Rate your pain here

[girlbug2]

I was amused to discover that one of the nastiest looking injuries common to martial arts, aka the black eye, is a pretty low-pain experience, all things considered. I've had two of them so far. People get all concerned when they see them and express lots of sympathy, but really, it's 90 % ugly and the rest is hardly noticeable. OTOH my arm bruises never even get comments but some of them are much nastier, pain-wise.

So it got me to thinking, all of you experienced MAists out there must have collectively experienced all the known injuries available as a result of practicing your MA. Tell me about them, give them a pain rating, 10 being the high end of pain and 1 being something akin to a shallow bruise.

I'd rate the black eyes about a 1.5.

What kind of injuries have you survived?

 

[championmarius]

An even slightly hyper-extended elbow falls into about the 13 or so. I can't even fathom how much it would hurt if done intentionally... I got rolled into a rather solidly locked juji-gatame, click, like that, instant pain, like shooting stars behind the eyes, bolts of lightning into the spine type hurt. Could not tap fast enough, of course I could not straighten my right arm for a week or so either.

I've been choked out in class, dropped, thrown, hit with sticks, cracked with shinai, shot with airsofts, beaten, submitted, used as a dummy more times than I care to remember, but that arm-bar was without a doubt the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Ever. Even broken ribs (which suck on an abyssal level) are less incapacitating than that agony.

I have had a rather rough training journey, I have the unenviable talent of a high pain threshold, thus I volunteer (or get volunteered) to uke far more often than a sane person should. I've had bruises that don't fade for weeks, concussions, sprains, twists, lacerations....you name it. I still live in fear of arm-bars.

 

[girlbug2]

We're always being warned about hyperextending in practice, I wonder how likely it is to hyperextend one's elbow while air-punching? Something for me to ask tomorrow.

 

[Steve]

Seperated something in between two of my ribs once... that really, really sucked. It was high on the pain meter, but it was also terribly easy to re-injure. I felt like it would never fully heal.

Honestly, breaking my little toe, which happens with shocking regularity, is one of the most painful things that happens.

 

[Fiendlover]

During a yellow test when i first started and did a chicken really and it really impressed my shihan but my landing was less then perfect and my ankle landed one way and the rest of my body landed the other way yet it despite this crack i swore i heard i sprained it badly. Though there was a lot of pain, i'd give it about a 5.

Gotten black eyes 1, I also stabed my foot with a sai 2, hit my face with my double nunchucks both at the same time 4, hit my arms with my jotos 3, cut my arm with a sword 2, kicked in the shin with somebody elses shin 2, rammed my elbow into a metal pole 3 (hit my funny bone terrible lol), and many other things can't really think of at the moment but nothing serious.

 

[jarrod]

Seperated something in between two of my ribs once... that really, really sucked. It was high on the pain meter, but it was also terribly easy to re-injure. I felt like it would never fully heal.

Honestly, breaking my little toe, which happens with shocking regularity, is one of the most painful things that happens.

i've torn the cartiledge between my ribs a couple of times now. really, really hurts, & takes longer to heal than a fracture.

jf

 

[girlbug2]

Your foot being stabbed with a sai is only a 2? LOL you have a high threshold my friend!

Just out of curiosity, when your face was hit with the double nunchucks at the same time, were you a beginner?

 

[girlbug2]

Seperated something in between two of my ribs once... that really, really sucked. It was high on the pain meter, but it was also terribly easy to re-injure. I felt like it would never fully heal.

Honestly, breaking my little toe, which happens with shocking regularity, is one of the most painful things that happens.

The scary thing to me is, rib shots are commonly practiced in light sparring at my training center.

When you say you break your little toe regularly, are you kicking wrongly?

 

[Big Don]

I took a shot (elbow) to the nose last night that instantly hit about 15. Now, 26 hours later, it is about a two.

 

[jarrod]

The scary thing to me is, rib shots are commonly practiced in light sparring at my training center.

strikes to the ribs are much more likely to cause a fracture than a tear, so you probably don't have anything to worry about. tears usually come from compression (being in a really tight pin) or twisting at an odd angle.

jf

 

[mook jong man]

I got low heel kicked in the shin once by a young overzealous Si-Je that dropped me to the floor ( think walking into the edge of a coffee table at high speed type of pain ) that was about a nine .

