What is your worst martial arts experience?

[Makalakumu]

Right before I graduated high school, I started training MMA. I had been doing other TMA since I was 11 and I did wrestling and boxing in high school. After a year, I was in really good shape and I was competing pretty regularly. During one practice session, I was working standing randori with a newer guy. I dropped and went for the legs and at the same time, he dropped and slammed his knee into my chest. At the same time, he pinned my arms and threw me with a sloppy tomoe nage. I slammed head first into the mat and was knocked unconcious. I woke up on a backboard in an ambulence and I couldn't feel my legs. I did not break my neck though. One of the vertebreal disks was compressed and was swollen and that was what was affecting my nervous system. Still, it was scary and I almost quit doing MA altogether. I still, to this day, have problems with tomoe nage.

 

[arnisador]

Hmmm, someone whose name I won't mention (but who is on this board) fractured my rib while I was standing still to let him demo. a technique. Everyone in the room heard it crack. It was just before Christmas, and I spent the day after Christmas in the ER.

 

[Grenadier]

Where to begin...

I won't name my absolute worst, since I'm still coming to terms with it, so I'll explain something that was bad enough...

This was much earlier on in 2005. I was teaching the beginner class, which was almost all children of varying ages (5-12). Three boys (triplets, actually) were constantly running off the floor to go to the bathroom, and when one would leave the floor, the other two would take off running after him.

After I warned them several times to stay on the floor, and they still wouldn't listen, I finally put my foot down, and told the class in a stern tone, that someone may only leave the floor for a bathroom break if it is an absolute emergency.

Well, that stopped the chaos for a bit. When the class was about halfway over, I was having the class do some kata as a whole group. I told them to freeze halfway through, so I could point out some stance corrections, and even told them to use their mirror image as a guide. While my back was turned to them as I was pointing at the mirror, there was suddenly this unified cry of "EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!" by many of the children there.

I turned around, and saw that everyone had scattered to the edges of the dojo floor, except for one boy who was rather ashamed of himself at having just puked out his sausage biscuit, hash browns, and orange juice from his breakfast that he had eaten just before class. At that point, I simply told the whole class to sit down at the edges, and be silent, while I grabbed the cleaning supplies, and eventually getting the place clean. Unfortunately, the big pile of puke that he left in the middle of the dojo floor wasn't nearly as large as the puke he spewed all over the floor leading to the bathroom, as he had a second eruption.

After I had scrubbed down the floors, and even disinfected it, many of the children who stayed for the next class absolutely refused to step anywhere near those areas. I told them "Look! It's perfectly clean now. I'll even show you!" as I stepped in that spot, as this generated and even louder "EEEEEEWWWWWW!"

I just wanted that day to be over before I lost my sanity.

A few days later, when I was teaching another class, the puking boy came up to me and started profusely apologizing, and he was nearly in tears. I told him that it was OK, and that accidents happen. I then found out that my lecture on only going to the bathroom during class for emergencies had scared the poor kid, as he didn't think that having to puke was an emergency.

The next time I taught classes, I started out with another lecture, clarifying what constitutes an emergency.

One of the parents who had witnessed the whole thing swore that she saw a few more grey hairs in my head after that incident.

 

[twayman]

My worst was three years ago tore the meniscus in my right knee, had the surgery and recovered… And it continues... This past Saturday I screwed up the same knee… out of the dojo for who knows how long. I have to send my students out to another instructor for I can’t even stand on the leg and my knee twice it's original size… and probably another surgery… crap! :waah:

 

[tshadowchaser]

I can't post my worst here because of the forum rules so I'll give a few that are a steps away,

Political manuvering of students to upsurp their instructor in the eyes of a GM. Watched it happen and could do little to help out the instructor in question.
Watching a black belt in a certian school make very unwanted passes at a student
Haveing a student just plain look me in the eye and tell me I had no idea what I was doing (the words where the students last in my school except for Ouch that hurts)

 

[Navarre]

Geez, Todd! I'm sorry to hear that, man. I hope you heal quickly and with little pain. Godspeed, my friend.

 

[Icewater]

My worst experience is with closing schools.

1) Mother took me out of a TKD school after 2 months at age 12 because the place had no heat. It was about 50 degrees in there...
2) Taking American Karate at age 14 and the school closed after about 10 months.
3) Took Isshinryu at age 16 and got a year and a half in before college, then had to move.
4) Took Isshinryu (starting over) at 18 and the school lasted for 2 years before closing.
5) Took Isshinryu after college at a nearby town (starting over) for little over 1 year before the school closed down.
6) Started taking JJ and Judo at a place that lasted for 6 months before one of the owners disappeared with the school's cash.
7) Moved to a town with no karate schools for 2 years.
8) Moved to a bigger city with no Isshinryu, so now I'm (starting over) again with Sil Lum KF and have been taking it about 1 1/2 years.

I am the perpetual white belt. In fact I've had the same white belt for so long it is almost black due to dirt and grime. I've accumulated about 6 solid years of study and have a yellow belt to show for it. I know, I know, its not about rank... but it IS about rank when you have my kind of experience and are held back from the more advanced techniques because of the color of your belt. I have yet to find a school that teaches or promotes on merit alone.

