The Martial Arts Related Injuries Thread

[Big Don]

Any of us who spar will have injuries with good stories.
It was my second week of class. It was my first sparring class. I had sparred with 6 or 8 different people when I ended up with one of the Black Belts.
At the start of each sparring class my Sifu explains that: 1: You are NOT allowed to get angry. 2: Anyone can hit hard, it takes more skill to hit soft. and finally, (and this is the important one) Don't hit anyone harder than you want to be hit.
This Black Belt will put his hands on his knees and give you a dumb look if you aren't on offense during sparring. It is a trick! It doesn't look like he can move fast from that position, but, don't be fooled. You know, like I was.
I was 285 pounds. He's about 155... I clocked him, big roundhouse punch to the jaw. Dropped him. Stood amazed, for a second. That guy hit the ground, popped up like a damn super ball and popped me! Right over the left eye. I was staggered, but, managed to keep my hands up. My Sifu yelled "STOP!" I stopped. I dropped my hands and could just feel everyone looking at me. I looked down, and noticed blood on the floor and wondered where it came from. Then I looked up into the wall of mirrors and was shocked. I looked like something out of a horror movie. Drenched in sweat, sporting a deer in the headlights stare, blood POURING out of a cut above my eye. The next few minutes are a blur... The next thing I know the Black Belt I was sparring had me sitting on the toilet in the bathroom and was applying pressure to stop the bleeding. Wow, head wounds really bleed, huh? Got me a bandage, and went back for the last 5 minutes of sparring.
My Sifu complemented me on taking it well. I did stay on my feet... and I drove home at warp speed to get my camera. This is about 45 minutes later:

Growing up, when I saw Rocky Movies I thought the guy getting by a punch was a bunch of crap. I don't think that anymore. 2½ years later, I am a Green Belt in Kenpo, and spar every week. The Black Belt that cut me? One of my best friends and yes, he still whips on me in sparring, but, he has to work harder now to do it. I think I actually made him break a sweat Monday night...
So, share your war stories! Lets see the bloody results.

 

[Kennedy_Shogen_Ryu]

Oh, war stories, so many of those I don't know where to start.
Was grappling with a friend, who has about 100 lbs or so on me, I tried jumping guard, totally screwed up, ending falling backwards with him on top of me, fell with both our weight on my lower back all we heard was click click pop, was out of it for a couple weeks.
Was sparring with an instructor of mine who got me down in a hold and pounded on my kidneys for 20 minutes because I refused to tap.
My shodan grading I was sparring with a friend of mine who failed to tell me she had her belly button pierced the day before, we're sparring and I got a shot off right on her belly button, a good shot too. To retaliate she 'accidentally' got a good shot in on my groin...
I'm sure I'll be able to think of some more.....
​

 

[MantisStyle21]

Lol Ah war stories....good times good times, I'm only an official yellow belt at the school I go to now, but before that my brother (who is a first degree black belt) helped out, so i knew quite a bit before officially studying at my school now, so my second week of classes, I get to spar, I was really excited. We were short on students that Saturday, so I got to spar a black belt, I was a little nervous but the black belt was a girl. "I'm not going to spar hard at all with her, I can't hit a girl." So we start and to start off the sparring match she shoots a kick right past my face, I though "wow she missed? I can't pass this chance up." So I move in, AS SOON as I move in... SMACK a hook kick comes back and her heel scores me in the jaw, it got hit at a perfect angle. So perfect my headgear spun around. Needless to say I think of every girl as just another opponent lol.

Another good one I was testing for my yellow belt two weeks ago and right at the start of the sparring part of the test, my opponent shoots a straight punch and his glove came loose and it goes into my eye, I keep going I start to open my eye again and the WHAM! same glove goes through the same eye. Come to find out the next day I have 2 busted blood vessels in my eye.

Those are the best.

 

[searcher]

Just during my Sho-dan test the list of injuries(not only mine):

2 broken cheek bones
broken ribs
shattered nose(mine)
several concussions
more lacerations than I care to recount

These were during my "50 man fight" on the last night of my test.

 

[Steel Tiger]

The worst I have suffered is a slight break to the nose. I like to attribute this to the fact that in our class at the time there was a guy who just kept getting hurt. He wasn't particularly clumsy or reckless, he just got hurt. He was the kind of guy who just seemed to absorb all the injuries others would normally have had.

The same in house tournament in which I got my nose broken, Matt, the wound guy, had his tibia broken with a stop kick.

In an earlier class he suffered a compound dislocation to his left middle finger (centre joint, all the tendons showing). It was nasty.

