Injuries in aikido
I have been pondering this issue for a while now, and would love to hear your thoughts. Who is responsible for minimizing injury in aikido? Is it uke's fault if he/she gets injured? Is it nage's? What is the proper response among training partners if injury occurs? What is the proper response by a dojo? What is a good standard of - or guideline for - responsible and also sincere practice?
Not too long ago I sustained an injury at the hands of a high-ranked black belt. It forced me to step off the mats for a few months, and I am still working to get back to the level I was at before the injury. I believe (and have corroborated this with others who witnessed the incident) that it was due to nage's undue speed and carelessness. I believe I took ukemi correctly - or as correctly as possible given that it was not a kihon throw - and avoided more serious injury *because* I was assuming proper form. (I am withholding details because aikido is a small world, and even so I imagine that it won't be too hard for those in the know to figure out who and where this is.) The chief instructor did not discuss the incident with the black belt. The black belt never addressed the incident with me, not even to apologize for inflicting the injury. I have been seriously rethinking my practice at that dojo because I am coming to believe that the leadership and style of practice there encourage an aikido that is akin to "survival of the fittest". It's couched as "aikido is a martial art". - Which is a definition that has been debated a lot on these forums, and I recognize that it's not possible to bring everyone to a common definition, either of "martial" or "aikido". Another student of that dojo, whose aikido I respect and who has always been a very thoughtful training partner, said of his philosophy, "If you show up to train with me, I expect you to be able to take ukemi for any technique [commensurate with your rank] and if you can't, that's on you." Conversely, a different shodan at the dojo said, "I never want to hurt anyone who's junior to me. I should be able to adapt my style to people with less training than I have." I have also started noticing a pattern of women who train there for nine months or a year and then quit due to injury. The dojo never follows up. It's striking to me that the women tend to be a certain body type - i.e. on the leaner side, easier to throw. They have been of varying ages and athletic abilities so I don't think it's as easy as generalizing, "oh, women tend to be less athletic" or that they were never committed to long-term training anyway (on the theory that if you've gone through three testing cycles you're probably decently interested). Some of them have gone on to train, and even make shodan, at other dojo, and some have quit aikido altogether. Furthermore, there is at least a 7:1 ratio of female to male black belts at this organization, despite almost equal gender balance at the white belt level, and almost none of the female black belts train regularly. (The homegrown female shodan are a bit more solidly built, which I think is significant in this context. That is, I think they are harder to break than the women who were injured and left.) I'm certainly no expert on O-Sensei, but it seems to me that no matter what your definition of aikido is, most practitioners agree that it had as its genesis the desire to minimize harm. I think there are many other sports and martial arts that make no bones as to being unabashedly devoted to destroying your opponent. I would like to believe that aikido is different in that respect. And still I struggle to reconcile a dojo philosophy that (both as observed and as self-described) puts the onus on uke to figure out how to survive. (I'm not talking about people who don't put in the time to learn good ukemi. Let's assume for this discussion that everyone is dedicated to their training and has earned their respective rank both in terms of attack and defence.) Is this a typical attitude? Basically, "if you get injured while training with me, tough cookies". Am I kidding myself that aikido is supposed to be a collaborative and accessible endeavor, for more than just semi-pro athletes? What do you think a proper dojo response should have been, in the event of an injury that was serious enough to interrupt training for more than a couple of months? (per medical advice, not just the person's choice) What is your own guideline for how to treat your training partner? Does it differ by rank? What is your approach for how to minimize injuries on the mats? Are injuries unavoidable, or are there ways to systematically reduce the frequency and severity of injury? (I have read many, many threads here on the forums about dojo injuries, women in aikido, why people train in aikido, and so on. I agree with some posts and disagree with others. I welcome being linked to discussions that you deem relevant but which I may have missed. My purpose though in posting my queries here is to solicit a cross-section of people's experiences and best practices. Thank you so much for reading this far.) |
Re: Injuries in aikido
my attitude is that it's both parties responsibility... and at the same time there's no way to make it absolutely safe. martial training has risks. we try to minimize them but everyone who trains long enough sustains injuries at some time, and if you train long enough maybe several times.
did you really "sustained an injury at the hands of a high-ranked black belt" that implies that they did it deliberately or at minimum were careless, or did it simply happen while you were practicing with them... |
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
It is my responsibility to protect my training partner.
It is my responsibility to protect myself in training. In training we get hurt (we are all learning) ... |
Re: Injuries in aikido
I think the main responsibility for avoiding traumatic injuries lies primarily with nage. There are however habits that some have as uke that leads to injury due to over time even if their training partners are considerate.
