A bloody nose I from a accident in practice is a "badge of honor" A bloody nose from a deliberate intention is a "badge of dishonor"
This^^ At least, not until much higher levels of kumite. I've seen some pretty nasty injuries in that. I once stubbed my toe really bad...that's just because I didn't have proper sparring boots, though.
My favourite one is to suddenly and inexplicably slide across the mats in such a way I do a sudden splits and fall over backwards. Happens far too often.
At our old gym, they'd put shoe moulding at the end of one row of mats in the MT/Boxing room. Toe would always find it :bang: Far worse than any bloody nose...
Its actually Sloth's friends who have good humour about his epic fails. But he did manage to reach one toe, at least
I walked into a punch from my son last night that might have been close to putting my teeth through my lip. We are both learning and maybe not so controlled as we might become. I winced and swore inwardly for a couple of minutes, but wriggled it out of my jaw and continued - I can still feel it a bit this morning, but it will pass. Since I have no intention of wearing a mouth guard at the moment the incident is down to me - accidents happen. However, as a middle aged lady what I am having to get used to is being dropped onto the mat - at my age, falling down is something that I try to avoid. I have to allow it to happen and in a controlled situation I shouldn't get hurt - esp. when working with the senior grades, but unless I let it happen they can't practise. I have discovered that it requires a certain amount of trust in someone else. This is a good learning process for me. To answer the OP, it wouldn't surprise me one day to get a bloodied nose in karate, but I think it will be an accident when it happens.
Not down to you, also your instructor. You should be wearing a gum shied and you are all negligent. I hope you make your son wear one
I've gotten so used to them being compulsory to spar I'm a bit worried there's places that don't make you use one.
I don't think we were intended to spar and contact each other. I find Gum shields rather awkward and for anything and tend to avoid using them if I can. Perhaps when I get into the full contact side of things they will be a good idea. However, at the moment it appears to be my choice and as such I am fully aware that I cannot hold anyone else responsible if I end up with my teeth through my lip at some point. The same goes for my son. Let's face it where do you draw the line? A gum shield will act in some way to protect your teeth and lips, but 3 inches higher and you could end up with a squashed nose and no-one is suggesting a boxing helmet and nose guard.
Fair enough. For me wearing one is more about the number of times I've gashed my tongue when I didn't wear it, but that was from grappling. Its more the permanence of damage. My nose has been hit a few times but its fine. I have multiple chipped teeth however from random knees and am currently dealing with a fully cracked tooth from an accidental headbutt. Never broken my nose to compare it, but I know the cracked tooth is one of the most painful injuries I've had. Either way, its not a great argument. I haven't sparred in karate to know, but my experience with striking is getting punched in the general teeth area is far more common than getting a clean hit on the nose. Saying a couple inches higher and its a nose hit so why bother is like saying there's no point wearing a bullet vest if you haven't got a helmet.
Southpaw535 and everyone else, then I'll certainly take using one under good advice received. I already have a gob full of comestic dentistry due to an argument with my face a bicycle and a kerb-edge when I was at school, and yes, it would be rather pricey to replace. They are the most awkward things. If anyone has any suggestions of a type that is easy to wear I'd happily take note. I must admit when I was cursing last night I did run the thought 'would the ouch factor have been as bad if I'd been wearing a gum shield", but I did think that I'd just been unlucky.
