injury catalog? Why do we do what we do...

[JP3]

Last Tuesday night after class I was talking with one of my students. He shared with me that he's having to wear a neoprene sleeve on his left elbow, as he'd taken a fall poorly the week before and it was bothering him quite a bit now. I asked him about it and it turns out I'm the culprit that threw him, shame on me. Dern Osoto-gari showing up in aikido class, anyway. I mean... he walked right onto it, I was obliged to show him, right? (Judo humor. Judoka get it)

He & I kept talking about his elbow, and I told him my right one gives me problems from time to time as I had it separated, not quite dislocated, in a tournament a quite a few years back. So then, we started comparing notes on the injuries we've each sustained in each other's time "on the mat," as it were, though for me it's been several dozen different mats.

I admit a weird (like I said, I admit it) curiousity about the injuries we've all incurred during practice, training, competition, real defensive situations and so forth. I wanted to get the thread going, and then I'll come in with my own. My student's were like this:

Cracked jaw, sprained elbow (I did that, my bad), twisted ankle, cracked rib (not me) and that was it. I must have made a face as he told me the things he'd injured, so then I started. His face got weird as I had more injuries to my right arm than he had dealt with to his entire body. But... 40 years vs. 10, I guess that's the thing.

your injury history? Fill it in with amusing anecdotes if you are lead to do so, that's always good.

 

[Headhunter]

To many to list but for as to why I do it? Because I can't sing or dance (always wanted to put that reference in a conversation somewhere lol )

 

[Buka]

Injuries? I'm going to need a bigger pen.

 

[marques]

Nothing serious, fortunately. We trained 'well' in that regard in my first old school. Then, I avoided any risky place. But in the trying, I got some concussions, though...

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Last Tuesday night after class I was talking with one of my students. He shared with me that he's having to wear a neoprene sleeve on his left elbow, as he'd taken a fall poorly the week before and it was bothering him quite a bit now. I asked him about it and it turns out I'm the culprit that threw him, shame on me. Dern Osoto-gari showing up in aikido class, anyway. I mean... he walked right onto it, I was obliged to show him, right? (Judo humor. Judoka get it)

He & I kept talking about his elbow, and I told him my right one gives me problems from time to time as I had it separated, not quite dislocated, in a tournament a quite a few years back. So then, we started comparing notes on the injuries we've each sustained in each other's time "on the mat," as it were, though for me it's been several dozen different mats.

I admit a weird (like I said, I admit it) curiousity about the injuries we've all incurred during practice, training, competition, real defensive situations and so forth. I wanted to get the thread going, and then I'll come in with my own. My student's were like this:

Cracked jaw, sprained elbow (I did that, my bad), twisted ankle, cracked rib (not me) and that was it. I must have made a face as he told me the things he'd injured, so then I started. His face got weird as I had more injuries to my right arm than he had dealt with to his entire body. But... 40 years vs. 10, I guess that's the thing.

your injury history? Fill it in with amusing anecdotes if you are lead to do so, that's always good.

My list is probably shorter than most who've trained as long. More cautious in our training (good and bad to that, obviously), I suspect. I've dislocated a couple of toes and at least two thumbs. "Tweaked" elbows, wrists, and shoulders many times each. A separated shoulder from showing off long rolls 15 years ago (amazing how much we can do with a separated shoulder when we don't want anyone to know how much that roll just hurt). A sprained elbow and shoulder from an over-zealous brown belts (those guys are dangerous) applying a Come Along. I attribute at least one of my cracked teeth to my training. Pulled muscles and bruises on a regular basis, of course. One very nice tear, though I can only attribute part of it to training. There was a minor existing injury, but I know exactly the moment I tore that muscle 25% through - like fire in my forearm, that was. A few ribs out of place that a chiropractor had to put back for me (one happened in Portugal - had to wait for that one to go back on its own...agony for a whole week).

 

[oftheherd1]

Once during after class free sparring with a brown belt while studying TKD, we clashed shins several times and it caused a day or two of pain. He got more 'points' than me, but I think he was as glad as I was when we stopped. I was 8th green at the time.

At the same school, certain parts of my anatomy slipped over the back rim of an improperly fitted steel cup while sparring. I took a hit. That's when I learned jumping up and down (forcing the lowering and relaxation of the muscles) really did help. I thought GM Rhee was nuts when he told me to start doing that. But one normally did not fail to follow his directions.

