I took up Karate 6 months ago at the ripe old age of 36.

Now, I really love it and training 3 times a week really helps blow the work cobwebs away. Here’s the thing though, certain sessions each week are contact sparring – which I enjoy too. It seems to be that only brown belts and black tend to turn up for these sessions but I’m quite game for a laugh and go too. Enthusiasm seems to go a long way!!

So far, I have had a broken finger (my fault for blocking badly), a badly bruised foot (not my fault), and now what feels like cracked ribs when tonight a prick of a 3rd Dan decided that he was going to unleash full force.

Is this amount of injury normal, or am I just being over-optimistic about my ability and should ease off on the contact sparring until I’ve been traing for a few years?

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty good for my level, but no where near as good as those who have been training for 10+ years!

Yours, a shallow breathing (coz it **** hurts),

Stu.

Surf-Mat to the thread please.

shouldn’t be a 3rd Dan if he can’t control himself sparring with a lesser grade….

jam bo – my thoughts too really, but all walks of life have dick heads I suppose.

let whoever is taking the session know about the lack of control of some of the people you are sparring with and let them decide the punishment. that used to be great to watch in my old club.

SbZ, I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong sid of our Sensei, he’s a 7th Dan and had been training for nearly 40 years. I think he probably knows that some are without control as he will occasionally demonstrate on the overly agressive individuals – which normally puts them in their place.

Borrow some bombers off Ton.

I’m not too bothered about getting the odd pasting, it’s character building 😉 but am questioning whether I’m trying to do too much too early.

squin – you’re not from carlisle area are you?

SbZ, no S Manchester, why?

Just the 7th dan training for 40yrs thing. Cant be many of those around. Thought it might have been the same guy that taught me.

Your Sensi or Instructor should never allow you to spar with blackbelts, you are neither experienced enough or tough enough yet to handle the potential injuries. This would also probably invalidate his insurance.

If you feel you have broken/cracked/brusied ribs, the only cure is rest, unless it is a clean break, where you potentially suffer some lung/tissue damage.

You must speak to your instructor and advise him of what happened, this is very unprofessional for any Martial Arts Club/Association.

Thought it was fairly common to cross-train the various grades, certainly has been with any of the groups I’ve come across (either first hand or heard from other parties). The point above about the black belts being able to control themselves is the whole point really.

I stopped doing kickboxing when I realised I’m too slow and too eager to use my head to block, but it was good fun, especially training with the upper grades.

Have you considered a medical cause? Maybe I’m obsessed but I broke a couple of bones where I wouldn’t have expected to and it turned out I have osteoperosis… It’s not common in young-ish active people but cycling is a risk factor (low-ish impact and you sweat calcium out) and there’s other possible causes. Might possibly be worth seeking a bit of medical advice. Might not.

it’s a full contact sport, perfectly normal… surprised you haven’t had a broken nose yet. when I did Thai boxing I was permanently covered in bruises. My shins were a right old state and my shoulder at one time was almost blue for over a week.

Ribs can be quite easy to break without even trying tbh. One evening after a pub session a mate convinced me we should try a bit of sparring before going home for a bit of a laugh. I wasn’t into it but he eventually convinced me so I round house kicked him a couple of times one each side to the body and he fell over in the bushes. I apologised and he held his hand out for me to help him up which I did. Just as he stood up he side kicked me right in the chest and knocked me back several feet and I fell to the floor. I got up and we decided that was enough, time to go home. Later in the evening when I was at home having finished a beer I realised I couldn’t get up out the chair and that I was in a bit of pain, I’d probably cracked a rib. I phoned my mate to tell him and he said.. think yourself lucky, I’m at the hospital I can hardly breathe ! 😯

Kev

One of the guys at a client office of ours is a cage fighter – the state of him some days is hilarious. As for the OP, they do sound like the normal sort of injuries you’d expect from sparring so it’s up to you whether you want to keep doing it (although the imbalance in ability means you’ll be getting hit more than your fair share you’re always going to pick up injuries in full contact stuff).

‘Surrounded By Zulus’ Im from the Carlisle area and do Karate

‘agent orange’ Senior grades are the best people to train & spar with they should have a higher level of control and enable lower grades to advance quicker. However there will always be some with the wrong attitude!

As someone who trains and fights in Muay Thai I’m forever coming home with injuries…you aren’t doing it properly if something doesn’t ache the next day.

Impact injuries from sparring are common, I’ve sprained my toes a number of times, and i get bruises/scratches quite a lot. I’ve never broken anything…although I had my toe x-ray’d once when I thought I had.

People tell me that chicks dig scars, but my wife doesn’t seem to like it.

I’ve only ever sparred ‘hard’ with someone through mutual consent, often when either one of us is training for a fight, but even that is controlled and not 100% – you don’t want to get an injury before a fight. I would never go hard on someone with 6 months training, and I know our instructor would tell off anyone who did. If anyone gets carried away, he’ll often tell the person that they’re sparring with him next if they don’t pack it in.

We once had a couple of new people join who obviously had some experience and thought it was funny ‘beating up’ the people new to sparring. They were laughing and egging each other on…they didn’t take any notice when the instructor told them to calm down.

They then got partnered with one of the pro fighters (MMA fighter, or ‘cage fighting’ if you prefer), he proceeded to ‘spar hard’ too…they didn’t come back the next week.

In full contact sparring, there’s no doubt that the injuries are going to happen. In point stop or free point sparring then no, you shouldn’t expect a beating but you’ll still get accidents depsite the control levels that shoulld be displayed.
If you are going to go into sparring, then I think it’s agood idea to ask your oppoenent to calm down a little, any senior grade should fight to thier opponents ability, particually if they are fairly low grades.
As an example, last night I ‘fought’ a white belt last night (TKD) and although he ‘landed’ a few hits on me, those were the ones I let though as I thought they meritted not being blocked. At the same time, I ensured that when his guard slipped, I got some ‘hits’ in so that he knew to tighten up his guard, however there was no way that those hits would be hard enough to hurt, just to show that they could have done. Sound condescending? It’s not, that’s how you learn. On the flip side, I nearly had my nose broken by a 6′ 18st monster 2nd Dan as I kicked him round tha back of the head. Think I came off worse on that one.
It’s all about adjusting to your oppenent.

McHamish – that sounds about right.

Surrounded By Zulus – I am interested to know who your instructor was?

all walks of life have dick heads

think that sums it up

class I go to we rotate around in sparring and can easily come up against some very big black and brown belts but most know what is appropriate – we had one relatively inexperienced guy that obviously went OTT during sparring and padwork – just ended up that he often didn’t get a partner and ended up being put with a well skilled big guy who could handle it

Well no-one has said it yet so I will.
Stu, TTFU.

😉

Back off the contact for a while longer. I think the enthusiam mixed with the contact sparring is getting in the way of learning proper technique first.

Learn technique- concentrate on this, then put it into practice.

You should also be concentrating on warming up and stretching to help with your technique.

I practiced martial arts for 9yrs and I knew girls who could second-guess and beat higher belts rather than using raw aggression or force of will.

Enjoy 🙂

“Wax on”
“Wax off”

This guy will sort you out