[MP+4]

I must have been so knocked out that I forgot that I DID go to the doctor (Stanford) ! And he pointed out the same thing you just said about multiple minor concussions. On the other hand I was surprised that he said "since you didn't faint, me won't do an MRI".

Thanks for pointing it out ...

Eddy

[Dr. Shon Thomson]

I gained a lot of respect for why tsuki is not allowed in the kyu division, when I was accidently stuck in the neck. I hit the floor like a ton of bricks. Had a lump in the side of my neck for a couple weeks after that.

[Michaelnewerb]

Originally posted by Raiza
Regarding march hemaglobinuria (hemaglobin in the urine)...
March hemaglobinuria is when the inner contents of crushed red blood cells (i.e. for kendo: frequent bruising, high-impact footwork) are excreted by the kidneys into the urine i thought at first it had to do something with tamago uchi/tsuki

[epPtsDno]

Originally posted by Karaken
OK, we'll have our fun. But I was always wondering whether repeated clubbing of my head by heavy handed beginners ( and some senseis too ) represent any possibility of head trauma type injuries known to boxers and American Football players. .. Any evidence or write-ups?
( Hoping to get - NO - or No answer )
Center - kote - Hmmm I know of a guy who got a detached retina from too many men hits in kendo. He'd been doing kendo for years in Canada and at Tokyo University. But even after that injury, I think he only had to stay out of kendo for about six months and then he was fine to go back.

[Gasfghj]

you can feel a MAJOR difference in a sprung floor... think thats why my legs are wrecked after slamming around on solid floors! Stamp once. If your knee explodes its not a sprung floor. I have been lucky and just got one, its great, I can actually cover the full length of the dojo in 3 cuts. If the old dojo floor was down it would take me 5....

Tim Hamilton

[BGThomasis]

Hi Neil,

Do you train on a sprung floor yourself? Are there any in Saskatoon? Just curious. I'm just wondering how common it is.

[oneliRafmeene]

This actually brings up a good point I've been thinking about. Does anyone actually train on a sprung floor? Also, how can you tell if it's sprung or not?

The only sprung floor I know of is at a famous club downtown, the dancefloor is sprung and you can dance all night without feeling tired or sore later. However, it looks like a regular wooden floor and feels the same if you jump up and down initially, you have to do intensive work on it for a long time and "feel" the difference later.

Any ideas?

[asharbiq]

Originally posted by Karaken
OK, we'll have our fun. But I was always wondering whether repeated clubbing of my head by heavy handed beginners ( and some senseis too ) represent any possibility of head trauma type injuries known to boxers and American Football players. .. Any evidence or write-ups?
( Hoping to get - NO - or No answer )

Center - kote - Hmmm We've had concussions. But that was because some guy would club some guy over the head with the meaty part of the shinai. Actually it is amazing that some 2dan-3dan players do that. Otherwise, nothing. They guy wanted to continue, but his wife "strongly encouraged" him to quit. Wife's some sort of a doctor so the influence was stronger.

[Cyzkrahu]

Think Kendo is safe? Think again. Just cannot imagine how many people have been doing in-depth scientific research on Kendo over the last 100 years. I "accidentally" came across the National Library Medicine and come across the following articles:-

Strenuous exercise-induced change in redox state of human serum albumin during intensive kendo training.

Imai H, Hayashi T, Negawa T, Nakamura K, Tomida M, Koda K, Tajima T, Koda Y, Suda K, Era S.

Department of Health and Physical Education, Faculty of Education, Gifu University, Japan.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis of human serum albumin (HSA) using an ion-exchange (DEAE-form) column shows three components: The principal component corresponds to human mercaptalbumin (HMA); the secondary to nonmercaptalbumin (HNA), having mixed disulfide with cystine (HNA[Cys]), or oxidized glutathione (HNA[Glut]); and the tertiary to HNA, oxidized more highly than mixed disulfide. The purpose of the present study is to clarify the effects of strenuous exercise load on HMA-->

[Yarikoff]

Hey! What happened to achilles tendon rupture! Just wanted to know because that is what happened to me.

I'm along ~1.5 months and I'm already on one crutch. But, I'm gonna be in a walking boot for a bit.

All of these injuries are scary, but not as scary as American football with spinal injuries, possible paralyzation, ACL, MCL and LCL blowouts, brain damage due to repeated traumatic helmet to helmet contact, etc.

Lastly, if we are all that afraid of injury, why do anything active at all? Why don't we all stay at home, surf, eat, poop, sleep, and play video games all day.

Tim

[skydaypat]

Ya know... if you research any sport enough, it will be found to be unsafe... granted some are less safe than others, but there is a danger to everything...

I think the moral of the story is to listen to your body so you can prevent and fix injuries early on. Also, for those nasty injuries that could have been prevented if ones kendo was stronger to prevent the opponent from hurting you in the first place, I think that just gives all the more reason to train harder to prevent such injuries by making ones kendo stronger. Must train. Sorry that sounds redundant, sleepy... zzzzzzzz...


Although, does anyone have any info on signs of injuries that denote worse things that need to be checked into immediately and may require sitting out to make sure one is okay like that whole neck injury thingy above? If I felt okay I would probably continue to compete, but after reading that I might think otherwise down the road. More info on such dangerous things to look out for would be both education, interesting, and appreciated.

