Toenails?

[JusticeZero]

I'm practicing/teaching out of a TKD studio; the owner put down puzzle mats long ago, and if we're inside, that's what we have to train on.

Because we do have those damned mats, I need to accept that me and my students are going to continue to be losing toenails on a fairly regular basis - I had one ripped off Thursday, and my senior student lost one off of a different toe, just doing basic stuff. I hate those mats, but I don't have other options.

Is there any sort of typical treatment for or concerns to watch for for torn off toenails? Beyond just "wash it off later and don't let it get infected"? The one I tore off the other day still has a little tiny bit of the nail left on the toe, and i'm not sure if that's going to need to be watched or anything.

[Rateh]

I've had some toenail problems, though not for that reason. When I had my toenail removed by a doctor, I had to wear a bandaid over it with some very strong antibiotics for like....3 days i think it was? After that i was free to not put anything on it. It kind of grows a hardish skin to protect it before the nail grows back.

You might get an ingrown toenail from it growing back though, so watch for redness, swelling, and pain from the side of your toe. Also you are at a higher risk for getting a fungus.

[tallgeese]

You might want to consider keeping the ones suffering the most proactively taped.

[Aodhan]

I'm practicing/teaching out of a TKD studio; the owner put down puzzle mats long ago, and if we're inside, that's what we have to train on.

Because we do have those damned mats, I need to accept that me and my students are going to continue to be losing toenails on a fairly regular basis - I had one ripped off Thursday, and my senior student lost one off of a different toe, just doing basic stuff. I hate those mats, but I don't have other options.

Is there any sort of typical treatment for or concerns to watch for for torn off toenails? Beyond just "wash it off later and don't let it get infected"? The one I tore off the other day still has a little tiny bit of the nail left on the toe, and i'm not sure if that's going to need to be watched or anything.

Our studio has had puzzle mats for years, and I don't recall any toenails being ripped off. The only injury I've had were from the 4x8 mats laid in our second room, when I did a spin kick and left a toe behind in the junction.

How are you constantly ripping off toenails?

John

[bushido_man96]

I agree that taping toes might help prevent some of those injuries. Ouch, I can't imagine what that feels like!

[JusticeZero]

They catch on the mat when we're stepping or doing spinning kicks - and we do a LOT of spinning kicks - or when we're twisting our foot relaxedly into the floor with most of our weight on it - which is a large part of our footwork. It's mostly negativa-role (floor movement), tesouras (floor movement - scissors kick takedown with both hands on the floor), mea lua de compasso and armada (both 360 spinning kicks, the first with the hands on the floor) that seem to be the worst offenders for having our toes getting caught in the seams of the mats so far, and we do most of that list every day; negativa-role we generally end up doing about ten lines down the room, give or take, ON DAYS WHEN WE'RE FOCUSING ON UPRIGHT STUFF (ie *not* negativa-role work)

I never have any issues doing any of that in everyday street shoes, it's just 'barefoot on puzzle mat' that gives us trouble.

Usually it's not toenail so much as 'toe gets caught in the mat a third of the way through a movement where more than half of the weight of the person doing it is on the ball of the foot in the process of twisting around 180 degrees to land on; like having stuff that catches and injures Aikido and Judo players any time they try to do a roll.