Stumblefist
10-21-2001, 01:04 PM
There has been some Aikido posts so i thought i'd post an interesting article about Aikido injuries. Actually it is relevant to all throwing arts and CMA in general as well.
...
In Aikido practice on a test if there is an injury, both parties fail. Injuries are of serious concern to Aikidoka.
----------------------------------------
This article was featured in David Lynch's Aikido Journal - Hakama Vol. 4 , No.4 Oct/Dec 1998. For those of you who do not know David Lynch, he spent eighteen years in Japan, studying under Aikido Masters such as: Kisshomaru Ueshiba Doshu, Koichi Tohei (10th Dan), Gozo Shioda (9th Dan) and Kenji Shimazu (8th Dan). He holds qualifications from the Yoshinkan (6th Dan), Aikikai (3rd Dan), Tendokan (3rd Dan), and Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido (2nd Dan). It is generally accepted that David pioneered the early introduction of Aikido into New Zealand.
There is nothing like a breath of fresh air...
*************************************************
Avoiding Injury
by David Lynch
A survey carried out in Japan some years ago revealed that several people had died during Aikido training and numerous others had sustained crippling injuries. The worst cases occurred in largely unsupervised university aikido clubs and were typically head injuries to young inexperienced students. Exacerbating the situation had been marathon, endurance-style training in which student's vulnerability had been increased by exhaustion.
The way in which seniors had abused their position by bullying those beneath them made stressing reading. In one case a female white-belt was repeatedly thrown until well beyond the point of exhaustion by her male black-belt instructor in the name of "hard training". She died. He had been drinking. The tragedy is that virtually all of the deaths and injuries reported in this survey should have been easily preventable.
They were caused by careless training practices and wrong attitudes. Unfortunately, both these factors are still quite common, and not only in Japan. Attitudes are difficult to change but it is the responsibility, not only of the instructors, but of all the members of a dojo to do what they can to expose these before the inevitable injuries occur.
We take this seriously in our dojo and have asked more than one student to leave for exhibiting a competitive, macho attitude. Some people respond to warnings and change their attitudes with time, but the disruption to the dojo, and potential for injury from bad attitudes mean it is generally not worthwhile to wait for the culprit to change. When we sign people on to our membership this is made clear to them. We tell all new members that aikido is a non-competitive art practised co-operatively. If they want to show how tough they are, or want to test others all the time, they had better move to a competitive sport.
Training methods are easier to adjust than attitudes, and there are certain basic rules of training that can minimise the risk of injury and make training safer and more enjoyable for all. For instance, throws should be directed towards the outside edge of the mat. Both nage and uke should look out for this, uke making sure their back is facing the outside in case nage forgets to position things this way. Obviously, if people are thrown towards the middle of the mat the chances of collision are much higher.
Experienced ukes tend to develop "eyes in the back of their heads" but newcomers often seem unaware of the danger of head collisions which can cause serious injury or death. In our dojo we do not go in for endurance tests and believe it is better to have short but intensive sessions than prolonged ones.
Seminars are a slightly different thing in that you are trying to get as many hours of training in as possible in a single day or weekend. But it is possible, in such cases, to reverse the usual ratio of "90% training, 10% teaching", and everyone should keep a watchful eye on potential injuries due to exhaustion. I question whether stamina tests have anything much to do with learning aikido.
Another important rule is to go easy with the final part of a throw, as it is seldom necessary to throw someone hard in order to learn a technique or demonstrate its efficacy. Take shihonage, the technique which caused most of the fatalities in the survey mentioned above. Once you have taken your partner's balance and turned to position yourself for the throw, there is no need to slam them into the mat. If you are in control it should be perfectly obvious that you could throw your uke down hard and fast (and perhaps fatally) if you so desire, so why act it out? You can still move quickly and firmly to set someone up for the throw, then let them fall safely. Since your uke volunteered to be your partner in the technique, it proves nothing to reward them by burying their head into the mat. With beginners, I often use my free hand to cradle their heads as they fall, to emphasise this point. This might be a good exercise for those who are apt to overdo the final part of the
throw.
