True or False?

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

I was thinking about why karateka's quite often get knee pain.

 

I've heard from the shotokan-practicioners, that they have knee pain very often. It's strange, I haven't heard that from some shito-ryu practicioners or wado-ryu practitioners and so on.. Though in kung-fu, they have very low stances and I have NEVER heard from them that they have knee pain. So I asked my father yesterday, I wonder why the shotokans get knee pain so often? And my father said: it's not because of the style, it's because of bad stretching and warming up, it depends on the training.

 

It's the first time I hear someone say that kind of reason. My father told me, that his Sifu told him that.

 

And now I wonder, is that true or false what he said? Is it really because of the bad warming up or training.. or stretching?

[Neil]

No, its nothing to do with the stretching. it is true that many shotokan practitioners have knee as well as hip problems. Knee problems actually come form incorrect stances. Go into any shotokan dojo today and you will see people with their front stance being over 4ft. The longer the better it seems is what the majority of what the karate world is. Bad hips always seem to come from the mawashi geri. The unnatural awkward movement of lifting your leg out to the side and using the hips instead of the waist really mucks up your hips. When you see Gichen Funukoshi or Ken Funokoshi their front stances are never more than 3ft apart.

[ninjanurse]

Snap kicks don't help the matter either!

 

[Neil]

"Snap kicks don't help the matter either"

 

Actually the snap is there to protect the knee. Locking out the knee joint is kicking obviously recks the ligement in the knee and back of leg and you will have operations at a very young age. Same with punches where you lock out the elbow joint.

 

Neil

[WhiteBelt]

If you lock your punch/kick it's going to hurt right away. If you continiously use snap kicks, it's going to hurt when you get older... It's best to find the happy median.

 

Shotokan practitioners with bad knees? Probably because the people in charge are promoting deep stances during the kata presentation because it looks better. When you go that deep it can be very easy to accidentally go too far and damage the knee.

 

I had knee pain before I started karate in a school that was basing their style off shotokan. The only time I feel my knee pain is when I twist irregularly or do jumping squats. But I take some suppliments and am very careful when I am exercising my legs.

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

Ok. So it is because of too deep stances?

 

Hmm.. well I think so too.

[Neil]

It is not so much about being to deep as it is being to large and awkward. You will also be taught to lock out the back leg because it looks good. Although when you get into the shotokan stance you tend to find your self almost 'pulling' your self up using hips. You tend to have to jerk your self forward instead of just naturallly flowing from one stance to the other. There are 3 bows of the body. When you put your self in such a large stance that you are immobile you isolate then, where as if you keep it shorter and push all your weight over the front leg you compact them up and joint them and then explode pushing off the back leg like the proppeller of a boat. NEVER NEVER bend the back leg. If someone tells you to bend the back leg, walk out fast, becasue that person knows nothing about the ody and when you'l be in your early thirtys you'l be walking around like your sixty. And by the time your sixty, god knows, you'l probobly be in a wheelchair.

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

I appreciate your replies.

[ninjanurse]

Snapping kicks and punches causes the ligaments and tendons to stretch in disproportion to the muscles around the joint. The imbalance can cause knee pain, tears, and can eventually lead to chronic degenerative changes.

 

Several of my instructors have cautioned about this and stressed (as WhiteBelt suggests) a happy medium between snaps and thrusts. Locking of a joint that is not properly conditioned can cause hyperextension which also damages ligaments, tendons, and joint surfaces. The best way to avoind knee problems is to properly condition the legs and listen to your body.

 

[mArTiAl_GiRl]

Right! Absolutely right, I have to "listen to my body"!

 

Thanks ninjanurse.