Kongoken Squarepants

At the end of this summer’s TKRI/Seijinkai Gasshuku, Robert Miller charged me with a mission: to figure out a way to make a kongoken out of parts found at the hardware store and document the process. I’ve made all sorts of training equipment for myself and for the dojo out of a mixture of concrete, duct tape, logs and items scored through dumpster diving, so making a kongoken seemed like the next logical project. Our dojo will definitely benefit from having one around, but Bob’s ulterior motive was to provide Chopper (his student, my teacher) with a conditioning tool that he could use safely following an upcoming knee surgery.

More Cheap Toys for the Easily Entertained

One of our members picked up some used tires that were on their way to the junk yard. One of the larger ones now lives by the makiwara in my back yard. When I need a break from pounding the makiwara I get out a sledgehammer and pound on the tire. It is a great power workout for shoulders, lats, abs, and even gets the legs moving.

I can spend way too much time doing circuits on the makiwara, the heavy bag, the double ended bag, the chishi, and swinging away with the sledge hammer. Cheap entertainment and a workout at the same time. It sure beats standing on a tread mill at the gym watching Oprah.

Here are a couple of  pics:

Drink Something Already 2

Visit this link for some excellent information on recognizing and preventing heat-induced illness. Check out page 3 under the PRIMARY PREVENTION heading for a handy information such as the amount of time it takes to become physiologically acclimated to exercising in an elevated heat environment.

CPR, First Aid, and AED Certification

So you teach classes at a local gym, or you are a senior student at a club, and one of the students has to bow out because he is feeling nauseous and you notice that he is rubbing his shoulder, stomach bug and a shoulder strain you think? Maybe, but it could be a heart attack. What are you going to do?

Our society is aging, and it seems likely that at some point many karate teachers will find themselves faced with a student who needs care quickly due to a heart attack or injury. Many facilities now have Automatic External Defibrillators on site and they are not difficult to learn to use. The Red Cross offers affordable classes in First Aid, CPR, and AED across the country. Being prepared before a crisis seems pretty martial to me.  Get certified, it is the responsible thing to do.  Here is a link to the Red Cross Page, click here and sign up.

Drink Something Already

The TKRI group here in Saint Louis trains outdoors in a park most of the summer. Saint Louis summers are hot and humid. It is remarkable to see how quickly performance and attention fades when students are getting dehydrated.

I encourage all of the students to bring a water bottle with them to class (along with their bug spray, sunscreen, and notebooks) . We take frequent breaks in order to stay hydrated. I don’t want anyone dropping their partner because they are getting woozy from dehydration .

Here is a link to an article that discusses the importance of hydration for athletic performance.
Hydration: Critical to Athletic Performance.

Recommended Link: Homepage for the Anatomy Lesson

I happened across Dr. Wesley Norman’s web page for his human anatomy students at Georgetown University while studying for my Corrective Exercise Specialist test. I found it helpful with plenty of useful illustrations of the nerves, bones, muscles, and arteries of the various anatomical regions. Take a look, click here.

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed: TBI and Martial Arts

“Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Called the doctor and the doctor said,
“No more monkeys jumping on the bed.”

I like to watch boxing and the occasional MMA match (which are more and more disappointing to watch- sometimes the striking and awareness looks about as developed as something I’d see in a grade school fight) but I have to confess that I feel a certain guilt each time I tune in. Combat sports, by nature, involve heavy physical contact. In the case of boxing and MMA, the majority of that contact is directed at the head. And every time one of those guys gets hit in the head, that grey-pink stuff inside of it gets sloshed around. When watching sports, boxing/MMA bouts, and action movies, we tend to become desensitized to the fact that this sort of repeated head trauma is extremely dangerous, and is itself the cause of a serious, but often invisible injury.

As martial artists, whether traditional or non-traditional, hobbyist or competitive athlete, we are also exposed to a higher risk of concussion and brain injury. Even non-contact schools involve feet and fists moving at speed towards the head and face, and accidents are easy to come by in large classes of mixed skill levels. In a setting where moderate contact, take downs and chokes are included in free sparring contexts, the risk multiplies. Full contact striking and take downs within free sparring contexts multiplies the risk even further. However, this risk often goes unacknowledged by teachers and participants. I’ve had several conversations with high school and college aged male athletes and martial arts students who take a disturbingly cavalier attitude towards concussions and the contact that causes them- “It’s part of the sport/training”, “it wasn’t that serious because coach/the ref put me back in after I got up”, “I get knocked out all the time, it’s no big deal, I can take it” etc. Obviously, there should be no place in amateur sports participation or martial arts training for this attitude, yet it still persists in many places.

In the case of professional athletes, the stakes are admittedly different. Boxing matches and UFC fights are between individuals who have trained for this level of competition, and who presumably understand and agree to the risks inherent in competitive full contact fighting. Watching two people who are being paid to kick the living shit out of each other is a different matter entirely than watching someone get hit in the head in a martial arts class, tournament or other amateur sporting event. But a very large grey area has emerged when it comes to the long-term effects of repeatedly being elbowed, kneed and kicked in the head in a UFC style match (to be fair, full contact Kyokushin style karate matches, real Muay Thai and bare knuckle fights also produce repeated concussions, but none of these have spawned the appeal that the UFC has in the U.S.). And when one considers that droves of people are attracted to amateur practice of MMA because it is touted as being “superior” to all other martial arts, one must also wonder how much of the accepting attitude of professionals towards the contact that causes brain injury goes along with it.

