/floor or you were stupid or impulsive and you twisted or slammed your foot into something other than flesh. Fortunately, after much conditioning your arms do not become so easily battered. It was especially hard for me since I was a 125 pounder going up against people that were sometimes 180 and beyond. Some days would be good days and some days you just wouldn't feel like you had a handle on things at all. And I don't care if you have a helmet or not, a solid sharp kick to the head does not feel good. However as I did this for a few years, I felt that practical real-life sparring was not my primary interest. I was willing to go through the injuries and the pain/humiliation/extreme loss of ego as long as the end result was worth it, but to me I wanted to explore and focus on other aspects of the m/a. A real fight is neither pretty nor choreographed nor long, and it was just my preference to focus more on stunt work and acrobatics because to me there is more to martial arts than being able to pound your attacker into the ground, despite the fact that this was the traditional primary goal and purpose. Being able to defend yourself with utmost precision and refinement is only one of the bonuses of intense and efficient training, but to me the real goal is to learn more about yourself, and to keep learning. I may sound too idealistic to many people but I have thought many things over and over and this is the conclusion that I want to stick with. :wave:

 

 

[AnonymousOne]

Eventually you get to the point of being able to pound the pulp out of 'any' street punk in a matter of a split second. With intense training it only takes about 2-3 years to get to that level (for the average person).

 

After that the m/a becomes an art.

 

 

[omnifinite]

I think the worst injury I've had is a sprained thumb. Pretty sad, eh? Guess I need to try harder .

 

And great story, AnonymousOne. I hope I have the means to train that much for that long.

[LeaF]

Well I have gotten bruises and bumps and have limped to school on a couple ocassions but nothing too serious.... The worse thing I ever did to someone was break his hand in karate class (but it was his fault he blocked my kick wiht his hand open and I caught his fingers). It is true that all my bad injuries have occur outside the dojo, which include a broken growth plate in my ancle, 4 broken fingers (on the same hand at the same time) and a couple of broken toes

[Blue]

Broken wrist about 4 months ago during sparring. I went to kick someone a little to fast more than likely with lousy technique and fell and landed on it. I'm finally going to be testing for my orange belt this Saturday, Thank God.