However, the description of your dojo does not sound lika a good place to train. Step away and find another place to train. Aikido, like all hobbies, should be a positive contribution to your life. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
I do my best to minimize harm. Unless I am good enough to take total control of my uke, unless I am exponentially better in every way imaginable, I will probably not be good enough to do it all on my own.
O Sensei wrote guidelines for practice that are still easy to find. He gave rule #1, Aikido techniques can be lethal so we need to be careful, mindful, and obedient. It's the same logic behind no competition in most styles. Having a safe practice and minimizing injury in others seems to have never meant that Aikido movements are inherently harmless. The fine line needs to be understood well, and most Aikido people don't know enough about causing injury to be clear where the line is. I do not chose to train with people who show contempt for the responsibility of another's life in practice. I have experienced it. My one arm was broken and the bicep detected and remains partially paralyzed after multiple surgeries thanks to a guy who said uke was always responsible for their own injuries. Respect yourself, don't end up where I am. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
If I injure someone while training with them, I can't train with them any more. Seems rather arrogant to wreck a training partner, rather than to help him/her improve. Accidents do happen, but we need to take care to ensure that we still have people with whom to train. Certainly the velocity and impact with which one can be thrown should increase with one's experience and training history, but then as we get older and more brittle, things need to back off a little (even if our skills should protect us).
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
I second John Hillson's sentiments, though I have a somewhat different interpretation of Rule 1.
In my aikido life, I have suffered four major injuries, such that with advancing age I have to be very careful about how I train. My meniscus has been shot in both knees and I am waiting for a supposed 'miracle' cure to be available in Japan. At the time (in 1976), I was told by the surgeon that I would suffer arthritis later in life and so it has proved. I see that Christian Tissier kneels only on one knee when bowing before and after training and I suspect that he had a similar injury. I can kneel when putting on pins in 1-kyou - 4-kyou, but it takes time and effort to get up again, and so I have devised ways of doing these while standing. The third injury was to my right wrist, which was the result of a 2-kyou applied very hard, with the nage dropping his knees as he put the technique on. I have a scar as a result of the resulting surgery, and the results were and are very good. The only effect is that I can no longer raise my right thumb by itself, but this does not cause any problems. The fourth injury was to my right shoulder, which was twisted when I was the uke at the bottom of a pile of three or four. When I was young, strong -- and probably also stupid, I was the favourite uke of many visiting shihans. I had trained in K Chiba's London dojo, when he was younger and tougher, and was taught to be able to take ukemi in any way necessary, with or without arms and changing legs on the way, if necessary. Now I am wiser, and run my dojo very carefully. I have to make sure that the young bloods who want to train hard -- and there are quite a few young male yudansha -- do so with those who are able to take and also give in return. So I sometimes stop training and reallocate the pairs. Best wishes, PS. I should add that the third and fourth injuries were suffered while taking ukemi from very senior Hombu shihans, both no longer alive, who never knew what happened. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
In my experience "most" practitioners don't think this way at all and consider causing harm / damage a tactic rather then strategy, one should be capable to make a choice as needed. There is some confusion as to what practising Aikido means, sometimes this refers to training and sometimes to actual application in a real conflict. When I say practice I refer to later. Training is different but must be informed by practice. Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
In application the actual meaning of do no harm is open to interpretation. I doubt most consider this to mean laying the person down on a feather bed to soothing music. I prefer that if the aggressor can eventually get up, walk away and consider the error of his ways - that would be closer to the original idea. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
These are the sources I have laying around home: "The original intent of bujutsu was to kill an enemy with one blow; since all techniques can be lethal, observe the instructor's directions and do not engage in contests of strength." Budo "One blow in Aikido is capable of killing an opponent. In practice, obey your instructor, and do not make the practice period a time for needless testing of strength." Aikido by Kisshomaru Ueshiba "As Aikido is practice by using techniques which are capable of inflicting fatal injuries, practitioners should always heed what their instructor says, and should never participate in contests of strength." From the 1997 issue of "The Aikido" by Aikido world headquarters in Tokyo. I could not clearly prove they are O Sensei's words perfectly transcribed and translated. I had read it as is his desire that Aikido would be a competent martial art. The more I read about Kano and his very consistent anti-war stances and his work to make jujitsu practice safe for the students I wonder if the first guideline was marketing against the competition by a military trainer. I know a few teachers who gloss over the dangerous part and latch on to students being obedient. The challenge I have with some junior students is that they have been told Aikido is not for causing harm, and they've taken it one step too far - that any shihonage variation for example could not possibly cause injury just because it is an Aikido technique. There is also the idea that ukemi keeps us safe so there is some magical algorithm that will nullify all variations of a technique and rend all attacks harmless. In this logic, if I get hurt then my ukemi wasn't good enough. Kawahara sensei taught that the ukemi could be taken away, or he would show a variation and say the ukemi did not exist. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
I'd get the heck out of that dojo and look for another one. My first exposure to Aikido was in a dojo that was like that. I left after a yudansha refused to stop cranking on my wrist after I was tapping on the mat for 5 seconds already. I'm lucky he didn't injure me.