These are the nastiest injuries I have seen in the dojo.

 

[Primal Kuen]

About 10 years ago while I was training in TKD, I was sparing with a friend of mine who was not in MA . I was pretty confident as I had just recieved a new piece of yellow tape on my white belt...lol.

So naturally the dude pops me one, in front of chicks no less ! So I gear up for a big round house kick and let it fly...only my pivot foot stuck in the grass effectively ripping my knee to shreds. Surgery followed to staple ligaments to my bones ...ending my TKD training forever.
Damn it...and I was a yellow stripe too ! lol

 

[KempoGuy06]

I was sparring a first degree (im a purple belt). I came hit and hit with a couple strikes, backed off, he came in and I blocked then pushed him back to take the offensive. Little did I know his foot was swing around, WHAM, the instep of his foot slammed into the side of my head. I was drivin to the floor and stayed there a couple minutes. That was over the summer and we still laugh about it. Apparently I had the funniest look on my face.

B

 

[MantisStyle21]

Another good one, not so much an injury just humiliating. My brother had come to train with us (the school I'm at now is where he got his black belt) and he came back and was training with us and we were doing our tiger front roll, and I tried it and I did it but it wasn't the prettiest. He started laughing and said you don't do it like that and he leaped really far out and when he went to roll his arm gave and he landed on his face. We still make fun of him for it.

 

[stone_dragone]

I was trying to teach a 2nd degree BB in American Kenpo an upperbody control technique when he decided to stop learning and try to throw me. He stepped in and instead of going hip to hip he went knee to knee...my foot and knee stayed in one place while the rest of my body went in another direction...fast forward two years of trying to work through it...next week I'm having my knee reconstructed!

 

[Eric7_27]

This one was kind of funny I'm sure. I was sparring a brown belt in TKD class (who's also a state champion in kick boxing) well he hardly uses his rear leg but mainly attacks with his lead leg- at the time I was a green belt.

Anyways- I get used to his front leg attack and jam him as he goes to spin kick me, I jam it and back fist his head. Neatest point I got on him- well later on I think about doing it again and think he's gonna spin kick me, but it turns out he turn kicks me right in my ribs/stomach. It happened so fast! I must have flown several feet back. I never was kicked in the stomach harder before. It hurt so bad- but what was worse, was the eternity it felt like it took for me to be able to start breathing again- my legs were just squirming.
I've been punched and kicked really hard several times before- but this topped them all- I never had to go to the ground for it.

Didn't even have a bruise to show for it though

 

[Big Don]

When I tested for my Yellow Belt, I totally misunderstood the purpose of sparring during the test. I was matched up with two green belts, one after the other.
Sifu said go! I went! HARD after him! I knocked the crap out of him for about 30 seconds, at which point I was exhausted. Sadly, (For me) he was NOT, nor was the second guy...

 

[Blindside]

Point fighting injury...
This is what happens when someone sidekicks you in the jaw and damn near puts your bottom teeth through your lower lip.

The guy who did this is one of the nicest guys on the circuit too, he felt bad about it, but it sort of lit a fire under my butt and I wound up winning the match.... then I went to the ER.
Lamont

 

[g-bells]

^^^^

OUCH!!!!!!!


i have a chipped knuckle from working on the wooded dummy

 

[jks9199]

Do you have the matching scar on your lower lip? I do!

I was teaching a white belt to do a kick, and all night he was kicking with no force at all... So I'm telling him it's OK to kick me. Well... he gets the next front kick just right, but misses the target of my chest just a bit... Caught me flush on the chin, right beneath my lower lip. Nearly drove my lower teeth all the way through. I scared the hell out of him, 'cause I just shook my head, said "good job" and told him to do it again. That's when he said I was bleeding. I thought he'd just split my lip a little... obviously, I was advised it was a bit more than that! Took a couple dissolvable stitches inside and about seven or so on the outside. For extra fun... Not being able to shave for a week made my whiskers a real close match for the stitches in both color and size. Yeah -- got a few of them pulled when they tried to remove the stitches!

 

[Big Don]

Ouch is right!

 

[Blindside]

Do you have the matching scar on your lower lip? I do!

No scar on the outer lip, but my first sign that I had more than a split lip was that when i looked in the mirror, I immediately recognized the bruise outline of my lower incisors on the outside of my lower lip. Then i pulled out the gauze that was packed in there and thought "yikes."

I saw this exact same injury occur at another tournament, now I wear a double mouthpiece.

Lamont

 

[Balrog]

Blew my left ACL because I let my eternally 21 year old brain make a promise my 50+ year old body couldn't keep. :uhyeah: