What is your worst martial arts experience?

[Stac3y]

Hm. Nothing really horrible, but here are a couple of bad ones.

I took a belt test while having a gallbladder attack. It started in the first 5 minutes of the test and got worse throughout. I know that doesn't sound very dramatic, but anyone who has gallbladder problems knows how horrible it actually was. I still passed, though.

I was sparring an exhibition match with a lower belt at a tournament (she had no one in her division). When the judge said "Go," she hollered and rushed at me straight on, so I threw a defensive side kick. I pulled it so I wouldn't hurt her, but she was going so fast that she ran right into it anyway. She fell straight over backwards and bashed her head on the floor, her eyes went unfocused, and she wasn't moving. The fall made such a loud noise that half the competitors and spectators in the gym came running to see what had happened, and what they saw was an evil blue belt who had mangled a yellow belt. She turned out to be okay, but I still have bad dreams about it occasionally. I thought I had killed her. Never saw her at a tournament again, either.

 

[Flea]

I think the biggest disaster to befall me so far was an accidental Peekaboo while squirming out of a hold. :jaw-dropping:

After reading some of these horror stories I might have been terrified to start MA. As it is, I've just been more careful when I tuck in my shirt.

 

[xJOHNx]

My training partner with whom I have been working for close to a year now falling out because of a back injury.

It wouldn't have happened if the guy he was doing a clinch with was not being overenthousiastic to show his wonderfull, sloppy bujinkan. Because he knew what worked best. White belt with arrogance, worse than BB with arrogance?

 

[jarrod]

I think the biggest disaster to befall me so far was an accidental Peekaboo while squirming out of a hold. :jaw-dropping:

ironically, probably one of the best martial arts experiences for your partner.

jf

 

[Jaspthecat]

In sparring, kicking my partner in the mouth and ripping my big toe on his metal retainer.

Blood fest....

 

[celtic_crippler]

Broken toes and hyper-extended joints, bloody noses and black eyes, concussions and ER visits for stiches, busted knuckles and scars galore.... long term wear & tear..like the bulging discs in my neck at the moment (2 epidurals down and one to go...fingers crossed it works and surgery can be averted) .... not nearly as bad...doesn't even compare....

... nothing comes close to the horrible experience I had after being prompted to organize and market a martial arts camp. I won't say anything more about it...but what a f'n nightmare that turned out to be. Much, much worse experience than anything that ever happened otherwise.

 

[Flea]

ironically, probably one of the best martial arts experiences for your partner.

jf

:lfao:

 

[David43515]

I think the worst thing that happened to me was as a young assistant instructor. I was running a new student ( an adult male much older and bigger than myself) through some basic blocking techniques. When we got to blocking open handed, I carefully demonstrated what he should and shouldn`t do to avoid injuring his hand. He must have gotten the two backwards because thirty seconds later while i spoon-fed him light slow front snap kicks at about 1/2 -1/3 power.....I snapped two of his fingers right in front of his 6 yr old son. One of them was a compound fracture too.
I felt about two feet tall.:disgust:

 

[Omar B]

Oddly enough, it's not the broken knuckles, knee, sprained joints or anything like that. It's a belt test I failed once when my father came to see me test.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Kudos to you guys and girls. I don't know I would've kept on training after the things that were already mentioned.

I've never had serious injuries, except for the time my moped broke down and I had to take the bicycle. I was already late so I pedaled as fast as I could to cover the 5 miles in winter cold. When I arrived I put on my keikogi and started practise. I had missed warm up but figured I was warmed up from the cycling.

10 minutes later I had cooled off though. We did a drill where the other guy (brown belt I think) tried to throw me with an uchi mata. Unfortunately, his technique was sloppy and instead of sweeping me on the inside of the thigh, his leg levered my leg upwards at the knee. As a result, instead of me flipping over, I was standing still while my leg swung sideways and overextended my already cramped thigh muscle. I fell down screaming and I couldn't use the leg anymore. I cycled home afterwards using only one leg and I limped for 2 weeks.

One moment I felt horribly bad was when I was a green belt and accidentally broke the nose of a woman during light sparring. I wanted to get around her guard with a right hook. I pulled the punch but she stepped in and my fist hit her nose on the side. It was really not that hard of a hit but her nose snapped. She knew it was an accident because she realized what was going to happen right when she stepped in. Still I felt really bad and I was glad that it healed invisibly.

 

[xfighter88]

Was'nt my experience but a friend of mine, when sparring he got kick so hard that he crapped his pants while on the matt we all felt bad for him. What a trooper though he came back for the next tournament.
Terry

Sure ....Sure your "Friend" Crapped his pants.verkill:
My worst experience in martial arts was when I took TKD from a guy who's son was the "favorite" student to the point that when I beat him the instructor hated me ever since and gave me tons of extra crap to do. Add to that...His divorced wife took classes from him too. So much drama.