I also got an elbow strike in the top lip that put a hole through it , surprisingly that didn't hurt much , it was just disturbing to see air whistling through a hole in your lip that shouldn't be there , that was about a four .

Another time i got a very fast but controlled knee strike to the groin that just managed to hit the tip of my ***** and turned it black and blue for a week that was about a seven .

 

[Cirdan]

Black eye: 2 Hard enough that I checked to see if my cheek was broken afterwards.
Full force back kick to the stomach: 3
Kicked in the jaw: 4 Still in place but could not chew for the next three days.
Hyperextended elbow: 8.5 Caused by armbar with too much power too fast. Could not straighten it for months.

Some jujutsukas I know are able to give simple pinches that cause extreme pain. I have a fairly high tolerance to pain, but when pinched like that you just have to move away or release your grip. I would rate it at 6

 

[Big Don]

I have to ask, who came up with the 1-10 scale of rating pain so many doctors use now? Pain is such a subjective thing. I've cut myself with knives and tools and not noticed right away and seen others (big "tough" guys) wail in pain over a paper cut. My pain hurts me more than your's hurts you, or does it? The elbow that hit me in the nose , last night, really hurt bad, for a minute, but, it was in no way incapacitating. I've run into coffee tables at night and been on the floor for half an hour.

 

[wrc619]

Being relatively new, I got kicked in the gut at half speed, and it was briefly a four, but then subsided. The other one, was a kick in the head, due to a failed dodge. It wasn't high speed, but it also rated about a four for a few minutes.

 

[hpulley]

Hyperextended my own calf muscles last week just doing hard front kicks into pads. Didn't actually hurt much but hear the pop and couldn't walk right for a few days. Still pretty tight right now after sitting at my desk job for a few hours but right after an hour of training its fine, go figure.

Actually one of the most painful was the result of a leg kick that hit some bone on my opponent. Broke a small bone in the side of my foot and for the next few weeks if I even grazed that bone it hurt really badly. Didn't affect walking or kicking or anything but if I even touched it lightly it really hurt.

Dislocating a floating rib in newaza was bad but breaking a rib after a hard throw and no break fall was painful and tough to even get out of bed for weeks. Got countered and while I still thought I was throwing my opponent I got thrown so I was surprised and it happened too fast to put an arm and/or a leg out.

 

[punisher73]

Seperated something in between two of my ribs once... that really, really sucked. It was high on the pain meter, but it was also terribly easy to re-injure. I felt like it would never fully heal.

This is what BJ Penn did in the Hughes fight to put it in perspective. Everyone criticized him for it as an "excuse". Everyone that has had it happen wonders how he did as well as he did afterwards.

 

[Josh Oakley]

Cut my head with a sword: 2 (it was sharp enough I didn't feel at first)
Tore my ACL and irreparable damage to meniscus: 9
Broken pinky: 9.5
Numerous bruises:1
Rug burn on foot from grappling: 2.5

 

[theletch1]

The worst for me was coming back to train too soon after a two story fall completely compressed a vertebrae in my low back. First thing in the warm up was jumping jacks. That first one nearly caused me to pass out. Had to take a couple extra months to heal before I was allowed back in class.

Broken toes and fingers rate about a 5 for me. Hyperextended elbows are around a 4. Depending on who does it sankyo combined with ikkyo can run from a 3 up to an 8 or 9. I have a decent threshold for pain compared to many but not as high as some. Of course, compare your threshold to folks that don't study martial arts and you may be very surprised at how high (comparatively) yours is.

 

[clfsean]

Broken toe(s)... real quick flash of pain that made me wanna wet my pants, then dull throbs... 7 down immediately 3.5

Crushed knuckle... 2 all the way through, minus the inconvenience of not being able to use my right hand for a week

Busted lips, scrapes & various abrasions & strains/sprains... .5 at best

Blown right knee... 8 down to .5 day before surgery (I was playing frisbee the afternoon before surgery)... then back up to about a 6 until after I got used to PT

Being knocked out while sparring... 0 ... then a 1.5 for the headache after I came to

 

[DavidCC]

I was amused to discover that one of the nastiest looking injuries common to martial arts, aka the black eye, is a pretty low-pain experience, all things considered.

I agree, I've got a pimple just inside the opening of my nostril and that sucker is WAY more painful than a black eye!