Martial arts discussion thread

[GoktimusPrime]

Glad to hear you guys had a good time.

[GoktimusPrime]

........

One of my students is currently nursing a broken leg after an injury in his dojo. Now I understand that injuries will happen, but here are the circumstances:
+ He was participating in a tournament and had his leg broken after his opponent swept his leg and he fell.
+ I asked him if he'd been taught breakfall techniques -- he didn't even know what I was talking about.

Yes, martial arts is an inherently dangerous physical activity and there's always risk of injury... but martial arts teachers have a legal duty of care (the same duty of care that school teachers have) and need to take reasonable measures to avoid/prevent injury. Surely you wouldn't allow a kid to do open/free sparring or tournament fighting unless they've been taught specific defensive techniques for safety, like breakfalling. What does the sensei expect him to do if he does lose balance and fall over in a fight?? Just fall down and break a leg? I can understand that injuries will happen in sport, even with the best preventative measures... but what irks me more is when there appears to be a lack of preventative measures.

Why should I care? This student has now missed two weeks of classes due to his injury; so it's directly affecting his school life. Also, because he's a rather advanced student I prepare special resources and work for him (and another student) to do that's different from the rest of the class (these 2 kids find regular work too easy and boring and they finish it in a flash). So it's a waste of my time preparing specialised work for him to do when he's not even turning up to class. Also they have a test coming up this week too... *sigh* Now luckily he's just naturally strong in Japanese so I'm not worried about his results, but what about his weaker subjects??

Why should the rest of us care? When the parents go to the dojo to claim the medical cost of the injury, the dojo will lodge a claim with their insurance provider. If the insurance provider determines that the school was derilict in their duty of care, then the school will charged excess (just like being an at-fault driver in a traffic accident); then what often happens is that the insurance premiums for martial arts teachers everywhere increases. This in turn may contribute to the increase of membership, fees etc. -- so ultimately everyone pays for it and inconveniences all other martial arts schools who are do the right thing and try their best to keep their students safe in training/practice.

[5FDP]

He was participating in a tournament and had his leg broken after his opponent swept his leg and he fell.

Sorry, but I can't help but think of a certain movie after reading that line



Break falling is the first thing you're taught in Hapkido.

[Bartrim]

Sorry, but I can't help but think of a certain movie after reading that line



Break falling is the first thing you're taught in Hapkido.

QFT everything in that post.

That was the first thing that came to my mind too and breakfall techniques were the first thing we learnt too. Even now before we do any throws we all practice break falls.

[GoktimusPrime]

Not all schools will teach breakfall first; some won't teach breakfall ever... but not all schools have sparring or tournaments (like my Tai Chi school where most people are just learning it for relaxation/health and don't care about the fight apps). But I do absolutely agree that breakfalling should (must) be taught first if the school chooses to allow their students to engage in any form of full contact fighting. As well as using safety gear, mats etc.

And yeah, most schools do the right thing and ensure that their students have the necessary training and equipment before letting them spar/compete, but unfortunately I've heard or witnessed too many instances where schools have not done this... which just makes things expensive for all the other schools who have done the right thing.

[Bartrim]

So we are having our official grand opening and a training/grading day in 2 weeks. My sensei has asked me to grade to green belt a term early. This has got a few noses out of joint from the younger students who graded with me at the last grading last term because they aren't grading. WHat they dont realise is that I was supposed to double grade at the last grading but because I was sick I wasn't fit enough to meet the requirements. Then being an assistant instructor, Sensei asked me to run the cool down stretches while he got changed and prepped for the Muay Thai class as our other 2 sempais were absent last night. I don't know if it's their youthfulness or they were disgruntled with me but this group of kids just flat out disrespected me.

Anyway it's logged in the memory banks for next time I'm in charge of a class.

[GoktimusPrime]

IMHO kids who disrespect and disobey instructors (and otherwise lack self-discipline) don't deserve to be trained. I reckon instructors are fully within their rights (and are obliged under duty of care) to exclude disrespectful/disobedient students from training.

Learning a martial art is a privilege, not a right. Techniques are potentially dangerous and can hurt people. If a student isn't willing to show the proper level of maturity to handle such a responsibility then they don't deserve to learn it.

JMHO.

[Oldschool78]

IMHO kids who disrespect and disobey instructors (and otherwise lack self-discipline) don't deserve to be trained. I reckon instructors are fully within their rights (and are obliged under duty of care) to exclude disrespectful/disobedient students from training.

Learning a martial art is a privilege, not a right. Techniques are potentially dangerous and can hurt people. If a student isn't willing to show the proper level of maturity to handle such a responsibility then they don't deserve to learn it.

JMHO.

Thats exactly how we handle things. Not just kids too adults come under the same category

[Bartrim]

Anyone else watch TUF live last weekend? I'm hoping Justin Lawrence wins it. I like seeing someone who has practiced a traditional martial art (karate in this case) compete as opposed to people who are classified as mixed martial artists that train only for these competitions and don't focus on one discipline.

My brother and I also LOL'd that this awesome karate fighter dudes name is Justin Lawrence as Johnny Lawrence was the best student at Cobra-Kai in the Karate Kid

[GoktimusPrime]

Don't forget that Transformers #1 was written by Ralph Macchio, the same name as the guy who played the original Karate Kid!