But on the bright side I have some solid fundamentals and whip most of the low ranking instructors sparring! Sorry for the rant... it gets to me sometimes.

 

[Gin-Gin]

Lots of interesting (& sad) stories here; Icewater, I can certainly understand your frustration & I hope that your current school stays open a good long time.

I guess the two worst things that happened to me were: 1) This guy I was paired with at a camp a few yrs ago had an attitude (I think it was because I was a woman & higher ranked than him) we practiced a technique on each other & he basically "cheated" so that I ended up landing on the outside of my ankle (which is NOT how the technique is supposed to end)--severely sprained it! Couldn't participate in the rest of the camp & of course, it happened a couple of weeks before I was going to test for Purple Belt. He wasn't punished (which bugged me to no end, but since nobody "witnessed it" it became a 'he said/she said' situation). Was out of training for 4 months, 2 months of that spent in physical therapy. I missed class so much during that time, I thought I was going to "lose it." I avoided him when I returned to class, & not too long afterwards he & his sons left the school for some reason - don't know why & I didn't care. Just glad he was gone. I hope his sons don't grow up that way.

2) At my old school there is a woman who, when we would have sparring class, she would hit me in the face after telling us that no one was allowed to hit there. When I asked her about it (after she hit me in the face twice) she said, "Brown belts & above can hit to the face." Then I thought, well that's fair - not only am I sparring with someone much higher ranked than me (I was a Orange belt at the time), but they can hit to face & I can't?!? Not fair, IMHO. I avoided her as much as possible until I left the school in Jan. 2004.

 

[karatekid1975]

I'd say the first one was when I was a fresh new orange belt in TSD. Just got my sparring gear. Never sparred in my life. My dojang was hosting a sparring clinic (for all the fed dojangs) for the upcoming tourny at the time. Anyways, We started out with just sparring drills (no contact). That was fun. Then we geared up and decided to practice tourny style sparring (point sparring). Well, I got paired with another orange belt. She kicked me so hard in the tummy I almost pucked all over her. After that, I got away with not sparring, only for tests. So, needless to say I got REALLY good tecnically (forms, one steps, ect), but I couldn't spar worth ..... Till I got into TKD.

The two next ones was "showing off" in the beginning of my TKD training. I had a little bit of an ego at the time, because I was technically better then most in the beginers class (I had to start over). I got my yellow belt in TKD, and we had a breaking week clinic thing. Well, I was doing good with the "difficulties" (stuff that judges like LOL) of the breaks. So one black belt stood on a chair and said "do a jumping axe kick." I knew it was too high (he was holding the board over his head). I was like no way. He dared me ...... He said, "you trained before, you can do it." Guess what? I pulled my hammy on the way up, broke the board, and balled up on the floor in pain. It took 5 months to heal.

The next one was when I was showing off again. We were just kicking the heavy bag in open class one saturday. I did a flying side kick, so everyone wanted me to teach them. Once they got it down, we were going for height. Well, I got the highest, but my knee went the wrong way :waah: I couldn't train for two weeks. I had to do modified training with a brace for another month. My knee still aches now and then.

I have others but I gotta run. Gotta do the work thing LOL.

 

[tempus]

This other student in class and I always went at it pretty hard. We would counter the other if we made a msitake in a technique during a line and point out where each of us need to improve. During a one such technique he tried to leg swep me, but he made an error which did not get me off balance and kept me on my feet with him a little off balance. I tried to counter his leg sweep with a leg sweep. Instead of going with it he resisted and pushed back and there went his ACL. Not one of my martial art high points.

 

[boricuatkd]

I have to agree that is funny. Check this out. I was in class one day and the instructor assigned one of his seconds to lead the stretches. Everything was quiet as we stretched. But then all of a sudden from the front of the class comes this long ripppling snort. We all looked just in time to see his face turn a very bright red. It seems that he got a little winded as he bent over to touch his toes.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

Thirty years ago as a child in Judo, the Sensei would give "pink belts" out to students who misbehaved or failed to understand techniques. In most cases it was gratuitous humiliation of young children who did not understand what were to them complex techniques. The experience soured me on the martial arts for years.

 

[beauty_in_the_sai]

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

That is hilarious! Poor guy! Brave though. Not sure I'd had the nerve to come back. Anywho, my worst experience was at a tournament 2 years ago. I was fighting another female for "Female Grand Champion". (you can tell this story's gonna be good already...lol) Well, we got up to fight and I surveyed my enemy. Here's me: a tall taekwondoist. There's her: a short somethingist. She was so bad I couldn't tell what her style was, how she got to be a black belt, or what McDojo she was from. First round: My roundhouse kick slightly tapped her helmet and I got a point. I guess she could tell she was going to lose if she didn't play act. She musta been a professional actress, for during the second round, my foot was two inches away from her head when she fell down with her hand over her eye. First off, if I would've hit her, it would've been in the mouth. So then I got a warning for excessive force. And ofc, no honorable martial artist argues with the judges, so I let it go. Next round, I did practically the same thing to the same effect and was disqualified. So she got the big, shiny "Female Grand Champion" trouphy and I got the serious urge to really beat her up. My instructor saw what happened and said that was a serious unjustice to me. The judge was from the actress' school. He said in no way did I hit her. So while she did go home with the trophy, she had to have gone home with some guilt too. I went home with the pride of knowing I really did win and a compliment from my instructor for keeping my temper with the actress and the judge. After more similar incidents, I don't go to tournys much anymore.

