Mishaps

[terrylamar]

I guess everyone has had mishaps of one kind or another, chopping of fingers and or arms. Why, you ask, do I say this? Because, no one post about their sword training anymore. What other explanation can there be? Have you all lost interest? Do you not have anything to share? Let's get this forum moving again. I am most interested in The World Haidong Gumdo Federation and it's affiliates, but any of the Korean Sword Arts are interesting.

Perhaps we should have a roll call?

 

[Namii]

I thankfully havent had any sword mishaps that involved blood loss or scars.
Ive been nibbled on by a couple of sharp swords. Mere scratches.
One was bad hand placement on the scabbard of a katana so the edge grazed my skin as i resheathed it. The other was from a wakizashi. When I was resheathing it my body thought it was a katana so when I extended my arm all the way out the tip went sailing past my finger and left a decent scratch. The training sword I use in class has yet to leave a mark on me. I plan on keeping it that way too . I have dinged the tip on the floor once when we were doing angle cut drills in pakosae. <--- that stance is a fun one.
I think my furniture in the apt has suffered more damage than I. There are various scrapes and scratches on the furniture in the room I practice in. It was more from when I first started when you are still learning about spacing and such.
I have read of 3 serious dandies of sword mishaps on various other sword forums.
1. Man self educating in iaido from a book. He is practicing with shinken and decides to do a fancy noto, misses, and runs the sword through his whole forearm. It entered in the inner wrist area and a couple inches of the tip were sticking out the other side just in front of his elbow.
2. Man is doing cutting exercises outside and the sword he was using was poorly maintained. He wasnt doing very well and another man was trying to help him. He wouldnt accept and kept getting angrier and angrier, swinging harder and harder. In the middle of a swing the mekugi /peg failed and the blade flew out and straight into the chest of the other man. <-- he actually lived.
3. Man is doing cutting exercises and his follow through on one of the cuts went too far. So far it cut right through his calf. He managed to crawl to the street and he was lucky that a couple nurses were walking nearby.
4. Man actually in an iaido class is doing an advanced kata. (i cant remember the details if the sword was sharp or not) But the move that got him was a thrusting/stabbing move that is directed to an enemy behind him. He misjudged the angle and ran himself through the abdomen.
Ow....
My stomach was churning a bit describing these as I remember the pictures that were posted. I can find the links to the postings of these if anyone wants.
Just goes to show how focused you have to be when training with weapons

 

[jks9199]

I thankfully havent had any sword mishaps that involved blood loss or scars.
Ive been nibbled on by a couple of sharp swords. Mere scratches.
One was bad hand placement on the scabbard of a katana so the edge grazed my skin as i resheathed it. The other was from a wakizashi. When I was resheathing it my body thought it was a katana so when I extended my arm all the way out the tip went sailing past my finger and left a decent scratch. The training sword I use in class has yet to leave a mark on me. I plan on keeping it that way too . I have dinged the tip on the floor once when we were doing angle cut drills in pakosae. <--- that stance is a fun one.
I think my furniture in the apt has suffered more damage than I. There are various scrapes and scratches on the furniture in the room I practice in. It was more from when I first started when you are still learning about spacing and such.
I have read of 3 serious dandies of sword mishaps on various other sword forums.
1. Man self educating in iaido from a book. He is practicing with shinken and decides to do a fancy noto, misses, and runs the sword through his whole forearm. It entered in the inner wrist area and a couple inches of the tip were sticking out the other side just in front of his elbow.
2. Man is doing cutting exercises outside and the sword he was using was poorly maintained. He wasnt doing very well and another man was trying to help him. He wouldnt accept and kept getting angrier and angrier, swinging harder and harder. In the middle of a swing the mekugi /peg failed and the blade flew out and straight into the chest of the other man. <-- he actually lived.
3. Man is doing cutting exercises and his follow through on one of the cuts went too far. So far it cut right through his calf. He managed to crawl to the street and he was lucky that a couple nurses were walking nearby.
4. Man actually in an iaido class is doing an advanced kata. (i cant remember the details if the sword was sharp or not) But the move that got him was a thrusting/stabbing move that is directed to an enemy behind him. He misjudged the angle and ran himself through the abdomen.
Ow....
My stomach was churning a bit describing these as I remember the pictures that were posted. I can find the links to the postings of these if anyone wants.
Just goes to show how focused you have to be when training with weapons

If it's the same account I read, the guy in your mishap #1 wasn't a self-taught guy. He was a known, fairly highly ranked iaido practitioner. Mentioned only to stress that accidents can happen even to the best when you start playing around with big, sharp objects.

 

[Chris Parker]

Actually, just to correct you there JKS, the person in question was a self-taught Iaidoka, although he was experienced in using and being around blades. His name is Don Rice, the following is a link to the story as it happened: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53303

 

[billc]

Back when I was doing Kenpo, I went to watch a tournament that was pretty heavily okinawan arts. The one thing I will never forget is the weapons kata where the competitor, an older guy, demonstrated his cutting technique. They brought in three stands with the cutting targets and placed them left, right and center for him to cut. They inspected his weapon, but the judges were not sword people. He turned and cut the straw target to his left. Resheathed his sword, turned and addressed the target to his right. He draws, and as he cuts, the blade came out of the handle. It flew across two rings, hit the floor, point first, stood up straight then fell down. Luckily they had cleared all the other rings for his demonstration. The look on his face was priceless. He forgot to check the peg that holds the sword in the handle and none of the judges knew to look for it. A great time had by all.

 

[jks9199]

I think that was the same account; I guess I was mistaken. However, note that the person posting it on MAP was NOT a beginner or self-taught, and had also injured himself severely.

We teach 3 levels of safety for all weapons: Safety to Self (am I endangered by the weapon? is my body in the path of the blade?), Safety to Friends (are my buddies, companions endangered? if something goes wrong, will they be hurt? is someone standing in the path that I'm about swing a stick through?), and Safety to the Weapon (am I going to break my stick hitting that post? is my sword properly assembled?) These rules can apply to every weapon.