Don’t take one for the team
I’m as pro self defense as you get. If you don’t believe me, I’ll shoot you. But unless you’re training for a MMA title bout, hand to hand training that sends you to the hospital is dangerous and likely unnecessary.
Via Breda
June 7th, 2012 at 9:19 am
I’d find a new instructor. I can’t say I haven’t been hurt in practice but I’ve never been beaten up by an instructor.
June 7th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Dangerous? All training has some aspect of danger to it. Mitigating the risk as much as possible is the key. Accidents still happen though. Whether it is hand to hand, or more mainstream PT when you are training hard you will be injured. If you are training, there is no reason not to train hard.
Unnecessary? Absolutely, no one does this (rifle, pistol, knife, hands, feet, conditioning) to injure themselves or another in training. But, I go back to my previous point. If you are going to train, train hard. When you train, train safely. Even so, it is training mistakes will occur, and injuries do happen as a result.
Bottom line, training needs to be done with as much gusto as possible while maintaining as many safety components as you can to minimize the chances of injury. If an injury does occur, if something does not feel right in your body after a session… get to the ER post haste. Better to overreact than to miss a life threatening injury.
June 7th, 2012 at 9:40 am
In her post, A Girl states that this was a fluke.
June 7th, 2012 at 9:58 am
I’ve seen all sorts of accidents in the MMA gym too…they’re going to happen, but that does sounds like they’re being a bit excessive. Sounds like she had something to prove to herself and took it a bit too far.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:38 am
It’s not a fluke. I’ve been injured in fluke accidents, and I’ve seen people get carried away while sparring. This sounds like an instructor doing too much with a beginner too soon.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:44 am
I think she makes it pretty clear that her injury was an accident. Accidents happen. After all, doesn’t this blog point out accidents that happen with standard fare firearms instruction.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:48 am
I dunno. Seems like hitting someone in the gut is more negligent than accident.
June 7th, 2012 at 10:49 am
In a previous post AGirl said: “I would rather get the crap kicked out me then be afraid”.
Her “instructor” then high-fived her.
Encouraging that sort of mindless bravado in an over-eager novice is irresponsible and dangerous, and any instructor should know better. Fear exists for a reason.
June 7th, 2012 at 11:23 am
WTF is wrong with you guys? Why do you care what she does? She wants to learn how to defend herself. So what if it’s different than what YOU do to defend herself. Her way happens to be a little bit more of a “get off the couch” way than yours appears to be. And mine, for that matter. But I’m not a smaller female, and I’d say she might find it more useful than most of you will. You’d be better off telling her to get better and encouraging her to get back to it when she is able. Negativity like you are showing only discourages others (male and female) from learning how to defend themselves AS THEY WANT TO.
June 7th, 2012 at 11:30 am
There’s nothing wrong with me. She can do whatever she likes but I don’t advocate getting yourself hurt in situations that are avoidable. I also don’t like that prominent firearms instructors put photographers down range.
June 7th, 2012 at 11:54 am
I’m a smaller female and I don’t need to get the “crap kicked out of me” to know that if I go hand-to-hand with a man who is bigger and stronger than me, I’m probably going to lose, no matter the training.
Which is why I carry a gun – which was my original point.
But you know, everyone has their kinks and she seems awful proud of her bruises. Just not my thing, I guess.
June 7th, 2012 at 1:11 pm
In this case the injury seems to be a feature, not an accident.
June 7th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Contact is a part of, and MUST be a part of, any unarmed self-defense training. Every martial artist gets bruises, and sometimes broken bones can happen too, whether due to overzealousness or simpleton because someone slipped up a little. It is nothing to react so strongly to, however.
I’m sure if a child falls off a bicycle you immediately say they would never have gotten a bruise or a scrape if they didn’t enngage in such unnecessary activity, right?
