Newbie : unnecessary pain during practice,blocks, hits ...

[alanseijas]

I would also like to add, that in a combat situation; conditioning doesn't mean as much, because of the adrenaline factor. Your skills in defense are much more important. It's like the guy who fought for his life, and got stabbed during the scuffle only to find out that he didn't know it until afterwards. If you hurt yourself protecting yourself, it's still better than not escaping the troubled situation.

[mya]

I usualy have the same problem that you have, but normaly i can turn it.

 

For blocking i sujest that you tell your partner that your are getting hurt, and start showin signs of that pain, but do that before you actualy start to feel pain, do it at disconfort level, as some people are so hard headed that takes them lots of time to see what they are doing.

 

If that doesnt work, you can use the same medicin on them, the people who tend do this kind of thing also feel pain and tend to be strong muscled people. They tend to not be so flexible as most weeker humans.

 

So when your sensei asks you to practice high kicks to the head, you do them full power, full speed. Its not long before they learn that pain is dealt but is also received. And if you are young you can easely tire them out making them follow your rithm.

 

Also if you develop more arm muscle blocks will not hurt as mutch as the bone will go denser and the muscles will protect you more eficiently.

 

If nothing works, things can get hard as you will be pushing them and they pushing you and that tend to result in injury.

 

I seen once a orange guy break a blackbelt pinky finger with a high block to a head punch . But there is nothing like a injury to make them think twice about things. And remenber training accidents do happen...

 

If you just keep getting abused,just tell your master if he doesnt do nothing just change dojo, and probably style. Try a grapling art as its a lot more effective than karate krap. And i practice Karate, but im realistic if i see a grapler i run.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Unfortunately, pain is something that is a part of the martial arts. There are ways of dealing with it, and everybody has different tolerances for the amount of pain that they can tolerate.

 

We do body toughing techniques in our class about once/week. Koto Ate (not sure of the speling) drills.

 

1. Toughing forearms: With your partner, both right foot forward in a front stance, the outside of your feet touching the others. Both do an outside block using either the single, or double bone blocks. Strike each others forearms, then both immediately do a low block, again striking each others forearms.

 

Repeat at least 20 times, or as much as you want. You can vary the amount of contact depending on what you can handle. You do yourself NO GOOD if you always tap each other lightly so it doesn't hurt.

 

After you finish one side, do the other side by reversing the feet.

 

2. Toughing Outside of Leg/thigh: Face your partner, both in same leg forward front stance. Take alternate turns doing roundhouse kick to ourside of thigh, above the knee. Be careful, and DO NOT flinch away from the oncoming kick, as you can hurt your knee that way. Have your partner kick as hard as you can stand. If you can take more, tell them. Or less. Communication people. Also, make sure you partners foot is on the ground and he is solid before taking your turn to kick him/her.

 

3. Toughing Inside of Leg/Thigh: First of all, you have to have faith in the accuracy of your partners kicks. You'll see what I mean when you try this. Both face each other in front stance, but opposite legs forward (one left, one right forward). Same as #2, roundhouse kick ABOVE THE KNEE, but below the groin (can we say..got cups? lol). You'll find quickly that the inside of the thigh is MUCH more sensative than the outside is. Again, do not flich the leg as the kick makes contact.

 

4. Toughing the back of the shoulder blades. Face each other, left feet forward. Put your left hand on top of your head (to expose the shoulder blade) and take turns kicking each other to the shouklder blade using a roundhouse kick. Gets you used to taking a hard smack to the back area.

 

5. Toughing the stomach area: One person get in a good Horse or straddle stance so that you are at a 90 degree angle to your partner (he's to your right or left). Turn your obi (belt) to the side so that the knot is on the side instead of the front, then put you hands behind your back. Tighten (breath out at impact) your stomach muscles and allow your partner to roundhouse kick to your stomach. Again, if you can take a harder hit..tell them. If it's to hard, also tell them..but take as much as you can handle.

 

6. Toughing the shins: You can do like the old Okinawans used to do, and beat your shins against tree trunks until they bleed, or do what I do, and it works GREAT! Take a wooden rolling pin, or Coke bottle (Pepsi sucks! lol), and roll it up and down your shins. Again, as hard as you can stand. When you get to a point where it doesn't bother you to roll it hard on your shin, then start TAPPING it against your shin instead. Harder and harder as your shins get used to it. Eventually, you'll be able to use your shins as effective leg blockers..matching your shins against your opponents. And when they strike and he starts screaming in pain...you'll be standing there smiling, because it hardly hurt you at all!

 

It's worked for me for quite a few years. There isn't any worry about developing arthritus or any other damage from extended practice at these drills.

 

Good luck.

 

You find that as you do these exercises, you'll be able to take more and more, with less pain and discomfort.