One thing that all martial arts have in common, at least to some degree, is an exploration of physical combat. Whether you're a recreational tai chi enthusiast or a competitive MMA fighter, the potential for training-related injuries is a reality that we all have to face. So, MAPers, let's hear your war stories. What kind of injuries have you sustained in your pursuit of martial excellence?
Does a bruised ego count? A few cracked ribs, broken nose, separated shoulder, usual strains/bruises, nothing too spectacular.
As a BJJ practitioner, injuries are somewhat more common for me than I'd like. I was once wrestling with a fellow who was ~330lbs and ended up with a bruised rib when he quite forcefully rolled me off of his back. I also broke my nose doing a BJJ seminar at a judo club; I was mounted on a fellow and he tried to sit up quite quickly and unexpectedly, giving my nose a nice introduction to his forehead. That was a fun one: blood everywhere, gasps from onlookers, etc. The inspiration for this thread comes from my current predicament: I'm currently nursing a sprained knee. This one is more of a run-of-the-mill injury with no flashy story behind it, but it's proven to be a persistent problem that's kept me out of training much longer than I'd initially hoped...
minor tendon damage in my shoulder, Tore all the cartilage in one ankle and have some other bruise type injury in my other one that's taking a few months to sort itself out. Plus all the usual bruises and scratches with the odd hyperextended arm
Cracked ribs, broken fingers, broken toes, tendonitis that took aaaaages to get better. Out of all of them, the tendonitis was worst as there was no indication if or when it would ever get better. Luckily it did.
Mine various injuries are well documented Ripped knee ligaments Cracked thumb bone Various cuts, bruises, sprains in all my joints. I even ended up with a bruised bum cheek. Round kick went too high (or low depending on your view)
I've been relatively lucky in that I've only had one semi-serious injury from the eleven years I've been in MA, and that was a suspected C6/7 fracture last year from a dodgy aikido roll that turned out to be just soft tissue damage but still kept me out for three months.
Got my shoulder torqued, broke a few fingers and toes, sprained pretty much everything. Martial arts suck man.
I was doing a demonstration with one of Master Sken's students. He was doing knees to the ribs and even though I was holding thai pads I got injured. I never went to the quack, but I'm convinced I had broken ribs. Luck for me he emigrated.
Fractured my arm in karate and fractured my big toe in kung fu, plus all the normal bruising that goes with training.
The worst injury I have acquired from MAs was a severely sprained ankle, which still isn't 100%. I ended up out of training for a couple of months, then training with a boot on, to offer support, for several months before moving into strapping. I still wear the strapping for MA practice now, several years after the injury. I think I subluxed my big toe at one point and it occasionally gives me grief. Aside from that I've had the odd black eye, lots of bruises and scraps, a number of light sprains (elbow, wrist and fingers). There have been a few occasions when I've aggravated non-MA injuries training when I shouldn't have (back and shoulder).
I assume it would've been interesting doing training with the boot on? I had a high grade partial tear of the ligament in my ankle and had to wear an air boot for a little while and that made things interesting so I assume a larger boot would've been harder?
I just trained with a pair of caterpillar boots (and lots of ankle strapping underneath) and was really careful not to step on people's toes or kick too hard. It was interesting from the point of view that it affected the way I moved because of the extra weight on my feet.
Tore the meniscus (cartilage) in my right knee back in the days I did Taekwon-do, I had to get it removed. It took me about two years to fully recover from that.
All of these injury stories are giving me the heebie jeebies! I kind of regret starting the thread now, because I'm getting too paranoid to get back to training!
Hands busted up a couple of times when slammed with rattan during eskrima training. Neck brace worn for 6 weeks due to being locked in the throw and not being able to turn out and roll with it.. Came down on shoulders and back of neck.
I'm slightly surprised at the results of this poll so far. Not a single respondent has remained unscathed throughout their training career. Most surprising though is that serious injuries seem to be more common than minor ones...
Its a part of life. Sure, I've had plenty of bumps, bruises and cuts. But I had to be honest and list the worst that I've experienced. If you train smart, you'll reduce the amount of potential injuries you could end up with. In my case, what happened was that I wasn't given enough time from my trainer to warm up and stretch my muscles and joints before practicing flying kicks. I ended up landed too heavy on my right foot and the cartilage, as well as the hamstring tore. I thought at first I was experiencing a bad case of cramping. My trainer at the time (who has qualifications in first aid), failed to identify what happened. In all honesty, I should of been taken to the hospital. Soon after that I came to learn that big girls weren't meant to fly. So I've ended up doing Boxing instead.
Yeah, accidents happen and although some are avoidable/preventable, you can never eliminate all risks. I've recently sustained a fractured eye-socket with muscle entrapment (which required minor surgery) and an ensuing partial PVD (posterior vitreous detachment) through a freak accident in BJJ training. That's my first serious injury in martial arts but of course I've had the odd scrape and bruise too. I've had plenty of minor injuries in other sports (contact and non-contact), including 'interior knee syndrome' (cross-country), acute Achilles tendonitis (camogie), bone bruises (camogie and GAA handball), subluxated shoulder (handball), a trapped nerve (handball) and various muscle strains (handball), but this is by far the most serious.
I've broken fingers and toes, and had mat burns. nothing major major, although the 2 broken fingers did take ages to heal, probably because I was still training while they were healing =p