 

[karatekid1975]

Wow! I seen that happen in an TSD tourny. One of our guys (a BB) was sparring and he got nailed in the nuts HARD. The other guy got a point for it! The judge was from the other guy's school. At another tourny, I saw some dude use excessive force. He should have been disqualified many times over. But he won the match over our guy that had clean shots on him, but didn't get any points. After that, I swore I wouldn't spar in tournies, and I don't.

 

[stone_dragone]

A few bad ones, but none that I can think of as classifying itself as a "Worst Thing Ever" Status...

Two injuries stand out among the many:
When I was a Blue belt (about a year of training), I was assisting with a belt test and was paired with this behemoth of a woman (at 16, I was scarcely 140 lbs and this woman easily tipped the scales beyond 290). When we were grappling for takedown, she refused to actually do anything, so I kept trying to help her and give her openings. Finally, I grabbed her karategi top and she lost her balance...on top of me. As we were falling, I made the mistake of trying to catch myself with my right arm. Our combined weight fell on my extended arm and it hyper-extended, sounding like a cow stepping on a box off crackers.
What did I learn....fall correctly.

More recently, I was working out with a gentleman visiting my karate class in Tennessee. When I tried to demonstrate an upperbody control technique similar to the clinch in kickboxing, he decided to try to throw me. Instead of going hip to hip, we were knee to knee. My leg, from foot to knee, was straight...my body from the knee up went over (my leg formed an obtuse angle). this happened in June, I finally was able to start running without much pain in December. (Personal note: If you're reading this and think it was you...no hard feelings...seriously. I chalk it up to getting old!)

One or two bad tournament stories come to mind, too, but the only one really worth it is similar to beauty_in_the_sai's experience...I was sparring with a fellow who decided to not just evade my attack, but turn his entire body 180 degrees and run out of the ring. Judges said not one word to him! Next point he got on me was clearly blocked (got it on video!) and called a point...I lose. Next match (3rd/4th), my opponent leaves the ring not once, twice, three times, four times or even five times...he runs out of the ring six times and no penalty (the rules of that particular tourny stated that running out of the ring once is warning, twice is loss of point. I should have won on sheer value of negative points on his part!) Result? I got the tape and they got the trophy. I, too, don't do tourny's any more.

wow, that was long winded.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Broken ankle doing Shaolin Staff form...nough said

 

[evenflow1121]

WoW a revived thread, I like these. In my case was very early in my life taking lessons in some McDojo before I discovered Kenpo, where unfortunately the instructor in the McDojo was legit but chose to teach little to nothing in terms of self defense and was more concerned with charging for every little detail. Gi's that match the colored belt--been there, $200 shodan registration been there, learning little to nothing for about 2 years--unfortunately been there. I was about 11 when I left never looked back, unfortunately the guy still teaches.

 

[Carol]

Once I went to class dead tired and unable to concentrate on a damn thing...including my own techniques. I got really sloppy holding a kick pad. A bb laid in to me and knocked me straight in to next week. Had I been standing two feet to the left or right of where I was, I would have gone hard in to the wall.

Both my instructor and I learned quite a bit from that. Unfortuately, it was not my favorite way to learn.

 

[Skippy]

I have been involved with martial arts since 1974. I have studied many different styles & have had good as well as bad experiences with schools, teachers, etc... I used to train as well as teach at Yushen Lai's Taekwondo Academy in Torrance, California. The man gives away rank to adult students that do business favors for him & I always knew it would dammage his business in doing so. There was one bafoon of a fat slob who for all intended purposes was a wannabe martial artist. The guy smoked and was so out of shape he would be out of breath & down for the count after warm up believe it or not. He developed computer programs and developed software for Master Lai to run Tournaments. One day I walk into the studio and the guy's a yellow belt & the next day I walked in & the guy's a black belt. Even the kids' we had as students' there were disgusted. That was it for me! I walked out & never went back. I ran into somebody I know that also trained there back in the day. I was told due to the economy & other things Master Lai had to pack up & move shop to another smaller location in the next town over Carson, California which is not the best place to be for any reason. What's my point you might ask? Very simple. Avoid as school that will promise you rank for a price. Master Lai is in it for the money & in the end his questionable methods came back to bite him in the a$$ as many serious students that trained for the right reasons up & left There is nothing wrong with making a living teaching martial arts just as long as your not out to take advantage of people in the process just to make a quick buck.. I now study, train & teach Shaolin Kempo & couldn't be happier.

 

[Stac3y]

Why is it that every studio seems to have an "evil" black belt? There's always someone who's been seduced by The Dark Side.

Mine doesn't. Or if it does, I haven't found him/her yet. Pompous, arrogant donkeyholes, yes, but no one who deliberately hurts other people.