Tuesday, July 26, 2011

5 Days To Countdown

Getting injured SUCKS! Here I am, 5 days before my tournament and I got injured... It happened last week Monday during our sparring session. I took a kick to the shin ...nothing particularly different from all the other kicks to the shin I've received before, so after I got home I iced it before going to sleep. Tuesday went on and regardless of the light pain I had on my shin I continued my training. By Wednesday afternoon, as I removed my socks after I got home from work, my ankle was swollen and a huge bruise appeared. Even though it looked really bad, I was still able to walk and run just fine.



My Sifu always drilled the crap out of us to wear proper protective gear when sparring...but we never listen. At least until, we do get injured and then start putting on the appropriate gear lol! It was exactly for that reason that my arsenal of sparring gear is as big as it is today. When I first started to spar, all I would have would be a pair of sparring gloves. Until I got kicked in the groin, I then added a groin cup to my sparring gear. Then another day I got punched in the face and my eyebrow got cut, so I then purchased a sparring helmet. Slowly as I received more injuries all over my body, I would add a new piece of protective equipment to my sparring gear.

Some people doesn't seem to understand the importance of the protective gear. I've heard some people say that they want to make sparring as realistic as possible to a street fight, but already they are wrong. In a real street fight, there are no rules. Anything goes for example, they can be 3 on 1, have baseball bats or knives, and might as well throw in a German Sheppard in there for good measures. My rule in real fighting if ever it was to happen is, 1 on 1 should be an honorable fight, 2 on 1 can still be manageable, but at 3 on 1...screw the honorable BS...I'm gonna karate chop you in the neck and jump kick you in the groin. ANYTHING GOES!

Others say that wearing gear will hender their movements and vision. GOOD! Train with a handicap now so that when you are without it, you will be THAT much greater...or just buy the right gear for you. There are thousands of brands, makes, and models for sparring gear, choose the one that suits your needs the best. For those who say that chest protector is restricting, then buy the foam material. Although it offers less protection, it's lighter, more maleable and less restricting around the chest to allow deeper breath. For vision, they make head gear with a transparent material face mask now...try it. There are sooooo many different type of gear out there to suit everybody's particular needs, you just need to find it and if they don't have one that you like, then there is your opportunity for a business venture.

 Lastly, some believe that not wearing gear will help with their "Iron Body" training. That is just ridiculous and here is why I say this. Every type of training is intended for a specific purpose for example, punching a sand bag will help enhance your Iron Fists, Shadow boxing will help enhance your speed, stretching will help enhance the flow of your movements. Assuming that sparring will help you out in all aspect of fighting such as "Iron Body" conditioning is like believing that practicing your forms will help you become good at sparring. There are no shortcuts in becoming great at any specific thing. You have to train like a champ to become one. Those who say otherwise are full of themselves. Nobody has ever achieved greatness without struggle.

Remember sparring itself is not fighting. Sparring to me,  is a way to become good at reading body language, to train our body to act and react to a situation given by your adversary, and learn how to combine techniques with strategy. Without the proper protective gear, you will eventually get seriously injured wether or not you were doing "Light" or "Intense" sparring, which will definitely take you away from proper training, and hence your skills will regress. The goal here is to be productive and efficient with our training so be smart and stay safe :)

P.S.: For those who are wondering, I went to the hospital to get some X Rays. No broken bones or anything, so now it's just a matter of healing the bruise and swelling in time for the tourney.

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