Not a specific instance so much as an ongoing crappy situation.

 

[Ken Morgan]

I guess iaido and jodo are boring, because I can’t think of any truly negative things happening. A few cuts from swords, a few bruises after being hit by a jo, par for the course, but for the most part I’m privileged to train with such amazing people.

 

[Tensei85]

Broken Fingers - Qin Na
Dislocated Shoulder - Sparring
Was throwing a round kick in sparring & intercepted the guys elbow with the instep of my foot instead (Not a good feeling)
Broken Ankle - Grappling
Cracked Ribs - Sparring
Bloody noses, Black eyes, normal... sparring
Palm Prints left on my torso (From a demo, haha not personal life...)

(So I equate worst experiences to sparring somehow I still enjoy it!)

And that's about it besides all the political b.s. that one encounters in M.A.'s now adays.

 

[Hand Sword]

Finally, after MANY years away, walking into the dojo I was apart of since I was an early teen. I came in during a black belt instructor's class and was greeted warmly (once recognized- lol). Seeing the tone and atmosphere of the class, and after a private conversation with my old instructor, I left knowing in the depth of me, that I no longer belong there and don't fit in anymore. A place that at one time was a second home to me now made me feel like I was in an alien atmosphere. That feeling of an outcast in your home would be my worst experience to date.

 

[geezer]

Finally, after MANY years away, walking into the dojo I was apart of since I was an early teen. I came in during a black belt instructor's class and was greeted warmly (once recognized- lol). Seeing the tone and atmosphere of the class, and after a private conversation with my old instructor, I left knowing in the depth of me, that I no longer belong there and don't fit in anymore. A place that at one time was a second home to me now made me feel like I was in an alien atmosphere. That feeling of an outcast in your home would be my worst experience to date.

OK, now don't just leave us hanging like that. Why don't you feel like you belong in that group anymore? Has the school changed, or have you?

 

[Thesemindz]

My worst moment as a student was when I beat up my roommate.

I was about 21 or 22, a brown belt, and he was a douchebag who had just started Kung Fu. Me and my buddies would work out at my house and we'd spar a lot. He always wanted to play with us, but we kept putting him off, and then one night he convinced us to let him play.

So I'm up against him first and the whole time he's complaining that that strike wasn't fair, or "we don't do that at my school," and we're patiently reminding him that he wanted to play our game, and these are the rules of our game. And I'm trying to be cool, because it's kinda like putting up with an annoying younger brother. So I'm just waving off points when he complains and letting it go.

Then he hits me with a massive blind spinning backnuckle.

It just about knocked me out. Out. I'm standing there seeing stars and nothing else and trying to shake it off. I stagger a little but get it together. Some of the guys are trying to tell him to watch it, we're not trying to get anybody hurt, and I just shake it off. Keep playing.

Wham. He catches me with another one.

Now I'm hurting. This kid's a big cat, bigger than me, and he caught me with two full force to the side of my head. I'm in a rough place, and I'm trying to be cool about it. But I'm hurting.

And then he starts complaining again about the rules.

Now this is where the story gets confusing.

Because as I remember it, I got upset, and I started really fighting this kid, hard. But not hard contact. Just moving around his shots, a lot of speed, clear technique, and making him look bad. I recognized the spinning backnuckle the third time, and realized I could bait him to his open side, so I started throwing short jabs to incite the attack and then jamming his leading shoulder when he twisted and crossing him in the jaw.

But it was all tag for me. I was trying to embarrass him, not hurt him. My friends who were there say I was just beating him up. Which isn't how I remember it, and a source of frustration for me personally to this day. Was I really out of control? And don't remember it that way?

Either way, suddenly, my roommate stops. He puts his hands up and says, “We're done.” And goes over to the couch and starts taking off his gear. And I'm like, “What do you mean we're done?” And he says, “You're taking this personally.”

And that was about the most humbling experience I ever had in the martial arts.

That this punk, who was an annoying cat and a bad roommate on top of everything else, who had only just recently even begun martial arts, and had been such a pain in our asses all night, bitching and whining and almost knocking me out twice, had just recognized something in my fighting that I had failed to recognize myself. That he had corrected me, and rightly, and made the proper decision when I had not.

That was a bitter pill to swallow. I can taste it to this day.

But, I have tried to redeem the event by reflecting on what it taught me. About myself, and humility, and what you can learn from people you think have nothing to offer you. And about technique, and baiting an opponent, and taking successive blows to the head, and timing and angles. And about the overwhelming power of rage.

