How much pain in your class? Any KO's??

[SMP]

With different experience and age levels we allow varrying levels of force. Blood is not uncommon for our adults but very uncommon with our younger students. Everyone has a different level they are commfortable with we try to keep people from either extreme. My Sifu explained it to me once as - when I was young only the strong survived - now we try to make the weak stronger. In belt testing I have had my nose broken 2 times, my sternum cracked, multiple cracked ribs and a small chip in a tooth. But others have not experienced more than a few bruises.

 

[cali_tkdbruin]

I like to train when some of my more dedicated, hard-core training partners show up at the dojang. There are a few of us who tend to be more intense than the rest of the practitioners at our dojang, and that's when I really enjoy the workouts. We can really go at each other, but since we've been training together for a long while now we know when to tone it down, and not inflict serious damage or maim each other. If we were boxers we'd be stablemates I guess.

Anyway, deep bruises, minor cuts and black eyes do occasionally happen, but it's all part of the game and we do know when to shut it down so it's all good. Also, since most of us are all regular training partners and we do get together outside the dojang from time to time to have a beer, you just don't want to go all out and kick your friend's *** or have your buddy kick yours either... :asian:

 

[theletch1]

Sprained wrists, mild hyper-extensions, a bloody nose or two and at least one person choked out. We've had a couple of people injured to the point that they could no longer train but neither of these injuries were due to another aikido-ka. Both of them were as a result of fluke landings on rolls. One tore her meniscus (Sp) and the other tore his rotator cuff. It's all about control, but still, you must remember that martial arts are what would be considered an "extreme" pass time and injuries are all part of the game.

On the opposite end of the spectrum...after breaking my back and tearing up my own rotator cuff I found that getting back into the dojo and continueing to train (slowly at first) really helped my long term recovery. The stretching and strengthening that are needed for training can only help you in the long run.