Age / Injury correlation in Kenpo

[Kenpomachine]

30. 4 years of training as a child and then 4 more. Only major injury was a heel cut with the mirror of the mat while doing long 3. Mainly bruises and jammed fingers. Once a black eye.

Have gotten worse injuries practicing team sports...

 

[Rick Wade]

Broke my nose on Christmas eve sparring.

Had great christmas pictures!:lol:

 

[MJS]

Originally posted by RCastillo
That'll teach when grappling with your dates! Go with a background check first!

Mike:rofl:

 

[Michael Billings]

July of this year will be my 25th year in Kenpo.

Martial Arts over 35 years now, (and I am not counting the judo I did as a kid in the early 60's, but only the consistant time in Shotokan, TKD, and Kenpo).

Injuries:

Shotokan - Bone bruises (still have some of the lumps on the bones in my forearms and legs), a bloody nose or so.

TKD - Pulled muscles, bruises, and jammed fingers and toes.

Kenpo - Same as above, plus:
Broken Toes (now fused)
Cracked Ribs
Broken Nose (can't count the times)
Torn hamstring
Stitches (19 or so) over the right eye
ACL Replacement (grappling in a sparring class circa 1987 or so)
Facet or neck injury - BJJ seminar at a Kenpo camp
Hyperextended elbow
Lumbar vertebra ouches
Black eyes
Broken fingers
Ankle rebuilt

I guess Texas used to have a reputation back in the 60's and 70's for Tournament fighters being a bit ... well, bloody. Light contact to the body was 3" in, and 1-1/2" to the face. My instructor and I were just talking about some of the great fighters we knew, back when. This was before they invented hand gear and foot gear.

We definitly trained hard, but we did not train smart. My much older body reminds me of that fact every day.

-Michael

 

[Ceicei]

I didn't count in my injury list earlier that I hyperextended my left wrist twice this year from doing kenpo. My wrist was already made weak 4-5 years ago from a work related accident causing the original hyperextension and bursitis. It never fully healed even after treatment and its strength ranged between 75% to 90%.

- Ceicei

 

[Eggman]

Well Im 32 with no broken bones from kenpo, knock on wood. I did tear my hamstring last year(level 3) and had a sever hyperextension of the elbow(slight tear of the tendons) but other wise the same old creeks everyone else has, bloody nose, bruises, scratches, and aches. Ive been training in kenpo since i was 18 with TKD before that.

 

[molson]

I just turned 41 and can relate to all of the injuries above. I have disc problems, knee problem, hyperextended elbows, broken toes and fingers etc..... I can relate to the no gear sparring also...

I was asked to play racket ball saturday after playing for several hours I can not get out of bed due to a swollen knee and stiff back. 20 years in the martial arts never gave me this much pain....

Jeff N.

 

[sierra don]

48 here..........started Kenpo last June(2003) and so far I have had a broken left big toe, fractured left rib and my latest is injury to my left knee......not sure what I did to it.

The knee basically collapsed on me three weeks ago during some warm-up kicks, heard some loud cracking before falling to the floor with a whole lot of pain, thought I broke it.

sd

 

[rmcrobertson]

When I started at 39 (yikes!), I was taught by an instructor in her forties who'd always had some physical limitations. She was very, very careful about teaching so that I could train for a long time, rather than a few years--and little lessons, like keep your hands lightly closed when you're sparring until at least green belt really seem to've paid off. I try to pass them on, especially to kids I teach--remembering Nick Nolte at the start of "North Dallas Forty." I mean, who wants to be Jackie Chan first thing in the morning? I'll bet it takes an hour and a half just to unkink that guy...

Of course, starting older has the signal advantage of starting after a lot of those wacky hormone levels have dropped to something reasonable.

I'd distinguish between "reasonable," and "unreasonable," injuries. Reasonable? Bruises, lumps, black eyes and fat lips. Those ugly-but-harmless knots you get on your shins when you clash with some other idiot, sparring. An occasional popped finger or toe, maybe an occasional dinged rib.

Unreasonable? Ripped out joints. Concussions from stupid, aggressive roundhouse kicks. Torn-up rotator cuffs because some idiot couldn't be bothered to learn a take-down correctly, with some control. Or the long-term results of having your back stomped by some yahoo who couldn't learn control OR stances for some of the endings, like Dance of Death (reason no. fifteen hundred to learn the damn forms, by the way)--that sort of stuff.

It has been my experience that most scary injuries are caused by stupidity, or lazy training...the single best illustration of thiss I know appears when students WILL NOT keep their hands closed while blocking, especially downward blocks for some reason....saw a guy do Thrusting Salute that way, and when his ring finger broke, it bent back far enough that the skin ripped most of the way around the base of the finger...

I worked in hospitals for some ten years, and I never saw that before...

 

[Old Fat Kenpoka]

Oh, I forgot one.

In the days before mouthpieces...I cut my lower lip on my tooth thanks to a good punch. Got a fat lip. Because the lip was swollen, I would accidently bite it pretty often. So the swelling didn't go down and a cyst formed inside the lip. An ENT removed the cyst with a scalpel in a 5-minute procedure.

 

[Rainman]

Originally posted by rmcrobertson
When I started at 39 (yikes!), I was taught by an instructor in her forties who'd always had some physical limitations. She was very, very careful about teaching so that I could train for a long time, rather than a few years--and little lessons, like keep your hands lightly closed when you're sparring until at least green belt really seem to've paid off. I try to pass them on, especially to kids I teach--remembering Nick Nolte at the start of "North Dallas Forty." I mean, who wants to be Jackie Chan first thing in the morning? I'll bet it takes an hour and a half just to unkink that guy...

Of course, starting older has the signal advantage of starting after a lot of those wacky hormone levels have dropped to something reasonable.

I'd distinguish between "reasonable," and "unreasonable," injuries. Reasonable? Bruises, lumps, black eyes and fat lips. Those ugly-but-harmless knots you get on your shins when you clash with some other idiot, sparring. An occasional popped finger or toe, maybe an occasional dinged rib.

Unreasonable? Ripped out joints. Concussions from stupid, aggressive roundhouse kicks. Torn-up rotator cuffs because some idiot couldn't be bothered to learn a take-down correctly, with some control. Or the long-term results of having your back stomped by some yahoo who couldn't learn control OR stances for some of the endings, like Dance of Death (reason no. fifteen hundred to learn the damn forms, by the way)--that sort of stuff.

It has been my experience that most scary injuries are caused by stupidity, or lazy training...the single best illustration of thiss I know appears when students WILL NOT keep their hands closed while blocking, especially downward blocks for some reason....saw a guy do Thrusting Salute that way, and when his ring finger broke, it bent back far enough that the skin ripped most of the way around the base of the finger...

I worked in hospitals for some ten years, and I never saw that before...

Just tell you you are wrong when you are wrong... Okay.

Reasonable and unreasonable injuries are relative to the circumstance. The zone is a place of extreme acceleration so when operating in such a place there are no guarantees of anything. How far do you push it? You have your ideas but you can't expect someone else from another school to share your ideas on what contact should be. Train smart that is for sure, that is all that can be done when simulating combat.

 

[rmcrobertson]

In other words, you agree wholeheartedly. OK, fair enough.

I can--and I daresay you'd agree--expect adults to manifest some common sense.

Or let me put it this way. In the pursuit of training for effective self-defense, of training so that one doesn't get really hurt in the event of an actual emergency, it would be best to avoid getting really hurt.

My point exactly; good to see the convergence.

Similarly, it seems as though we agree in separating accidents--the inevitable accessories to training or any other human activity--from the consequences of macho posturing and aggressive stupidity.

Thanks.

 

[Rainman]

Originally posted by rmcrobertson
In other words, you agree wholeheartedly. OK, fair enough.

I can--and I daresay you'd agree--expect adults to manifest some common sense.

Or let me put it this way. In the pursuit of training for effective self-defense, of training so that one doesn't get really hurt in the event of an actual emergency, it would be best to avoid getting really hurt.

My point exactly; good to see the convergence.

Similarly, it seems as though we agree in separating accidents--the inevitable accessories to training or any other human activity--from the consequences of macho posturing and aggressive stupidity.

Thanks.

Have to agree with you there- have not seen many people acting the fool though. Cobra Kai types... nope just not much experience with that personality except when I tried to buy a new car.

Point two: The instructor should really watch when people are training and know when someone is in danger of being set up for a serious blow to land. Instructors do have to bare some responsibility because they should know what is going to happen. That being said, control will always be an issue between blackbelts. Some schools just train differently so the person conducting class has to be aware and in the moment during a match or whatnot. Gotta protect your people.

 

[Zoran]

Started when I was 16 and will be 39 in a few weeks.

1.5 years EPAK
3 to 4 years in and out of TKD, Jujitsu, and tried a couple different Kenpo styles.
13 years in Kenpo from the Parker/McSweeney/Saviano lineage.

About 18 years out of 23 of actual training time.

Two sprained ankles and one wrist.
Usual jammed toes and fingers and hyper extended joints.
Shoulder injury.
Knee surgery (after a demo in 94) for meniscus tear and minor AC damage.
And the usual boo-boos that I only remember about when I try to get up on a cold morning.

 

[Norma]

My son 4 1/2 years has been in karate for just about 1 year now, and has already started to get bruises to the feet. nothing major.

Norma

 

[TheRustyOne]

I'm 19, and suffer from the usual bruises. good luck so far...*knock on wood*

 

[KenpoTex]

I'm almost 22, been studying EPAK for almost 1 1/2 years, so far: 1 broken nose, 1 broken toe, countless jammed fingers and toes, and the usual assortment of bruises, dings, dents, and pulled muscles.

 

[satans.barber]

I was 22 on Friday, have been in kenpo almost exactly 7 years now (whoa, that's like 1/3 of my life!).

Hope to be in it for a long time to come yet too!

Ian.

 

[ellaminnowpea]

Well, nothing broken..jammed fingers, toes, instep (never try to be nice whilst performing a roundhouse kick..dumb) bruises galore, general soreness after a tough workout..No, no real injuries..

I've been studying for about 2.5 years.

and, I test this weekend.

Yes, Kempo is my boyfriend

 

[ellaminnowpea]

Originally posted by ellaminnowpea
Well, nothing broken..jammed fingers, toes, instep (never try to be nice whilst performing a roundhouse kick..dumb) bruises galore, general soreness after a tough workout..No, no real injuries..

I've been studying for about 2.5 years. Oh, I'm 34 yrs. old..forgot to add that in..

and, I test this weekend.

Yes, Kempo is my boyfriend