Once when doing successive kicks in HKD, my calf muscles cramped during a standing spin kick. The injury to the tendons in my foot lasted about three weeks before I could really do much in class or out. Very painful even walking.

One of the 4th degree instructors paid me back with the most incredible kick to the top of my thigh bone. What precision and power in that kick. What pain that caused. I had less than a quarter sized mark on my thigh for a couple of weeks, and couldn't walk well for a little more than that time. One should not embarrass a school owner/master when sparring.

Looking at what some of you guys have had happen, I feel like I haven't had any injuries at all.

 

[kuniggety]

I feel fortunate so have gotten away relatively unscathed too: bruised ribs, hyper extended elbow (a couple of times), broken toe, tweaked shoulder that sometime soon I really need to actually have looked at, a twisted knee, and lots and lots of sore necks and random bruises all over my body and face.

 

[kuniggety]

I attribute at least one of my cracked teeth to my training.

I think that takes talent.

 

[Buka]

Broken foot, fingers, toes. I seem to shatter ribs every ten years, do the sleep in the chair thing for a week. Torn ACLs, cartilage tears (easy cartilage fixes nowadays).

Ran into a wicked nice jump back kick, blocking with my face of course. Helluva view just as it hits, kind of like an eclipse of the sun.

Fifty shades of black eyes - they always seemed to come before weddings and parties. A couple times had the panda bear thing going.
Crushed something in my throat, spent a couple days in the hospital. But all this stuff is over a really long time. Not hardly as bad as it sounds.

Never broke my hands or jaw, though. Feel way ahead of the game in that regard.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I think that takes talent.

Yes, a talent for talking too much during training. Weak teeth helps, too.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Two cut tendons needing surgical repair, broken hand, broken wrist, two broken fingers, dislocated shoulder, stitches above the eye a couple of times, a few mild concussions, a poke in the eye that had me seeing flashes of light at night for 6 months, innumerable bruises, abrasions and mild strains. Stretched out over 35 years I suppose that's not too bad, but I probably could have been a bit more careful along the way.

 

[JP3]

Good stuff, guys... I especially like the tongue in cheek stuff. Buka's blocked out the sun as he ate the jump back kick sparks empathy & sympathy both, having been there and done almost exactly that.

Story first, then right arm list. I Told ya the list was long about my right arm. It's a deadly, snakey, mean beast though... but not very smart.

My early taekwondo days, I'm OK. Blue belt, so mid-rank. At the time, 6'3" and about 210 lbs (oh, now those were the days... rippled stomach AND over two bills, woohoo..., lookout ladies). Idiot, yep that was me.

One of our kid student black belts had an uncle who did a style of karate called kensho-ryu and while he was visiting he invited some of us in the so-called "adult" class (term was used very loosely, I look back and think now) to his dojo. We were in the middle of the stage of learning I now describe as --- "I think this stuff works. Does this stuff work? Maybe if we fight full-contact we'll find out if this stuff works. Let's find out if this stuff works!" Way before anyone has anything near the level of skill necessary to make such an endeavor at all safe.

So, of course, we go. Me and my 19 year old buddeies. We get there and there's this older guy there named Ken. Nice guy, Ken. By older, he was maybe 24? Old as the hills. Smaller than me, maybe 6'1" and about 180, Brown belt. He's there, along with a few other people invited over for what amounted to a loosely-organized teaching session combined with a dysfunctional tournament. Call it Bloodsport 1/3. So, we get started. Pads were nominal, if you brought them, you put them on. Ken used traditional TKD pads on instep & shins, the white and tight kind, and also over knuckles and forearms. I, way proud of my Macho-brand gloves & boots, wore those. I noted Ken put on a well-worn piece of headgear of the same type as his hand/footgear.

To sum up, let's just say Ken, at 24, was about 24 times farther along his path than I was. Buka, you described seeing the jump back kick you blocked with your face (a technique I've found to my liking at times with spinning heel kicks until I figured out to just crowd) and Ken had probably one of the best, and most concealed (to me at the time -- iut was invisible) juspinning side kicks ever. He was really pretty good, I'd say that Ken's spinning back kick is probably in my top 10 of such kicks I've seen, and I spent a bunch of time watching Olympic TKD. He'd been working on it for about 12 years, I found out later.