The simple fact is that every hard jolt sent through that blob of tissue that we call the brain damages it. And causing damage to the brain can (or more realistically, will) negatively affect your quality of life. This animation (courtesy of the U of Penn and A.D.A.M.) is the best tool that I’ve seen for giving viewers a visual representation of what a knock to the head does to the organ inside of it. As a society, we often forget that this organ is who we are. Everything about us, from breathing and sleeping to personality and memories, happens in the brain. Everything. Damage the brain, and you run the risk of damaging some aspect of your life. And it doesn’t take much to make this damage very serious or permanent. In the case of mild concussions, this might manifest as a few days or irritability, forgetfulness or other mental disruptions. But in the case of more serious concussions, or repeated mild to moderate ones, the damage begins to add up quickly, and the after effects become more severe and permanent. A neuropsychologist once cautioned me that “with brain injuries, one and one do not equal two- the effects are synergistic and unpredictable, so two concussions might produce damage far worse than either single injury.” Better awareness of the seriousness of Traumatic Brain Injury (a term which includes concussions, but far better communicates the reality of brain injury) is slowly emerging in America, thanks to efforts by the CDC and the fact that the Iraq war has produced a terribly high rate of soldiers with serious brain injuries. Despite this increasing awareness, amateur fans of MMA-style competitive fights seem to be oblivious to the serious risk of sustaining a brain injury in such activities. Consider this remark on the topic made on a popular karate forum:

“Any sport has its dangers, some more then othrs eg boxing, kick boxing, full contact martial arts. Its (ed: brain injury) a risk the dedicated student has to take..“

This statement may be applicable to a dedicated professional competitor, but the person making it is an amateur who trains for fun. Dedication to training is admirable, but willingness to sustain serious injury in the pursuit of a fuzzy ideal of dedication is both naive and dangerous. Again, for a pro competitor in the ring, brain injury is a risk that he or she is taking in exchange for payment; but this is not the same thing as an amateur student or weekend warrior who trains without monetary compensation or medical care. As the debate over MMA vs. “traditional” martial arts rages on, we must consider the risks involved in full contact competition in this light. For that matter, those of us who engage in karate, kung fu, Judo, etc… must also consider the risks that we are willing to expose ourselves and others to in the course of our training. Occasional bumps on the head, black eyes and fat lips are one thing, and are to be expected if one engages in vigorous training that aims to be realistic. But if we keep in mind that this sort of training is a different thing altogether from what goes on in UFC (or other NHB/full contact style) matches, the line between vigorous and unacceptably dangerous is very clear.

I’m unfortunately very familiar with the aftermath of concussions and head trauma. I’ve sustained a number of them over the years from violent assaults and one in particular from a very, very nasty car accident. The car accident nearly killed me, and not a day goes by that I am not amazed to be alive and well instead of paralyzed, a comatose vegetable, or dead- just a few centimeters difference in any direction would have placed me into one of those categories. So I have to temper my love of mixing it up in hard sparring and training with the reality that I am already living with serious side effects from previous TBIs, and another one must be avoided at all costs. Fortunately, I train with people who respect this boundary. We do train very hard, and have often earned the disapproval of other karate groups because of how “rough” some of it might appear to be. But I cannot envision anyone within TKRI intentionally putting them self or another at risk for a TBI or other serious injury. While accidents can and do happen, our group’s first priority in training is to take care of each other. If training negatively affects our health and ability to enjoy the rest of our lives, what’s the point?

Linked Resource: GetBodySmart.com

Yet another excellent online free anatomy and physiology resource:

http://www.getbodysmart.com/index.htm

I especially like the way that this site presents information. For example, the muscular system section has some very helpful features. A toggle function in the middle of the display allows you to smoothly scroll through the layers of tissue in a particular region. A chart on the right of the display contains Origin, Insertion, Action and Innervation information. Clicking on the highlighted Origin/Insertion information will reduce the anatomical diagram to show only those points for the specific muscle. Clicking on the Actions of the muscle will activate a demonstration of the action by a human figure in the display.

More Sesan/Seisan

Here are a few more videos of various sesan/seisan kata performances that I find interesting.  Any of the videos showing “embedding disabled” may still be viewed by clicking on the video itself which should open the respective youtube page in another tab or window.

Linked Resource: ExRx.net

ExRx.net offers a comprehensive array of free resources for the “exercise professional, coach, or fitness enthusiast.” There’s a huge amount of useful information addressing all aspects of physical training.  Below are a few links to sections that pertain to  safe karate training:

Exercise and Muscle Directory:

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

Exercise Instruction:

http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html

Common Weaknesses:

http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Weaknesses.html

Diet and Nutrition:

http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition.html