opinions requested

[Gary Crawford]

I need some feed back if you please,My wife has been a TKD student for the last two years and I am very proud of her acomplishments.She has become a very agressive sparrer to spite all her injuries.Last night,she went to her class and did some sparring.One of her oponents was a woman who had a very previous neck injury and all of the students had been told not to kick her to the head.When my wife was sparring with her,this woman kept her chest gaurd well covered and received a lot of kicks that hit her hands.My wife was getting frustrated and decided to axe kick her to the front of her chest gaurd,but as her foot was coming down,this woman turned her head into the kick and was grazed down her face.Of course my wife was very upset that she got her there and the woman was completely P/O'd over it.IMHO this woman shouln't have been allowed to sparr with a limitation like that.What do Ya'll think?

 

[Disco]

There's no room in the dojang for blatant stupidity. If this person had an injury serious enough, to have everybody else told to not hit that area, then there's no way she should be on the deck. All she is doing is inviting a possible disaster. It's not so much the fact that someone would hit her deliberately, it's the unknown if she should move the wrong way, as what happened. Suppose that kick was a roundhouse and she redirected the kick upwards by mistake. Tell your wife not to lose any sleep over it. Just chalk it up to an Instructors mistake.... :uhyeah:

 

[Touch Of Death]

I need some feed back if you please,My wife has been a TKD student for the last two years and I am very proud of her acomplishments.She has become a very agressive sparrer to spite all her injuries.Last night,she went to her class and did some sparring.One of her oponents was a woman who had a very previous neck injury and all of the students had been told not to kick her to the head.When my wife was sparring with her,this woman kept her chest gaurd well covered and received a lot of kicks that hit her hands.My wife was getting frustrated and decided to axe kick her to the front of her chest gaurd,but as her foot was coming down,this woman turned her head into the kick and was grazed down her face.Of course my wife was very upset that she got her there and the woman was completely P/O'd over it.IMHO this woman shouln't have been allowed to sparr with a limitation like that.What do Ya'll think?

When sparring an injured opponent, you should take the time to work on your own motion or even somthing you havent' tried before. The fact that your wife became frustrated should be a learning experience for her in the future; because, she was worried about winning or losing. Things happen; however she could have been working on control, controling the distance, stepping of the line of attack, working a three point contact on incomming kicks, Or what ever. That's my two cents.
Sean :asian:

 

[RCastillo]

There's no room in the dojang for blatant stupidity. If this person had an injury serious enough, to have everybody else told to not hit that area, then there's no way she should be on the deck. All she is doing is inviting a possible disaster. It's not so much the fact that someone would hit her deliberately, it's the unknown if she should move the wrong way, as what happened. Suppose that kick was a roundhouse and she redirected the kick upwards by mistake. Tell your wife not to lose any sleep over it. Just chalk it up to an Instructors mistake.... :uhyeah:

I agree totally :asian:

 

[oldnewbie]

Okay, ... let me get this straight...

Woman with injury is sparring... Mistake #1
Instructor allows this (in this day and age of lawsuits) .. Mistake #2

I see no reason your wife should be bothered by this.
In fact, I would speak with the instructor about allowing such a obvious situation to evolve.

Certain injuries can be overlooked, spinal problems, neck problems... cannot.

 

[MichiganTKD]

I agree. If the injury was serious enough that she should not be contacted there, she should not have been sparring, certainly not with armor on. Body armor is inviting contact. In free sparring, it is very easy to forget yourself in the heat of combat and hit harder than you should-believe me, I've done it. This is the Instructor's fault for not taking proper precautions and perhaps saying "No sparring until your neck heals."

 

[celtic bhoy]

Body armour or not, this person should not have been sparring. The instructors first priority should be the students welfare!!!!!!!!!! The instructor was totally unprofessional in my opinion.

If this woman chose to spar with such an injury then it seves her right if she got hurt. Even if she wasn't injured, why turn her head into an axe kick? She was asking to be hurt if you ask me.

My sympathy is with your wife who was put in this compromising situation.

 

[elcajon555]

The fault doesn;t lie with your wife. It is the fault of the instructor and the student either one of them should have had enough brains to say maybe sparring is not a good idea. Though I can understand how your wife would feel bad, a few months ago I was sparring my instructors 11 year old son,(he is a 2nd degree and soon I will be a 2nd degree), and his father wants us to spar him hard, anyway I ended up kicking him in the mouth and he didn;t have a mouth quard. Yes it was his fault that I even hit him in the face, it is his fault that he didn;t have a mouth quard, and the instructor was mad at him not me, for the reasons stated. However even thought it wasn't my fault presay I still felt bad about it. And I ended up, after the match,apologizing to the instructor and the son. Your wife has to realize it wasn;t her fault and let it go. And if she feels that bad and the other person is still mad, maybe have your wife take out the other woman for lunch or something so there is no longer bad feelings between the two, because they still have to train together.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Hving been in the MA for only two years now, I think its an important part of your wife's development to see the result of hurting someone. Both her emotional and spirtual fitness were taxed. She needs to compartmentalize that dread and regret away from her main objective which is to train. The gal that got kicked in the head got to experience a kick to the head even after specificly requesting that it not occur. She ought to pay your wife twenty bucks for the lesson in hard knocks. I have to count on two hands, the number of people that have quit MA all toguether, because I hurt them. Some were just plain sissies, but others may have become great martial artists. I can't let it get me down, but I still think about them occasionaly.
Sean

 

[Nightingale]

spar at your own risk. its a contact sport. she shouldn't have blocked with her face. it sounds like your wife was exercising reasonable control in light of the situation and probably wasn't at fault.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I agree that it is a shame it happened and that it is a learning experence.
The instructor could have made it mandtory that all attcks be below the neck for both parties. Blocking with your face,head, neck, etc. is never a good idea. Although i have tried the eyebrow block a few times and have the scars to prove it.
I respect the woman for wanting to spar , with her injury, but she should learn that just because no one is supposed to hit her in the head dose not mean it wont happen. She should learn to block ALL attacks.

 

[Gary Crawford]

Thank You everyone for your thoughtfull replies.I stated my opinion at the beginning of this thread, but my wife wanted to get other opinions.She is in her class right now and it will be interesting to see politics have evolved from it.

 

[elcajon555]

She should learn to block ALL attacks.

Or even better she should learn not to get hit. Which is better then blocking because with blocking there still is contact.

 

[Gary Crawford]

"Or even better she should learn not to get hit. Which is better then blocking because with blocking there still is contact" elcajon555 I agree,especially in TKD sparring,not being there is better than blocking.That's something I try to encourage anyone in any style of MA.Footwork is vital.

 

[Gaidheal]

Reminds me of a time I was at a JKD training session and a student hoping to look clever asked our senior instructor "What's the best way to defend against that attack?" (I forget what the technique actually was) to which he replied, predictably, "Don't be there." ;¬)

John

 

[Gaidheal]

Another favourite witty piece of advice I like is one my current TKD instructor uses, and has even had occasion to use on me like so:

"John, please don't attempt any more head-blocks."