Anyway, I'm trying to use one of my nifty kick combos... something really exotic, like front kick, round kick, and in the middle of step transition between kick 1 & kick 2 Ken fires this thing right intot he pit of my gut.... I could see it coming.... once he seemed to shimmer in the air and was suddenly reversed in position with his foot up and chambered... and pointed right at me. Too bad I was still on body drop from kick one and didn't have the control to get out of there. Whoooffff and back about 4 paces I go, rolling over my head. Ugh. Come to think on it now, I'm very glad Ken was a nice guy, and stuck that thing in my belly, and not my ribs, eh? Hospital trip there, almost certainly.

I've a similar Ken story about his spinning heel kick going off into an alternate dimension before appearing behind my head to whap me int he open spot of the headgear, but that's for a different time.

Right arm:

Right pinky, dislocated at 1st & 3rd knuckles. This happened ejecting a guy who had just punched his gf in the face about 10 feet away from me, from the bar I bounced at, before I figured out that it is WAY easier to make them go out under their own power than to throw, or avoid this one, carry, them out.

Right ring finger, 1st knuckle dislocated and fracture between 1st and 2nd knuckles, happened at different times, both in hapkido class

Right middle finger, impacted 1st knuckle from punching too many boards. No clue what that pine tree did to us, but we must have hated them trees.

Right forefinger, disclocated at 1st knuckle, lengthwise split fracture when someone stood on it at a TKD tournament while I was waiting to compete

Right thumb, base fracture, separated joint, and dislocated again. 1st time was in Hapkido class doing release action too fast and paid the price for it, 2nd time was my paramedic partner thought she was being cute so she was going to walk me through her new submission technique she's learn from one of the local cops. Oh yes, it works, especially if yur thumb was separated a couple of weeks before. That little thing took me about 6 months for the thumb to work right and now it will still slide out of joint if something gets it the wrong way.

Right elbow, separated, but not dislocated, escaping from a jujigatame lock during a tournament. I never felt it... until the next morning. Wooeee...
Right shoulder, separation from judo falls taken with poor ukemi.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Good stuff, guys... I especially like the tongue in cheek stuff. Buka's blocked out the sun as he ate the jump back kick sparks empathy & sympathy both, having been there and done almost exactly that.

Story first, then right arm list. I Told ya the list was long about my right arm. It's a deadly, snakey, mean beast though... but not very smart.

My early taekwondo days, I'm OK. Blue belt, so mid-rank. At the time, 6'3" and about 210 lbs (oh, now those were the days... rippled stomach AND over two bills, woohoo..., lookout ladies). Idiot, yep that was me.

One of our kid student black belts had an uncle who did a style of karate called kensho-ryu and while he was visiting he invited some of us in the so-called "adult" class (term was used very loosely, I look back and think now) to his dojo. We were in the middle of the stage of learning I now describe as --- "I think this stuff works. Does this stuff work? Maybe if we fight full-contact we'll find out if this stuff works. Let's find out if this stuff works!" Way before anyone has anything near the level of skill necessary to make such an endeavor at all safe.

So, of course, we go. Me and my 19 year old buddeies. We get there and there's this older guy there named Ken. Nice guy, Ken. By older, he was maybe 24? Old as the hills. Smaller than me, maybe 6'1" and about 180, Brown belt. He's there, along with a few other people invited over for what amounted to a loosely-organized teaching session combined with a dysfunctional tournament. Call it Bloodsport 1/3. So, we get started. Pads were nominal, if you brought them, you put them on. Ken used traditional TKD pads on instep & shins, the white and tight kind, and also over knuckles and forearms. I, way proud of my Macho-brand gloves & boots, wore those. I noted Ken put on a well-worn piece of headgear of the same type as his hand/footgear.

To sum up, let's just say Ken, at 24, was about 24 times farther along his path than I was. Buka, you described seeing the jump back kick you blocked with your face (a technique I've found to my liking at times with spinning heel kicks until I figured out to just crowd) and Ken had probably one of the best, and most concealed (to me at the time -- iut was invisible) juspinning side kicks ever. He was really pretty good, I'd say that Ken's spinning back kick is probably in my top 10 of such kicks I've seen, and I spent a bunch of time watching Olympic TKD. He'd been working on it for about 12 years, I found out later.

