MARTIAL ARTS INJURIES
(Posted 2007-06-19 13:43:12 by ArchPaladin)

Last night I went to TKD and had a fairly rough workout.  One section of
the class involved working with a partner and doing some kicking/blocking
combinations (one person kicks, the other person blocks it, etc).  I was
paired off with a 3rd Dan and we weren't training slowly, though it wasn't
terribly fast.  At any rate, I ended up doing a couple of blocks with my
fingers and got some bruises.  Nothing is broken or strained, but it's
rather difficult to make a fist.  This is by no means the first workout
where I've come away with some injuries.

Now, I'm only 22.  Hardly old enough to have any type of chronic injury,
and while technically I don't have any chronic injuries, I do have some
spots that could easily turn into them if I'm not careful.  Joints or
striking areas that have gone under some considerable stress - usually from
using them to break something else - like my left wrist or my right heel. 
About 99% of the time I'll never have any issues with them, but under very
specific circumstances or at extreme ranges of motion I can feel the pain
from an old wound.

I do the best I can to keep myself in the best of conditions, because I
want to train for a long time.  Even still, it is generally accepted today
that the fate of a martial artist is to fall apart in old age.  Having
gotten these injuries yesterday, I have been wondering just how much truth
there is in that statement.  Certainly martial artists in the feudal ages
in Japan or in ancient China did tend to fall apart over the years, but
most of them would eventually die in combat rather than grow old.

Nevertheless, systems were developed to help keep martial artists in good
condition.  Internal martial art systems like Taiji or Bagua were developed
to help weak or sickly Buddhist monks gain enough strength to fight.  (They
were also developed to explore some very devastating martial theories and
techniques, but that's a different discussion.)  Nowadays those systems are
still used to help promote a state of relaxation and health.  Some external
martial art styles embraced the use of Iron Palm or Iron Shirt to make
their bodies more resistant to damage - both to increase the amount of
power they could inflict, and to give older practitioners a chance to
maintain their edge against more youthful opponents.

Today, the internal aides are largely practiced by the elderly or the more
spiritual.  The external aides are considered too hardcore for people who
just want to have a simple 1-2 hour workout, or irrelevant given that
today's martial arts are not often practiced for the purpose of
self-defense.  I'm somewhat curious to know if there has been a rise in the
occurrence of chronic injury among martial artists since these systems
stopped being practiced by the martial arts community at large.  Sadly, I
don't think there's a good way to get an answer to that question as there
are too many confounding factors to consider.

I have been interested in learning both Iron Shirt and Taiji, but different
factors have led to my never really starting a practice regimen.  In the
case of Iron Shirt, I just haven't invested in the reading materials
(...another birthday hint for those who are keeping track - Mantak Chia is
the authority to go to for this subject).  In the case of Taiji, it has
been a matter of relearning the kata and finding a time each day to
practice.  As I keep a rather busy schedule, finding a good 20-40 minutes
each day for the kata is a little difficult, though I know that I should
make the effort as it should be incorporated into ILMA's teaching
compendium.  At the very least it will be beneficial for me as I get older
and more prone to injury.

Having mentioned ILMA, I think the school is probably the best reason to
learn this stuff.  Even if my past injuries do get worse as time goes on
(which I don't think they will if I don't overdo it), I should still know
all this material so that when new students come in I can give them info on
how to help prevent the wear on their bodies from constant practice.

So yeah...I think if I keep writing much more this post will start to
derail.  So, in summary, (1) martial arts injuries are bad, (2) I should
put more effort in learning stuff to stop them.

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There are 2 comments on this post:

Comment #1 by Texanh ( earl@texanh.com ) on 2007-06-25 17:29:26
Very interesting question:

"I’m somewhat curious to know if there has been a rise in the occurrence
of chronic injury among martial artists since these systems stopped being
practiced by the martial arts community at large. Sadly, I don’t think
there’s a good way to get an answer to that question as there are too
many confounding factors to consider."

A place to start might be a study on Martial Arts injuries in total.  I
assume that all the school associated with one of the federations might be
interested in filling out a form, or monitoring students over time, if the
data was shared with the federation.  With some long-term data in hand you
might be able to get a handle on your question.

Something like this would tie in nicely with your oriental medicine
training too.  Might get better response from the  Federations as a medical
student...

Very interesting.

Comment #2 by ArchPaladin ( blog@archpaladin.net ) on 2007-06-25 21:07:22
Certainly that would be a method of going about it.

However, there are so many other factors that it is almost impossible to
weed out just one.  For example, consider the following.  What systems are
being trained?  (can't compare across different styles, or in many cases,
different classes) Were new teaching skills introduced during the time
periods being studied?  (new skills = greater chance of injury) How does
student turnover affect the rate of injury? (more advanced students may
know how to protect themselves better, train harder) Each one of these
questions involves a counfounding factor that could directly relate to rate
of injury.  I'm not up to date enough on martial arts sports science to
know if these factors can easily be weeded out.  I suppose doing some form
of average over time would work, but this presupposes that all other
mitigating factors are either constant or irrelevant, and I don't think you
can make that claim about martial arts training.