[layevymed]

Originally posted by Hongsermeier
I gained a lot of respect for why tsuki is not allowed in the kyu division, when I was accidently stuck in the neck. I hit the floor like a ton of bricks. Had a lump in the side of my neck for a couple weeks after that. Hehe.. Did you get scooped Brad? I know of a couple of people (that will remain anonymous) here in Norcal that scoop. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about.

Tim

[rammossyAcron]

You can usually tell right away if a floor is sprung or not, just do a few fumikomi on it and you can feel whether it has any spring.

[amelveEnromma]

Just some deaths resulting from aikido.

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

I didn't quite get the medical jargon of the original thread so it can't have hurt that much!

Stan

[loginereQQ]

"I think the moral of the story is to listen to your body"

"Hello Body, this is me. How am I doing?"

"Have you considered miniature golf?"

"Shut-up, what do you know!!!"

[maysubers]

Any physical activity is not without some level of risk, so it's not surprising that a few case reports have come up, which are what most of the publications that mingshi mentioned. I would recommend, mingshi, that you might want to consult someone with a scientific/medical background (i.e. someone with at least a science/medical degree) before you cut and paste a PubMed search result on a big global forum where not everyone has a scientific/medical background. Some of the abstracts shown are easy to follow, while others would make one's head spin! I think the best approach for someone citing a PubMed result or any other scientific article is that they be able to translate it into everyday language, as best they can, or ask someone who can. My feeble attempt at this is outlined on the second page of the "women and do" thread. One day I will figure out how to put a link to that...

The article by Lee doesn't address an injury or ill-effect at all but an increased speed in muscle responses of kendoka and karateka! My muscles will work faster over time, whee!

Regarding march hemaglobinuria (hemaglobin in the urine)...
March hemaglobinuria is when the inner contents of crushed red blood cells (i.e. for kendo: frequent bruising, high-impact footwork) are excreted by the kidneys into the urine. Hemaglobin, the protein responsible for binding oxygen for delivery throughout the body and also responsible for red blood cells being red (hemaglobin has iron attached to it too), winds up in the urine along with all the other stuff that was inside the squashed red blood cells. Old-school and prefectural riot-squad kendoka are more likely to encounter this at a noticeable level than others, but no one is immune. For avid kendoka, if your diet is fine and you feel sluggish for no other apparent reason, this may be the reason why so bring it up with your doctor if your lack of energy is serious enough to warrant medical attention, as most doctors outside of Japan and Korea have little idea what kendo/kumdo is. This kind of hemaglobinuria is certainly not a kendo-specific injury, as the condition was named after soldiers developing anemia after prolonged marching! Same goes for the metatarsal (metatarsals are the long bones in the foot) injury referred to by Sakamoto, which is also known as a march fracture, which I've had the pleasure of having. Not fun!

Anyhow, train hard and respect both yourself and your opponent.

[mpzoFeJs]

Is men padding minimal because you are not supposed to strike hard?
I wasn't hitting my opponent hard enough one day during practice and my sensei told me to strike harder. I notice when I strike really hard, my opponent closes his eyes for a brief second.

Hmm, I'm hoping to get approved to get bogu within this year and then I'll spend an obscene amount of money on a diamond-encrusted men (just kidding). I don't want to find out that I am going to get head problems from it. That's the reason I quit goaltending.

[Izzy]

Okay so I got your attention
Of course... it's just a catch phrase. Don't worry too much.

Hey I cannot understand anything medical either. But I would say those are special cases for professionals to study upon, for risk assessments etc. Do you think it is my fault that I find something kendo related in medical science publications that no one understands??

Oh, one more thing... I found this a while ago in Abe Akihito's site. Believe it or not:-

Kendo as a dangerous sports ??
Japanese weekly magazine AERA says that Kendo is one of the most dangerous sports for middle age people. The percentage of sudden death is higher than other sports. Do not practice very hard for your health, but practice very hard for your way of the sword. You can read it in Japanese here:
Abe's guestbook Abe commented in the Japanese version, "By the way what is the age for 'middle age'?"

Could't find the article at AERA's site, but it was originally outlined (in Japanese) as follows:-

AERA 2002 vol. DEC 9
Health
Sudden Death:
Dangerous Sports Rank
Top 3 = Kendo, Skiing, Mountain-climbing
Pay Attention to Golf and Gateball Too Abe-san got the info from the magazine's hanging adverts on the train. Not sure if the original article has any scientific research or evidents behind...

Think Golf is safe too? Think again!!

[Hinigyday]

Because then we would loose muscle strength and tone, not be able to cary out simple physical activity, not work off the fat from our order in meals, become obese, get a heart murmer, develop a vitamin D deficiency (lack of sun), and experience mental and physical trauma from it. Think alaska, and regions above the arctic circle, where there is like 6 months of no sun at a time, and the worlds highest suicide rates :-)

We aren't safe anywhere, so why not just have fun?

[PekHyvac]

"march hemoglobinuria" means blood in the urine, IIRC. A very common thing to occur in old-school hard-core high school or college practice.