Anyway, I'm trying to use one of my nifty kick combos... something really exotic, like front kick, round kick, and in the middle of step transition between kick 1 & kick 2 Ken fires this thing right intot he pit of my gut.... I could see it coming.... once he seemed to shimmer in the air and was suddenly reversed in position with his foot up and chambered... and pointed right at me. Too bad I was still on body drop from kick one and didn't have the control to get out of there. Whoooffff and back about 4 paces I go, rolling over my head. Ugh. Come to think on it now, I'm very glad Ken was a nice guy, and stuck that thing in my belly, and not my ribs, eh? Hospital trip there, almost certainly.

I've a similar Ken story about his spinning heel kick going off into an alternate dimension before appearing behind my head to whap me int he open spot of the headgear, but that's for a different time.

Right arm:

Right pinky, dislocated at 1st & 3rd knuckles. This happened ejecting a guy who had just punched his gf in the face about 10 feet away from me, from the bar I bounced at, before I figured out that it is WAY easier to make them go out under their own power than to throw, or avoid this one, carry, them out.

Right ring finger, 1st knuckle dislocated and fracture between 1st and 2nd knuckles, happened at different times, both in hapkido class

Right middle finger, impacted 1st knuckle from punching too many boards. No clue what that pine tree did to us, but we must have hated them trees.

Right forefinger, disclocated at 1st knuckle, lengthwise split fracture when someone stood on it at a TKD tournament while I was waiting to compete

Right thumb, base fracture, separated joint, and dislocated again. 1st time was in Hapkido class doing release action too fast and paid the price for it, 2nd time was my paramedic partner thought she was being cute so she was going to walk me through her new submission technique she's learn from one of the local cops. Oh yes, it works, especially if yur thumb was separated a couple of weeks before. That little thing took me about 6 months for the thumb to work right and now it will still slide out of joint if something gets it the wrong way.

Right elbow, separated, but not dislocated, escaping from a jujigatame lock during a tournament. I never felt it... until the next morning. Wooeee...
Right shoulder, separation from judo falls taken with poor ukemi.

So - are your other 3 limbs unscathed or are there more installments of the narrative coming?

 

[JP3]

Story time in narrative is fun for me. It passes the time while I try to get over this cold. But, to answer your question, my left knee and left ankle ligaments have a habit of trying to self-destruct and have for a long time, but that was from basketball, not MA. Right foot was broken on the hoops court as well. Toes got jacked up on the mat in the usual way. Right knee, is oddly... healthy? Weird to me that, as it's my lead leg, better kicking leg. Cracked ribs, separated ribs, cracked sternum (again, basketball, not MA so it doesn't count though it sure hurt(). Left shoulder separated, left wrist sprained, oh, I forgot I broke my right wrist blocking a spinning backfist, left that one out. One good point is that my back (knock on wood) is pretty healthy, so I hope that continues. Face is just a face which I used from time to time to keep incoming kicks and punches from hitting my more vital spots.

 

[Buka]

I forgot a couple of breaks, too.

Not to mention how my fragile ego has been bruised over the years. (People are beasts)

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I forgot a couple of breaks, too.

Not to mention how my fragile ego has been bruised over the years. (People are beasts)

I've had no breaks from MA. A spider did break my leg once, though.

 

[Buka]

I've had no breaks from MA. A spider did break my leg once, though.

Can't leave me hanging there, brother. Have to hear the spider thing.

 

[Xue Sheng]

You can get injured training martial arts....who knew!!!!

I am actually not sure there is enough space on the server, on which MT resides, for me to list them all with associated stories...also I do not remember them all...occasionally I remember a forgotten one every now and then when it hurts

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Can't leave me hanging there, brother. Have to hear the spider thing.

Okay, bear with the story on this one, bro. It involves a spider who understands the basic tenets of "aiki" arts, I think.