Iriminage (the second most dangerous technique in the survey) can also be practised in the same way, taking care that the final part of the throw is not too violent and your uke has time to take ukemi properly.
The real skill in aikido is the initial blending with and unbalancing of your uke, after which the throw becomes a foregone conclusion, and you prove nothing by powering someone into the mat. It is also maybe counter-productive for the thrower to overemphasise the end of a throw, as this "end-gaining" attitude tends to create tensions which interfere with the smooth performance of the technique.
When it comes to joint-pressure techniques (nikyo, sankyo, etc) you ought to be able to tell immediately how far you can go without injuring or badly hurting your uke, and you should stay within that limit. The attitude in which you apply a technique with maximum force to see how much your uke can take is the wrong approach and is totally unnecessary for either partner's learning purposes. In fact, if you control your application properly, you can apply these joint-pressure techniques without causing much pain at all. This is a greater test of skill and control than going full out. For instance, you can unbalance your uke with ikkyo, then apply nikyo in such a way that it only hurts if uke tries to escape. Even yonkyo, traditionally one of the most painful techniques, can be applied so that the pain only comes on if uke struggles.
The rule in our dojo is that you are responsible for the welfare of your training partner! This does not absolve uke from learning to fall properly and keeping themselves fit so that they will be less susceptible to injury. Doing warm-ups thoroughly before class is essential, and many injuries occur because of failure to do so.
Many senior aikido instructors are physical wrecks as a result of years of poor training methods. They have sacrificed their health for the sake of some sort of macho ideal of toughness. The martial arts in general have a poor record in this respect, and it is to be hoped that young students these days will be more intelligent in their approach. Knees, elbows, fingers, and toes seem to be the first to be injured, from twists and sprains, and then there are collar-bones, shoulders and hips from bad falls. I recommend paying special attention to these parts of the body, by means of plenty of exercises for strength and flexibility.
[This message was edited by Stumblefist on 10-22-01 at 04:34 AM.]
...
In Aikido practice on a test if there is an injury, both parties fail. Injuries are of serious concern to Aikidoka.
----------------------------------------
This article was featured in David Lynch's Aikido Journal - Hakama Vol. 4 , No.4 Oct/Dec 1998. For those of you who do not know David Lynch, he spent eighteen years in Japan, studying under Aikido Masters such as: Kisshomaru Ueshiba Doshu, Koichi Tohei (10th Dan), Gozo Shioda (9th Dan) and Kenji Shimazu (8th Dan). He holds qualifications from the Yoshinkan (6th Dan), Aikikai (3rd Dan), Tendokan (3rd Dan), and Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido (2nd Dan). It is generally accepted that David pioneered the early introduction of Aikido into New Zealand.
There is nothing like a breath of fresh air...
*************************************************
Avoiding Injury
by David Lynch
A survey carried out in Japan some years ago revealed that several people had died during Aikido training and numerous others had sustained crippling injuries. The worst cases occurred in largely unsupervised university aikido clubs and were typically head injuries to young inexperienced students. Exacerbating the situation had been marathon, endurance-style training in which student's vulnerability had been increased by exhaustion.
The way in which seniors had abused their position by bullying those beneath them made stressing reading. In one case a female white-belt was repeatedly thrown until well beyond the point of exhaustion by her male black-belt instructor in the name of "hard training". She died. He had been drinking. The tragedy is that virtually all of the deaths and injuries reported in this survey should have been easily preventable.
They were caused by careless training practices and wrong attitudes. Unfortunately, both these factors are still quite common, and not only in Japan. Attitudes are difficult to change but it is the responsibility, not only of the instructors, but of all the members of a dojo to do what they can to expose these before the inevitable injuries occur.
