TKD tragedy

[Omar B]

I've got no words for this so I'll just let the article speak for itself.



Student brain-dead after Taekwondo sparring match

A SPARRING match turned into a tragedy that left a teenager brain-dead.
Vincent Tan, 17, a taekwondo green belt who had taken up the sport about a year ago, had taken part in the match at Kampong Kembangan Community Club last Sunday.
He was sparring with an opponent, a more experienced 15-year-old who apparently had a higher-ranked brown belt.
Just minutes into the sparring, Vincent was believed to have been kicked on the neck.
Lianhe Wanbao reported that he adjusted his head guard, but soon fell unconscious.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/The+New+Paper/Story/A1Story20090710-153882.html

 

[bowser666]

Thats terrible too hear.

 

[terryl965]

My prayers go out to the family

 

[tallgeese]

Horrible news....

 

[arnisador]

That's awful. I suppose that we should take heart that in a sport like this we hear so few such stories, but each one is very sad event.

 

[celtic_crippler]

A tragic reminder. I feel for his family and friends.

 

[Omar B]

Anybody think TKD is gonna take a hit for this? "No more sparring!"

 

[suicide]

i wonder what the doctor report say exactly even though we know the kicked caused it cause we all get kicked in the face , neck etc etc around that whole area all the time ... man that really is sad

 

[Marginal]

Anybody think TKD is gonna take a hit for this? "No more sparring!"

That could happen in any art that features sparring.

 

[Omar B]

Makes one think there was a preexisting condition right? As Suicide said, we have all taken our lumps and came out reasonably ok (in my case I had knee surgery).

I fear what may happen to TKD and martial arts as a whole though, you know alarmists are going to jump all over this.

 

[Decker]

Well, I suppose a somewhat fair comparison sport-wise could be drawn with boxing: there have been deaths in boxing, and lots of reports about boxers suffering permanent brain damage lasting even after retirement, but boxing still goes on.

Really sad though. Several young able men have died for no good reason this year alone in national service... But that's an unrelated albeit sad topic.

Wonder what kind of precautions can be taken against such critical shots. Heck, I'm sure this could've happened even at the Olympics, if people were unlucky enough.

 

[shesulsa]

Terribly sad.

 

[Deaf Smith]

A good roundhouse or spinng heal kick to the neck, or any kick really, is quite deadly. This one just hit the right spot and either broke his neck, or, I suspect, struck an artery going to his brain causing a blood clot or the artery in the brain to burst.

That's one of the risk you take.

My prayers and thoughts go not only to his family, but to the brown belt. I don't think any of us would want to have to live with that.

Deaf

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I've got no words for this so I'll just let the article speak for itself.



Student brain-dead after Taekwondo sparring match

A SPARRING match turned into a tragedy that left a teenager brain-dead.
Vincent Tan, 17, a taekwondo green belt who had taken up the sport about a year ago, had taken part in the match at Kampong Kembangan Community Club last Sunday.
He was sparring with an opponent, a more experienced 15-year-old who apparently had a higher-ranked brown belt.
Just minutes into the sparring, Vincent was believed to have been kicked on the neck.
Lianhe Wanbao reported that he adjusted his head guard, but soon fell unconscious.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/The%2BNew%2BPaper/Story/A1Story20090710-153882.htmlhttp://www.asiaone.com/News/The+New+Paper/Story/A1Story20090710-153882.html

This is very sad, and not unlike the rare accident from a fast pitch. My prayers go out to the family.

Daniel

 

[BLACK LION]

This is a sad case. Its a rarity thats akin to a kid getting hit in the chest with a baseball and dropping dead. It could be an unknown precursor or precondition or simply and anomaly or rare occurence.
It should in no way hinder the sport or sparring for that matter just as kids dying from getting hit by a baseball doesnt hinder the sport or its structure....
Whats possible to come of this is them taking a hard look at how they pair up sparring partners regardless of age it should be more about the skill level of the competitors... then again, you just never know...people drop dead from the silliest things sometimes, which reminds me of a recent death... the famous oxy-clean spokesman died after being hit in the head from overhead luggage on a plane... liam neesons wife died after bonking her head on the ice.... you jsut neve know how fragile people are internally until there is a tragic injury such as these....

Lord bless the family members.

 

[Bjorn Jensen]

I witnessed this tragedy from about 8-10 feet away. I would say it was a freak accident. The kick was not that hard.

The real tragedy here is taht the kid should never have been anywhere near the ring. His skill level made it clear that he had no business being there, and even less business fighting the guy he was put up against.

The kid was let down by his own instructor, the tournament organizers, and the ambulance service which took 45 minutes to arrive.

I feel awful for the deceased and his family, but I feel just as bad for the poor kid who accidentally killed him. My heart goes out to him as much as to the family of the deceased.

 

[Jimi]

I hope the young boys spirit will rest in peace and the family can soon heal.

As to the mention of TKD taking a hit or bad rep because of this incident, I trust TKD and other arts will survive regardless of others alarmist behavior.

Those of us old enough to remember, Boom Boom Mancini was fighting against the Korean National Boxing Champ many years ago, one solid right cross to the nose killed the Korean. Boom Boom was devestated as was the Koreans family and entire Nation. Korea held no ill will against Mancini, but sadly that is the risk of Boxing and even light sparring which can have disasterous misfortune. Sadly many contact sports no matter how regulated or controled can suffer such terrible happenstance.

PEACE

 

[Ronin74]

Wonder what kind of precautions can be taken against such critical shots. Heck, I'm sure this could've happened even at the Olympics, if people were unlucky enough.

I think the reality of it is that these are some of the risks we undertake when practicing martial arts. We can only err on the side of caution so much. Past that, there's still that margin for serious accidents happening.