Shortly after we moved to Hendersonville, we thought one of our cats had gotten out. She wouldn't wander far, but she was hard to get back in once she was out. She had lived her first 6 months as a feral cat, and snapped back to that when she was out. There was also a chance this tiny (about 8 lbs) predator would kill every bird in the 20 acres to our west. So, I started walking around the property looking for her. Our property is partway up a small ridge in a mountainous area (old mountains - nothing like the ones you have out there). Everything is a steep hill, unless it's a ridge between two steep hills.

This then, was the setting for The Attack.

As I walked across a small ridge (between two of the aforementioned steep hills) above our driveway, I had little indication that I was entering a devious ambush. As best I can reconstruct (the history is buried in legends and half-truths), one of the spiders I dispatched when we first moved in had a son. Had a sword been involved, I'd have sworn his first name was Inigo. But there was no sword, and no warning, for this spider was clearly trained in the arts of the ninja.

As I said (are you keeping up?), I was walking across this ridge. Near this ridge was a tree. Nothing unusual, just a small sapling, seeming no different than the dozens of others in the vicinity. Little did I know this sapling was part of a cunning trap. As I walked under the branches of this sapling, young Inigo sprung his trap. I stepped into a precisely placed web. My natural flinch reaction took my head off my center (as he clearly knew it would), breaking my structure and shifting my balance back and to the left. I took a small step with my left foot to recover my balance (again, exactly as he planned), stepping off the edge of the ridge and onto the steep slope leading to the driveway.

Realizing I'd been had, I made a pivot to get my weight over the downhill foot, but it was too late. I was already running at full speed in just two steps, headed down a mighty slope to my doom. Partway down, I stepped on what appeared to be a small stump (but which was clearly a perfectly disguised foot trap). Through valiant gyrations and flapping, I managed to keep my feet under me to the bottom of the hill. Upon reaching the asphalt of the parking area, I put all my effort into one last, mighty step, planting my right foot for all I was worth. I fell to one knee and brought myself to a sudden halt just as my head bounced off the headlight of my car. A sudden pain in my ankle told me the spider had won.

And that is how a spider broke my leg.

 

[Buka]

Okay, bear with the story on this one, bro. It involves a spider who understands the basic tenets of "aiki" arts, I think.

Shortly after we moved to Hendersonville, we thought one of our cats had gotten out. She wouldn't wander far, but she was hard to get back in once she was out. She had lived her first 6 months as a feral cat, and snapped back to that when she was out. There was also a chance this tiny (about 8 lbs) predator would kill every bird in the 20 acres to our west. So, I started walking around the property looking for her. Our property is partway up a small ridge in a mountainous area (old mountains - nothing like the ones you have out there). Everything is a steep hill, unless it's a ridge between two steep hills.

This then, was the setting for The Attack.

As I walked across a small ridge (between two of the aforementioned steep hills) above our driveway, I had little indication that I was entering a devious ambush. As best I can reconstruct (the history is buried in legends and half-truths), one of the spiders I dispatched when we first moved in had a son. Had a sword been involved, I'd have sworn his first name was Inigo. But there was no sword, and no warning, for this spider was clearly trained in the arts of the ninja.

As I said (are you keeping up?), I was walking across this ridge. Near this ridge was a tree. Nothing unusual, just a small sapling, seeming no different than the dozens of others in the vicinity. Little did I know this sapling was part of a cunning trap. As I walked under the branches of this sapling, young Inigo sprung his trap. I stepped into a precisely placed web. My natural flinch reaction took my head off my center (as he clearly knew it would), breaking my structure and shifting my balance back and to the left. I took a small step with my left foot to recover my balance (again, exactly as he planned), stepping off the edge of the ridge and onto the steep slope leading to the driveway.

Realizing I'd been had, I made a pivot to get my weight over the downhill foot, but it was too late. I was already running at full speed in just two steps, headed down a mighty slope to my doom. Partway down, I stepped on what appeared to be a small stump (but which was clearly a perfectly disguised foot trap). Through valiant gyrations and flapping, I managed to keep my feet under me to the bottom of the hill. Upon reaching the asphalt of the parking area, I put all my effort into one last, mighty step, planting my right foot for all I was worth. I fell to one knee and brought myself to a sudden halt just as my head bounced off the headlight of my car. A sudden pain in my ankle told me the spider had won.

And that is how a spider broke my leg.

I hate when they do that. Bastah!

No biggy if you're a spider, got seven more appendages, tough on us.