Always injured

In the last four months or so, I seem to always get injured at training. I would get an injury, tape it up for training and continue to train, then just about when it's healed enough for me to stop taping it I would get injured somewhere else. It's happened for 4 times already. It's not the first time I've had an injury from aikido, but it is unsettling to be constantly injured all the time so many times in a row. I'm not sure if it's because I loose focus on my ukemi when injury is almost healed..... or if my training partner notices I'm pretty much back to normal and throws me harder... or a combination of both and something else. Has other people had this happen?

I am still a low kyu grade, and I've been told my ukemi is good for my grade and I think I get thrown just as hard as guys who are first or second kyu. Is it as simple as telling people to throw me softer? I've had people who would throw me softly sometimes and then over excited and randomly throw me hard. All it takes is just one bad throw or bad rolling to get an injury.

I think it's better to train soft and slow in the beginning (many many years/forever probably) and take care of the body. The big falls are exciting, but they should serve a purpose because that's your only choice to complete the ukemi side of that throw. The longer we practice the more skilled we get at receiving. Yes, ask people to throw you softer and then continue the communication, but take care of yourself first.

First things first: do you know for certain that these injuries are caused by ukemi? And do you know that each injury is caused by a single event (ex. that one really hard throw)? Are these new injuries (something that has not been injured before), or reinjuries? What are your criteria for deciding that your previous injury is fully healed?

It's important to identify the cause and mechanism of the injury - that's the only way to find a solution, other than dumb luck. It could be that your injuries are caused by being thrown too fast or hard for your current skill level. it could be (although one doesn't like to think so) that your nage is careless, or taking advantage of your trust. It could be that there's something in your ukemi that's leading to injuries, and/or that you've developed chronic injuries and haven't adjusted your training to let them really heal. Impossible to say without more information.

Mary Malmros wrote: First things first: do you know for certain that these injuries are caused by ukemi? And do you know that each injury is caused by a single event (ex. that one really hard throw)? Are these new injuries (something that has not been injured before), or reinjuries? What are your criteria for deciding that your previous injury is fully healed? It's important to identify the cause and mechanism of the injury - that's the only way to find a solution, other than dumb luck. It could be that your injuries are caused by being thrown too fast or hard for your current skill level. it could be (although one doesn't like to think so) that your nage is careless, or taking advantage of your trust. It could be that there's something in your ukemi that's leading to injuries, and/or that you've developed chronic injuries and haven't adjusted your training to let them really heal. Impossible to say without more information.

The aiki-RN agrees with all of Mary's points. I would ask you to look at a couple of things in particular:
1. are other people also getting injured a lot; in other words, is safe training not a priority in your dojo? There is a wide spectrum there....
2. Is it possible that you have an underlying condition that you had never come up against until you started challenging your body? Unusual joint laxity, as in EDS/hypermobility syndromes, can create a much higher likelihood of injury.
3. Why are you taping and continuing to train? Acute injuries that do not heal - which can take 6 weeks - turn into chronic injuries. You are really flirting with turning your body into a mass of pain and disability if you don't allow healing.

May be you need to stop aikido for few months, instead go to the gym ,get professional advise to build a training plan to reinforce your body. Then go back to aikido training but continue gym. It should fix your all injuries problems.

You talk about getting injured somewhere else. As we use whole body movements, when one part is injured you compensate somehow. Maybe you take several times as many falls on the opposite side, or take a high fall on one side and roll on the other. You change your alignment for each fall, so, for example a right sided forward roll is impacting the right hand, elbow, shoulder, mid spine, left hip, left knee, left ankle, left foot. So, a broken toe can definitely lead to a sore knee or hip, or back pain as the pelvis has different impact points and lots of limping outside of class. Me training with a broken toe, I didn't jump into my ukemi on one side when I was receiving a strong kotegaeshi and that led to a sprained wrist. Twice as many breakfalls on the one side as the other caused some back pain as the pelvis and shoulder took different levels of impact on each side. The one hand is hurt, so the other shoulder takes twice as much stretching in pins while the same shoulder receives all the high fall impact, or my falls are more ackward being thrown with the injured side and my nage eases off so I take weird impacts on my good shoulder repeatedly. So, each injury you recover from needs a period of relearning and unlearning following it before you are back to being properly intergrated.

Even if you are "as good as a nikyu or ikkyu" in terms of your ukemi, pain will be in your psyche and it will affect how you move. A hesitation can cause you to take an injury if your partner thinks they can just blast through.

It is worth looking at who is throwing you. Very senior people should be able to compensate and change, intermediates IME do what they do even if you do something slightly different than usual. Beginners usually have little idea how to protect anyone, that is a skill that needs practice.

If you are writing about having almost a nikyu or ikkyu level ukemi, I'm going to assume you aren't actually at those ranks. Having these abilities isn't just a matter of technique. There is a matter of developing muscles and tendons, reflexes for correct posture and whole body intergration that is hard to rush. If you're a year away from Nikyu or more, focus on how to throw and control better. The idea that high caliber ukemi is all you need for high caliber aikido is a myth. If you have worked to gumbie and absorb other's attacks on you but not how to align yourself to issue power, you could injure yourself just trying to throw.

I with Janet and John. Go visit your physician or someone that specializes physical/sports medicine. When I began aikido I started to develop what I thought was a recurring hamstring pull. Turns out I have scoliosis. It is idiopathic meaning I have had it for who knows how long because it was not the result of trauma or an acute injury. I would have never known about it if I hadn't been training. To this day I experience groin, hip, and lower back issues with training.

Ditto Janet and the sage of The Wild Deep, Deadly North.

dps