I would recommend Ellis Amdur's "Ukemi From the Ground Up" DVD. It has some valuable tips for uke to protect himself/herself from nage who are incompetent, malicious, or both. Our dojo places similar emphasis on those aspects of ukemi: staying close to nage, have a hand ready to take hold of nage if necessary, etc. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful responses. I'll try to reply to individual points - and so my reply may span several posts; but some answers may also apply to more than one commenter.
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I am still dealing with after-effects, a bit more noticeable than a wonky toe. I consider myself fortunate that it wasn't worse - the injury could have seriously impacted my ability to function in daily life. Again, I'm aware that I can get hurt while doing aikido, just as I can get hit by a car while biking. But I assumed that everyone training at this dojo had accepted the premise that we are lending our bodies to each other for training, and therefore we should take care of each other. I won't make that mistake again. Quote:
I'm disappointed both with nage for not exercising more control, and with the dojo as an organization for not taking injury seriously - either mine or any of the other serious injuries that have occurred over the last couple of years. This week, I ran into another student who had recently quit the dojo. Their experience followed the same pattern as mine: an injury and then no or little follow-up from the dojo. I then sat down and wrote out all the major injuries I knew of ("major" = acquired during training + interrupted training for more than a month). I came up with eight in the span of 12 months and that did not include a black eye and facial cut. The list did however include two concussions, three broken bones, and a cut that required several stitches. That's more than one major injury every other month. Is that typical? I hope not. - Moreover, in the last six months by my count 25% of the mudansha 3rd kyu and up have left, following an injury or dissatisfaction with the quality of teaching. That's not a sign of a healthy dojo to me. I've since left the dojo. I may have been naive about the possibility of careless training partners, but that doesn't mean I want to train some place that considers its students cannon fodder. I signed up for a recreational activity, not a war. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
Thank you. This tracks with what I heard from two different 5th-dan instructors ( one whom I had never met before, one whom I have known for some time), when I described the situation. It helps me to understand the range of attitudes out there.
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Thank you. I do my best to protect my partners, even if they are bigger and stronger - I try to throw them where they won't hit a mirror or fall onto concrete, I look out for other flying bodies and wait till the coast is clear. I'm familiar with training bumps and bruises, those are par for the course (I joked with a friend that we should set up a Tumblr for bruises and play "guess the technique", e.g. hand bruise for kote gaeshi, arm bruise for sumiotoshi) but I'm not on board with damage inflicted because someone wasn't paying close enough attention or because they were inflating their ego.
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Agreed. I recognize that no place is perfect, but in the end the equation was overwhelmingly in favor of leaving. O-Sensei said, "Practice with fierce joy," and I had lost my joy. I am looking for it again. I have begun training elsewhere. Thank you.
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
I wish more aikidoka had your outlook. I do think in general that even if we were training for combat situations, it would be preferable not to damage one's fellow fighters to the extent that they are hobbled on the field, or unable to fight at all. But some people seem to think they are invincible and/or exempt from looking out for their partners. Even so, I still think aikido can be a very inclusive art, if we are patient and open-minded with each other.
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Thank you. I really, really do appreciate hearing the voices of experience. I do not have a lot of experience in sports or with sports injuries, so it's helpful to hear a counterpoint to the voices that consider injury just par for the course, or even badges of honor.
Quote:
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
One thing I find problematic is the admonition to only attack as hard as you want yourself to be thrown. I feel like my partners sometimes understand this to be "I will throw you as hard as you throw me". I can throw someone harder than I myself want to be thrown. I can throw someone who has the ukemi skills to take a big throw, but I may not be at that level myself with respect to the same technique. I don't have the mass to absorb a full body slam effectively. But nage also doesn't need as much force to throw me. (I think I'm lumping together several related but slightly different things here... maybe someone can help me unpack this?) Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
Quote:
|
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I'll have to look up Kawahara-sensei now. |
Re: Injuries in aikido
Quote:
Quote:
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:15 PM. |
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.