Practice Horror Stories

[JeremyDillon]

I thought I would start a thread in which we may discuss the accidents which enevitably occur when dealing with weapon practice. My personal horror story comes from that most unpredictable segment of typical practice: sparring. Recently, my practice group has had a new addition. During his first session with us, we acquainted him with how our practices worked, as well as (and this is the important part) our safety rules for free-play. However, he must have misinterpreted the statement "hit hard enough to be felt, but not hard enough to cause pain" to mean "rock your partner like a hurricane by swinging as hard as you can." So, he lined up with a good friend of mine to do some sparring with wasters towards the end of practice. They donned their three weapon masks and began (both used sword and buckler). Almost immediately, our new friend deflected a cut to his left flank (rather well, I must say) and came in for an (illegal) cut at his partner's head, and he came in HARD. The next thing I knew, my friend was lying on the floor, stunned, slowly trying to remove his dented three weapon mask. Needless to say, our newest member has been very, very careful to gauge the appropriateness of the strength of his blows since then. Luckily, the mask did its job and my friend wasn't seriously harmed. If any of you have similar stories, feel free to share them here.

[Josh Welsh]

Well, not exactly a horror stroy, this is more of a humour story. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

We were working on winding, and I was not wearing my normal shoes, I had to wear a pair with less tread. At the time, I had a really bad habit of leaning. Whitnesses say that I was actually leaning forward, at the ANKLES, while in the bind. Well, long story short, I stepped on a a metal floor plate, lost my footing, and face-planted. Luckily, it was carpeted. But I had bad rug-burn on my elbow for 2 months. I still have a scar, lol! Noting will cure bad habits faster than face-planting. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

[Allen Johnson]

theres nothing worse than wrestling a guy on day three of a three day event whose worn the same red t-shirt during the whole event. I swear that shirt had its own ozone.

[Craig Peters]

Jeremy,

I would always avoid sparring with wasters with a new member until you have some kind of idea about their control, and also until they have a fair amount of experience. Simply put, wasters are too dangerous to throw in the hands of new people, even if you know the person fairly well, for free play. Wasters are safe enough for drilling with a new person so long as you know they have some degree of control, so stick to that until you think they have sufficient control for free play.

Also, why was the newbie's strike "illegal"?

[JeremyDillon]

Unfortunately, I'm not in charge of practices, otherwise I might have discouraged it. As it was, the new fella wanted to spar and my friend agreed. In retrospect, I think they both realize that they should have been more careful. The hit was illegal because according to ARMA free-play rules, the target areas for unarmored free-play are the whole body excluding: head, throat/neck, and groin. We try to follow those rules as closely as possible.

[Randall Pleasant]

Jeremy Dillon wrote:
Unfortunately, I'm not in charge of practices, otherwise I might have discouraged it.

Jeremy

A study group leader or a practice leader is just that and no more - a leader, not a dictator. Regardless of their position or rank if someone is about to do something that you feel is really unsafe then step in and say, "Hey friend, let's step back and evaluate this for a second." We all take some risks as martial artists, we play hard and take some bumbs, but it is through good &amp; proper training, experience, and common sense that we don't get seriourly hurt. We have to watch out for each other.


Scholars

Speaking only my personal views, I think these types of stories are fine if they are shared as a warning and a lesson to others so that such experiences can be avoided. I know some other organizations that like to brag about the licks they have taken and the injuries they have received, let us not do that. These stories represent a safety failure, they are something to learn from and maybe share a laught over but they nothing to brag about (I don't thing anyone is doing so at the moment).

[JeffGentry]

According to Mark Denny of the dog brother's, they do alot of full contack stick fighting, you can knock some out when they are wearing a fencing mask I guess from what he said it is hard to do with the newer mask, it can be done though, it seem's they have had it happen.

Somethign to keep in mind.


Jeff

[Brian Hunt]

With the comments about the fencing mask and the dog brothers, I thought it might be appropriate to point out that a fencing mask was not designed for what we do. It is made to protect one from a modern day foil, epee, or saber not wasters, padded weapons or blunts. We do not have safety equipment that is being manufactured to meet our needs, the closest thing we have is a few individuals with skills to make higher end safety equipment and they are few and far between. I have said this in the past and will continue to repeat it; the best safety equipment one owns is the equipment between your own ears.

just a couple of points on safety.

Brian Hunt
GFS

[Josh Welsh]

Very well said Brian!

[Nathan Dexter]

The worst of my injuries include numerous smacked fingers and bonked heads so not much. [but they do add up!] <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Craig Peters]

Jeremy,

You'll notice under the free play section that it actually adds "Unhelmeted fighters can not be struck to the head." If you didn't have helmets, then it was good that you observed these rules. However, the head is a vital target in Renaissance martial arts as you may already know, so I highly recommend that your group acquire hockey helmets so that you can spar and allow controlled strikes to the head. Otherwise, you're losing one of the major target areas on the body, which will distort your techniques.

[JeremyDillon]

We are actualy planning on acquiring some sturdier head protection, as well as some padded contact-weapons. We're all still but lowly teens and unable to spring large amounts of cash at a moments notice. The only reason we have any blunts or wasters to practice with is because my Dad is in charge of stage combat direction at the local university, so it takes a while for us to save up to buy new equipment. Thanks for the pointer, though, I'm always open to advise from more experienced martial artists than myself.

[Randall Pleasant]

Daniel

I must disagree. Getting hurt is always a big deal, espeically when we are talking about an unprotected head. There is nothing in these arts worth your brain. Think about it - your head <u>cannot</u> get use to taking shots from a waster! Play hard but be safe friend.

[Shane Smith]

Agreed Ran, a man can't build up his skull to prevent a concussion of cracked head. Time injured is time lost.