June 7th, 2012 at 1:37 pm
But, as a smaller female, wouldn’t it be a good thing to know how to slow or deflect the initial attack in order to gain time and/or space so you can draw? Some dude grabs you from behind, throws you to the ground and starts beating the crap out of you, it may not be possible to draw. The problem with training so you can get to the point where you can get that edge is you get hurt. It’s part of the deal, and she knew that going in. And photogs down range and hard hand to hand training are 2 entirely different things. I just have a problem with your negativity and disparaging comments which discourage others from getting to the point they feel is necessary to protect themselves. To each their own.
June 7th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Scotty,
I don’t think your paying attention. Nobody said don’t train. Nobody said you won’t get dinked up from time to time.
Her instructors sucks! He may be the next Chuck Norris, but when you hurt your students you just don’t know how to teach.
I like a student that wants to push themselves but they aren’t the one to set the pace of the course.
June 7th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Amen,Scotty. I’m reading “sounds like” and “seems like” and irrelevant references to shooting videos from people who weren’t there and didn’t see it happen. I might not choose to train her way, but she is an adult and (sound familiar, folks?) GETS TO DRAW THE LINE WHERE SHE WANTS IT. It is depressing to see so much careless leaping to conclusions here, in particular.
June 7th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Saying that I don’t recommend it is not saying she has to stop.
June 7th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Training is good, but when it goes to concern over punctured lungs and blood clots, that shit reeks of Big Boy Rules, and that kind of training I can most definitely do without.
June 7th, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Christ almighty, she didn’t have a punctured lung, blood clots, or any of that.
She said in her post that she has swelling, torn cartilage, a cracked rib, and bruising. The cracked rib sucks, and it sucks a lot; but she doesn’t have any injuries that aren’t encountered in any sort of vigorous combatives or MMA training. Are they serious and painful injuries? Certainly. And she certainly should have sought medical attention sooner.
You get hurt when you train seriously. It happens.
June 7th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Train hard, and once in awhile you get hurt. Training without some time spent at true opposition, full speed, and some contact, is not training, it is theater. Obviously you try hard to avoid actual damage, but there is always a risk.
Her only real problem was not recognizing sooner the difference between “That hurt’s) pain and “I’m hurt” (injury).
June 7th, 2012 at 7:08 pm
Not finished with the article but I bet she broke her ribs..
..
Yep, broke ribs. I knew it!
Gang, I’ve been in Tae Kwon Do for 30+ years. Plus Krav Maga, Judo, Shotokan, and Tang So Do. Been kicked alot, broke toe in Judo, broke hand in boxing, seven stitches in head from being kicked there, front tooth elbowed back (I straitened it out with my fingers, tooth is ok btw..)
But how much injury in fights? One slight black eye (and I never lost my fights in high school.)
But I tell you, all of the training does give me alot of self confidence. And it’s a self confidence you cannot fake.
Now she went to hard (I bet he hit her with either a hook punch or roundhouse kick in the ribs.) I’d not train THAT hard! But I would train!
June 7th, 2012 at 9:23 pm
Did any of you read the post where she explained what actually caused the injury? She tried to throw the instructor and he fell on her.
June 7th, 2012 at 11:11 pm
If you read the post, you would know that the instructor picked her up to throw her and she pulled him into her own chest in an attempt to counter the throw. Nothing in her post made it sound as though she really knew anything about counterthrows. A responsible, instructor knows that beginners will do squirrely stuff when intensity ramps up and adjusts things accordingly. He doesn’t leave them to figure out counterthrows on their own in the middle of an ass kicking.
June 7th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Seems like what she is doing is about as dangerous as high school football. /yawn/
June 8th, 2012 at 9:59 am
From the linked post:
He told me he was not happy about me waiting 4 days to come in. Not because of the ribs or even the sternum, but because I could have damaged my spleen or my lungs. I could have had a blood clot.
If the injuries sustained are serious enough to warrant concern for said injuries, then one has, in my opinion, far exceeded the limits of training.
I don’t need to get shot to know what getting shot feels like. I imagine it hurts like a sonofabitch.
You get hurt when you train seriously. It happens.
I’m very serious in my self-defense training, and I have a 100% ER-free training record.