PDA

View Full Version : Micro concussion caused by striking....



Paul Genge
23rd October 2003, 16:55
Boxers not only cause them concussion by being hit in the head every time they hit a heavy bag or their opponent they send a shock wave to their head.

To see what I mean get your partner to stand in their stance as if they have thrown their punch. While they are in this position slap sharply the buisness end of their fist and watch what happens to their head, neck and back. You can see the strain on the neck and back as well as the head being thrown back and forth.

The same happens on standard bujinkan puching and karate punches where a lot of the force goes into the mid back then upto the head (rattling the brain).

There is no point spending years of training to prevent yourself getting injured in a fight if the training is causing potential brain damage. I know from experience of bag work that after some sessions I am left will a dull head ache.

A way of preventing this problem in hitting is to have your elbow bent when you make contact. This system of hitting is used in the Russian Martial Arts and with a little thought I am sure that Shinden Fudo Ryu punching in the Bujinkan could be done similarly.

You can carry out the same test with kicking. Again have the kicker hold the end position of their kick. Help them by supporting their leg then slap the part of the foot that ould be making the contact. Karate side kicks are terrible for reflecting the force back into the head. Standard Bujinkan kicks are very good because the force is reflected out through the buttocks and not into the body. (I know this sounds odd, but I can't describe it any other way.) The best thing to do is try the exercise and see what happens.

Hope this is of interest.

Paul Genge

http://www.russianmartialart.org.uk

evgenad
30th October 2003, 14:50
In my experience the small scock concussions were felt a time ago when I was doing particulary snappy repetitions of straight and reverse punch as in Shotokan with emphasized hip rotation. Just in thin air. I had to stop training, and I had to stop bobbing the head up and down when saying hello or hi to poeple. It was that bad; I was exagerating in the non-essential aspect of perfect-by-the-book form of technique. ("Dynamic Karate" M.Nakayama)

That was when I resumed practice on my own, having had previosly left the club at third-kyu.

Now I alternate between hard and soft ways of training in the basics. Must say that the meditative state of blocking and punching without tension gives back something more. Countless steadfast repetitions -- one just begins to feel a different kind of power. What the ancients spoke about, you just get filled with health, pure and natural health. This is energy replenished, where you don't burn yourself out most of the time, only at marked times when you feel like it, going to the limit. A great way of practice is this.

I am confident now that conditioning the body through unexagerated motions in a simple way prepares one very good. Egami-teacher mentions this non-contaction, this extension. In shadowboxing also the moves are done with less power than speed. It's good for the body not to do it snappy and contacted as a robot all the time. Only here and there, only one set. That means with kime, as when for real.

I would save the force for the bag, with care, and for the weights. A great way of developing strength is doing kihon with small weights, like a kilo or a half, or when out in nature using stones held in hands. Then the natural strenthening exercises with a sturdy stick like in swordplay and pullups on the branches... With the goal of having an adverse and serious training in the martial arts.

MarkF
31st October 2003, 12:05
Here is an interesting study on a rash of deaths in Aikido University clubs in Japan. It was first published on Aikiweb in 1989, and was actually done in the 1970s.

It relates to this subject well.

http://www.aikidojournal.com/articles/_article.asp?ArticleID=497#


Mark

PS: Click on the links to the tables. Some of the results are frightening.

Paul Genge
9th November 2003, 17:43
Andrej,

I am not talking about the trauma caused by doing the repetitions in thin air. What I am talking about is when you make contact with a strike the force is reflected back into the body. If your body alignment is not correct you will not give it a point where it can exit safely. Try the exercise I have suggested and see what is reflected back into your body.

I agree with you that fast repetitive strikes in thin air are not good for you. They place excess wear on the joints and the only positive thing to come from it is speed. I don't agree with bag work anymore because a bag cannot tell you what the strike did to it. In the Russian Martial Art we practice by hitting each other. There is also a methodology to taking the strikes onto the body using breathing. That way both partners get useful experiences from the training. I have just launched a page on my web site about the subject of learning to punch. It might give you some ideas of exercises that will be of use to you.

Mark, That is an interesting link. One thing that is very striking is that the injuries occur when throw down on tatami and not solid floors. I have some aikido experience and found the break falling dramatic to watch, but bad for the body. I think it stems from some people thinking that the dramatic falls are better because they are performed by the higher grades. There are some times when you really get it wrong and the only way to avoid a damaged joint is to throw yourself in some crazy way to release the presure of a lock. This is the exception and not the rule and only happens if you are too tense as the lock goes on.

If you train correctly on hard floors and are taught to roll instead of crashing to the floor your body will become softer. It will then disipate the force more effectively. When thrown on mats the tatami give and disipate the force. Only training on soft floors will leave your body unable to cope physically or phycologically with falling on hard surfaces.

Try looking at the Bujinkan or Russian Martial Arts if you want to find effective safe ways of falling to the floor. I am sure there are other arts out there that could teach you these skills, but the are the only ones I have experienced that teach a safe method of falling and rolling.

Paul Genge
http://www.russianmartialart.org.uk

evgenad
13th November 2003, 13:26
Yes.

I think now that it could have been the cold air that caused me the headaches. I always wear a cap nowadays outside. Regarding falls on soft surfaceses the matter is in the fact that no bump or swelling develops on the skull what would absorb kinetic force and the brain takes all. Physics. No transformation of energies.

I love my karate training.
Osu!