When I got hot, something turned on. I was faster, he was slower, I was stronger, he was weaker. I could see several moves ahead, I knew how he'd react to my actions, I knew where he'd be standing. Every punch landed.

I've never recreated that moment. I've won a lot of fights in training, and sometimes I know how to win logically as I'm fighting, but I've never been so dominating. I've never felt that rush of complete power in a combat situation again.

In a way, that frightens me, but it's also interesting to know it is there.

Nobody else would fight him after that, they didn't want to catch the strikes to the head that I had. And it pretty much put a damper on the night.

We lived together for a while after that, and both continued to train, but we only ever sparred one other time. He was getting ready for a Kung Fu tournament and asked me to help him train. I relented. And this time we were both a little better at what we were doing.


-Rob

 

[knuckleheader]

My worst experiences have been competing in national tournaments
and not placing. I wish I had been able to do better. It's quite humbling
when you have to realize the limits of your skill level.

 

[Thesemindz]

As an instructor, the worst experience I had was when one of my students crushed in the cheekbone of a fellow student during the last sparring match of the night.

We had a kid we called, “The Giant.” You can guess why. Tall. Heavy. Hit like a truck. But a real good kid. He had made it to brown belt, and that's when he got really dangerous.

He was developing the skill to pull off some really dangerous moves, but hadn't yet realized the control to do so safely.

This is a real common problem with that level of student. I struggled with it too. You can do a spinning back kick. You can set it up, and execute it, and hit your target most of the time. But you don't yet have blackbelt control. And so sometimes in training, somebody gets nailed. It's not that big a deal. Unless your nickname is “The Giant.”

He'd hurt a few people, including me, already, and teaching him safety and control were big priorities for me. Just the week before, I'd thought he'd broken my leg when a rear spinning back kick hit me in the front of the thigh during a sparring match. I was knocked clean off my feet, crawled over to him, and executed an ankle twist takedown to bring him to the ground. I climbed into the mount and began to strike when the judges called break. Later that night I woke up screaming in bed when I accidently rolled onto that hip in my sleep. I was still limping a week later, and the head instructor was pissed.

I already knew that I needed to be careful with this guy. So, last match of the night, I pair him up with my best brown belt. I'm thinking, ok, brown on brown, the little guy's a better fighter, he should be ok, no problem.

Which worked out for a few minutes until he caught a short hook to the face, from a fist about the size of his head.

He goes down, everybody's concerned, this is not good. He's a real tough kid though, scrawny but a scrapper, so he stands back up and waves it off and I end class. But I can tell he's hurt.

So I'm asking him what the problem is, and he's saying he can't see straight. Now I handled this badly, because I didn't know enough about first aid to do the right thing. I should have sent him to the hospital right then and there, instead I suggested he give it a little while and see if his vision clears up.

But when he got up the next morning he still couldn't see straight, so he went to the hospital. Turned out his cheekbone was shattered, and his orbital rim had partially caved in causing one eye to droop slightly, hence the double vision. They had to peel back his face, put down a mesh wire frame, and rebuild his cheekbone like a puzzle board.

Whoops.

Luckily, this didn't put the school out of business. It could have. If a student sues over something like this, all the injury waivers in the world might not keep you open. You may still go bankrupt defending yourself in court. And he probably had a good case anyway considering my negligent medical advice.

But he didn't, and he came back to training.

The Giant we lost though.

After that, I had to suspend him from sparring. I told him he could come to class, and we could train and he could do all the drills and exercises, but that until I could work with him more one on one, I couldn't risk him sparring. It wasn't up to me, the order came from the boss, but it was the right call either way. And nobody was happy with it.

He kept coming, but I could tell his heart wasn't in it anymore. I think it hurt him to injure another student like that, a friend, even by accident, and I think it was hard to not be allowed to play. I tried to bring him back and work with him, I tried to work with all my students on control after that like I could somehow undo the injury. The whole next sparring class I fought them as hard as I could but told them that any contact over touch would drop everybody for pushups. We made a game out of it, but I pressed them hard. To their credit, no one had to do a single push up that night.

But The Giant left the school shortly after that. And I think it's because of that night.

It wasn't the only time I had a student seriously injured, but it was definitely the worst.



-Rob

 

[knuckleheader]

Too bad you couldn't refer the giant to another school that had other exponents to match him up with.

 

[Thesemindz]

Too bad you couldn't refer the giant to another school that had other exponents to match him up with.

Yah, I hope he got back into training. He was a good kid with a lot of potential.


-Rob