We take this seriously in our dojo and have asked more than one student to leave for exhibiting a competitive, macho attitude. Some people respond to warnings and change their attitudes with time, but the disruption to the dojo, and potential for injury from bad attitudes mean it is generally not worthwhile to wait for the culprit to change. When we sign people on to our membership this is made clear to them. We tell all new members that aikido is a non-competitive art practised co-operatively. If they want to show how tough they are, or want to test others all the time, they had better move to a competitive sport.
Training methods are easier to adjust than attitudes, and there are certain basic rules of training that can minimise the risk of injury and make training safer and more enjoyable for all. For instance, throws should be directed towards the outside edge of the mat. Both nage and uke should look out for this, uke making sure their back is facing the outside in case nage forgets to position things this way. Obviously, if people are thrown towards the middle of the mat the chances of collision are much higher.
Experienced ukes tend to develop "eyes in the back of their heads" but newcomers often seem unaware of the danger of head collisions which can cause serious injury or death. In our dojo we do not go in for endurance tests and believe it is better to have short but intensive sessions than prolonged ones.
Seminars are a slightly different thing in that you are trying to get as many hours of training in as possible in a single day or weekend. But it is possible, in such cases, to reverse the usual ratio of "90% training, 10% teaching", and everyone should keep a watchful eye on potential injuries due to exhaustion. I question whether stamina tests have anything much to do with learning aikido.
Another important rule is to go easy with the final part of a throw, as it is seldom necessary to throw someone hard in order to learn a technique or demonstrate its efficacy. Take shihonage, the technique which caused most of the fatalities in the survey mentioned above. Once you have taken your partner's balance and turned to position yourself for the throw, there is no need to slam them into the mat. If you are in control it should be perfectly obvious that you could throw your uke down hard and fast (and perhaps fatally) if you so desire, so why act it out? You can still move quickly and firmly to set someone up for the throw, then let them fall safely. Since your uke volunteered to be your partner in the technique, it proves nothing to reward them by burying their head into the mat. With beginners, I often use my free hand to cradle their heads as they fall, to emphasise this point. This might be a good exercise for those who are apt to overdo the final part of the
throw.
Iriminage (the second most dangerous technique in the survey) can also be practised in the same way, taking care that the final part of the throw is not too violent and your uke has time to take ukemi properly.
The real skill in aikido is the initial blending with and unbalancing of your uke, after which the throw becomes a foregone conclusion, and you prove nothing by powering someone into the mat. It is also maybe counter-productive for the thrower to overemphasise the end of a throw, as this "end-gaining" attitude tends to create tensions which interfere with the smooth performance of the technique.
When it comes to joint-pressure techniques (nikyo, sankyo, etc) you ought to be able to tell immediately how far you can go without injuring or badly hurting your uke, and you should stay within that limit. The attitude in which you apply a technique with maximum force to see how much your uke can take is the wrong approach and is totally unnecessary for either partner's learning purposes. In fact, if you control your application properly, you can apply these joint-pressure techniques without causing much pain at all. This is a greater test of skill and control than going full out. For instance, you can unbalance your uke with ikkyo, then apply nikyo in such a way that it only hurts if uke tries to escape. Even yonkyo, traditionally one of the most painful techniques, can be applied so that the pain only comes on if uke struggles.
The rule in our dojo is that you are responsible for the welfare of your training partner! This does not absolve uke from learning to fall properly and keeping themselves fit so that they will be less susceptible to injury. Doing warm-ups thoroughly before class is essential, and many injuries occur because of failure to do so.
Many senior aikido instructors are physical wrecks as a result of years of poor training methods. They have sacrificed their health for the sake of some sort of macho ideal of toughness. The martial arts in general have a poor record in this respect, and it is to be hoped that young students these days will be more intelligent in their approach. Knees, elbows, fingers, and toes seem to be the first to be injured, from twists and sprains, and then there are collar-bones, shoulders and hips from bad falls. I recommend paying special attention to these parts of the body, by means of plenty of exercises for strength and flexibility.
[This message was edited by Stumblefist on 10-22-01 at 04:34 AM.]