Has your instructor ever injured a student?

[Stuey]

All you can do is prepare your students to deal with what they train. A bit more attention to falling etc should prepare them somewhat, but there are always those who dont go with it and rarely will. I would also invest in mats, that way everyone can fully commit to the throws and falling thing with less risk of injury. You will never eliminate risk, but you can always reduce it.

 

[angrywhitepajamas]

yes,
eight years ago my one of the assistant instructors broke my pancreas, its given me diabetes since then.

 

[Aiki Lee]

Train real martial arts and you will get hurt.

...train MA and you will get hurt, train it long enough you will eventually hurt someone else unintentionally.

I think this should definitely be expected to some degree, but as a person becomes more experienced I would like to think that injuries are a result of the less experienced person responding incorrectly to something. If I get injured because of something my teacher does it's probably my fault. His goal is to hit me or throw me on my head. If I respond correctly I do not get hurt. If I repond wrong then I have recieved an injury due to my poor response not my teacher's initial technique.

I think you could only place the blame on the teacher if he was demonstrating something with or testing a student who wa not yet experienced enough for this particular exercise.

 

[Xue Sheng]

yes,
eight years ago my one of the assistant instructors broke my pancreas, its given me diabetes since then.

How does one break a pancreas?

Not including sugar overload

 

[Xue Sheng]

I think this should definitely be expected to some degree, but as a person becomes more experienced I would like to think that injuries are a result of the less experienced person responding incorrectly to something. If I get injured because of something my teacher does it's probably my fault. His goal is to hit me or throw me on my head. If I respond correctly I do not get hurt. If I repond wrong then I have recieved an injury due to my poor response not my teacher's initial technique.

I think you could only place the blame on the teacher if he was demonstrating something with or testing a student who wa not yet experienced enough for this particular exercise.

Agreed

But your post did remind me of an interview I read from Chen Xiaowang that might be more along the lines of what geezer is looking for than my original post.


Chen Xiaowang was giving a seminar in Europe and one of the seminar participants decided to test him and see how good mater Chen was without saying anything to Chen Xiaowang.

If I remember correctly the person jump master Chen from behind and surprised him but invoke an automatic response from master Chen that severely hurt the attacker and sent the attacker to the hospital via ambulance.

Chen Xiaowang felt horrible about it but he has been training his whole life and certain things are automatic when attacked.

I will see if I can find the story and link it.

 

[fangjian]

Reading the thread on "Bully Instructors"... I got to wondering, how often do injuries occur in training, and of those injuries, do they ever happen when working with an instructor?

I ask this because I screwed up in class last week. My art (WC) is essentially a striking art, but we do have plenty of leg-checks, sweeps and throws. I was showing some intermediate students how to close, grapple and throw. The demo went fine, but we don't have mats and so we have to let the other guy down easy. Some of the students have a natural uneasiness about going down backwards to the floor... and we haven't spent enough time on falling, especially on hard surfaces. I think this is a big part of the the problem. Anyway, for whatever reason, when I was working with one of the students, he got into a weird position and popped something in his knee as he went down. He got up and walked it off, but pretty much had to sit out the rest of class. Then when he missed the next class a couple of days later, I knew something was wrong. I called him today and his knee was still troubling him. I drove over to his house and gave him one of my old knee braces (I've had a lot of injuries over the years) and recommended that he get it checked out.

The problem is that he's and older guy (just a few years younger than I am), does a physically demanding job (electrician) and is self-employed with no medical insurance. So if this turns out to be serious, he's screwed. And it's my fault. So I'm feeling like an idiot. On one hand, when teaching I've never claimed to be a "master", and in the real world, stuff happens. On the other hand, as an instructor, I am responsible for my students safety. Period. Any thoughts?

Good job for showing him that you care and that his health matters to you. I've been teaching for about 5 years, and have only had maybe a few students get a couple sprains.

I take it very seriously and if anyone get hurts I feel awful, and get embarrassed(not that that really matters of course) as well. I'm always careful not to be reckless. We do have much responsibility. But sometimes things happen (especially in contact sports). If a football player gets hurt in a game or practice o whatever, it logically can't be the coaches fault every time.

I remember a while back a gong fu teacher of mine and my friend started sparring no gear. Just kinda 'playing' . the teacher came up with a 'snapping' round house, and my friend moved his head right into it. BANG. Knocked a couple of his teeth out. Both of them were being a bit reckless.