Martial Arts

As a kid involved in Judo & later stage in Taichi, push-hands & Taichi sword, I still recollect the times when after the sparring sessions I used to be swollen with pride with the number of bruises or types of pain which I had to endure, but, it is inconceivable at my present age of 40. You may already know that judo is a martial art originally created in Japan. What separates judo from other martial arts like karate or tae-kwon-do, kick boxing however, the thing is that judo is designed specifically with sport competition in mind. Whereas sparring in other martial arts generally requires use of pads and other protective equipment or light contact (pulling of punches or kicks), judo techniques can be performed at full speed and full force while maintaining safety. