Iaido elbow! help needed

[Aikicomp]

Hey everyone,

I am currently having a bout of "lateral epicondylitis" commonly known as tennis elbow. I have had two injections of steroids over the past six months and have done PT and stretching exercises as well as wearing a brace. It keeps coming back and I've made an appt. with a sports medicine Dr in two weeks.

Anyhoo, have any other of you had this happen to you and how did you remedy the situation?

It's become so bad that I can not even think about doing O chiburi, Yoko chiburi hurts too, but, not as much. As of now I can only do nukitsuke (with medium pain 6 out of 10), Kesa giri cuts, kirioroshi cut and noto. It's to a point where I'm beginning to not want to even pick my sword up. Which is something that distresses me because I love iai.

Any help would be appreciated.

Michael

 

[Ken Morgan]

I had the same issue a few months ago, though not close to what you are going through.
I believe that my chiburi was much too aggressive for a while, and that was what caused my elbow problem to begin with. I started using an elastic elbow wrap thing for support and I stopped doing chiburi completly for a few months. Your cuts, your focus and you balance are much more important then your chiburi.

 

[Sukerkin]

Tennis elbow is one of those evil ailments that really only time can ease, sad to say.

One thing that will help is to lessen the load on the joint and tendons by using a very light mogito rather than an iaito.

We have a lady in our class who has hyper-mobile joints which means that on occasion she injures herself through repeated over extending. Sensei made her a feather-weight mogito which allowed her to continue to practise - indeed she got her 1st kyu just the other week .

 

[Aikicomp]

I had the same issue a few months ago, though not close to what you are going through.
I believe that my chiburi was much too aggressive for a while, and that was what caused my elbow problem to begin with. I started using an elastic elbow wrap thing for support and I stopped doing chiburi completly for a few months. Your cuts, your focus and you balance are much more important then your chiburi.

Agreed, thanks Ken. I will try not doing chuburi for a few months and see if it helps.

Tennis elbow is one of those evil ailments that really only time can ease, sad to say.

Thats what I figured, I guess I kind of knew that already but, needed to hear it from reliable sources who have many more years of practice in than I do.

One thing that will help is to lessen the load on the joint and tendons by using a very light mogito rather than an iaito.

Unfortunately, I only have my Iaito and Shinken which are about the same weight, approx 2 pounds.

We have a lady in our class who has hyper-mobile joints which means that on occasion she injures herself through repeated over extending. Sensei made her a feather-weight mogito which allowed her to continue to practise - indeed she got her 1st kyu just the other week .

Please tell her I said congratulations from across the pond

:asian:

Thanks for the replies gentlemen, I appreciate your sage advice.

Just had a thought, I do have bokken, I could humble myself and go back to using them for a while. I also bought my daughter a bokken that comes with a saya so, I could use that as well and not let my nukitsuke and noto get rusty.

Thanks again,

Michael

 

[Bruno@MT]

Interesting. a iaito is made of aluminium - zinc alloy and a mogito is made of steel (I think?). So why would the iaito be heavier?

 

[Sukerkin]

The mogito referred to in this case is a wooden sword, usually with a saya to match and normally carved from a hardwood. It differs from a bokken in that it is shaped to be a replica of a katana and is not intended for contact.

The term actually means "imitation sword" and in Japan I think is used for what we would more generally call "wall hangers"; certainly it means a non-sharp sword-like-object .

 

[Bruno@MT]

Aha ok. No I thought it was simply an unsharpened steel sword so I didn't understand how that would help. Thanks.