My first training injury

[Ddee Welch]

My first training injury

Hello ARMA,
I would like to thank David for a wonderful ARMA class that we had on Feb. 11, 2006. Although Bill and Jennifer were out of town on vacation they attended the meeting we held here the next day, 2/12. Saturdays meeting consisted of a father and two of his sons that are non-members and they traveled through the snow-fall to get here. It was perfect fighting weather, snow-rain-muddy and cold; fabulous.

I have made a huge step forward. I spared with David, using feather swords, and did not say I'm sorry every time I swung at him. My hands and knuckles got in the way at some point. I was having so much fun that I was surprised when I pulled off my gloves and saw one of my fingers injured. Our Doctor is seeking advise from other doctors on how to treat injuries from sword play. He almost sounded pleased (maybe bragging?) that he is the only doctor with patients (David and myself) that come in his office with occasional injuries from practicing with swords, knives etc...

I did miss the 2/12 class but David went over the information with me later that evening. I am out of action on sparring for a couple of weeks. The X-ray showed a break line between the knuckle in my hand and the first finger knuckle. The Doctor doesn't know if it is broke or torn tendon... something broke, I can't use my right hand for training or lifting until healed. Yes my husband, David, broke me...

Ddee Welch
ARMA Knoxville, East TN

[jeremy pace]

What a lovely Valentine's Day gift! At least it wasn't your heart. But really, i sympathize completely. All i can say is don't practice with wasters without headgear before senior pictures. Blackeyes are lots of fun to cover up.... i looked like cher with all the eyemakeup. <img src="/forum/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" />

[John_Clements]

Sorry to hear that.
I know that several female practitioners have had injuries to fingers caused by sparring with wasters. Seems that heavier gloves are the answer as naturally slender fingers unused to such abuse obviously require greater protection.

[Jaron Bernstein]

I don't know. I wear very heavy Galls riot gloves and got hit on the hand with a waster last friday by Keith. It still took 4 days for the swelling to go away. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Joachim Nilsson]

I'm sorry to hear about your injury Ddee. Hand and finger injuries can be real SOB's when it comes to healing.

Jaron wrote:

I don't know. I wear very heavy Galls riot gloves and got hit on the hand with a waster last friday by Keith. It still took 4 days for the swelling to go away.

Yeah, my training partner, Mikael Lindqvist have bought gloves very similar to those made by Galls. The first time he tried them out I smacked him with a waster right between the protective plates. Twice. After that it was no more opposable thumb for him for a month and a half. <img src="/forum/images/icons/crazy.gif" alt="" />

[david welch]

Well... if she didn't want me to hit her in the hands, she wouldn't have stuck them out there for me! <img src="/forum/images/icons/shocked.gif" alt="" />

We were sparring and I was able to get the first strike in, and then I attacked by slashing to the four openings. This is just really hard to defend against, and Ddee wound up just only being able to drag her hilt over herself trying to get some protection behind it. On one of the lower slashes I stepped in and got her hand with my strong.

We know we train rough here, and everyone expects to get an occasional training injury, but it still sucks when it happens.

I think we are going to try to come up with hard shell hand protection... most likely gauntlets out of twenty gauge. Just something to spread the load when you get whacked but still as light as possible. We don't care if we have to beat out dents every now and then.

We talked later about how this kind of thing is why some of the other WMA groups think ARMA's training is too intense.

Ddee... uhh... ahem... questioned "their manhood", and wondered why you would want to learn to fight if you were afraid to even train hard. That sort of makes it a game of "let's pretend we're swordsmen" doesn't it.

I love my group... even the women are tough. <img src="/forum/images/icons/cool.gif" alt="" />

David Welch
ARMA East Tennessee

[Matthew_Anderson]

Yes, the hands can take a beating at times. I just really hate wearing any kind of bulky glove that restricts my movement, especially of the thumb. I'm generally willing to make a trade off in protection for increased mobility and grip. This is a personal choice IMO, you have to wear what works for you. I usually wear MMA style gloves now with firm padding on the back of the hands and 3/4 down the fingers. My finger tips are completely exposed, but the knuckles are well protected and I can still handle a sword properly. I also have lacrosse gloves, which protect very well, but make it difficult to do a proper zwerchau, for instance. BTW, usually when I take a hard hit to the hand, it's because I made a poor attack, allowing my opponent (usually Shane) to simply void and counter-cut my hands/arms. I find that if my attacks are in range, on-target, and timed correctly, he has to deal with that by setting my blade aside or displacing, rather than being able to just smack my hands as I follow through or whatever. In other words, the better I fence, the less I get hit in the hands, FWIW.

[Joachim Nilsson]

David Welch wrote:

Ddee... uhh... ahem... questioned "their manhood", and wondered why you would want to learn to fight if you were afraid to even train hard. That sort of makes it a game of "let's pretend we're swordsmen" doesn't it.

I love my group... even the women are tough. <img src="/forum/images/icons/cool.gif" alt="" />

Just the way it's supposed to be! I couldn't agree more.

[Brad Patrick]

I Just went to the Ortho doctor Monday after finishing about 2 months of physical therapy for fracturing my thumb sparring with wasters. I've strained and sprained and bonked my fingers before but wow! I have a new appreciation for how important for sword grip the strength and range of motion that in first thumb joint is until I was utterly without it. And also I learned that if a bone might be broken, don't keep training on it for an hour and a half.. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> From my experience it's crucial to get and keep your digits moving as soon as the MD allows.


I did however find an excellent pair of protective gloves which protect my (still sensitive) upper thumb while not feeling like oven mitts: Hatch's CRT Disturbance Control gloves are pretty good, although it was a hassle to get them delivered.

[Joachim Nilsson]

I hear ya, Brad. During my kickboxing day I once suffered a really banged up thumb for 6 months due to two succsessive right hooks I threw. My opponant was a bit far off at both times so I hit him thumb first. Although I did hit him in his left temple both times so it wasn't all bad. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

My ARMA days have been spared the finger injuries though. Knock on wood. Here I only cause them as opposed to suffering them myself. LOL.

[Brian Hunt]

I am in the middle of trying to develop a decent pair of ABS plastic finger gauntlets modeled upon one of the Wisby guantlets. It should give good mobility, and decent protection while remaining light. I will post pictures when I get them finished, but I first have a helmet, bucklers, and some wasters to finish up for some good ARMA folks.

Brian Hunt
GFS

[Joachim Nilsson]

That sounds very interesting, Brian. Good gloves are hard to find.

[jeremy pace]

Man good gloves are hard to find! That would be great will you post on here when they are all done?

[Brian Hunt]

Hi Joachim,

tell me about it, that is why I am developing my own products.

Hi Jeremy,

when I have something I like that works well in sparring situations with blunts, wasters, and paddeds I will post about them here.

Cheers all,

Brian Hunt
GFS

[Joachim Nilsson]

Brian,
would those gloves perhaps be available for purchase further on in the future? Provided you make more than one pair that is.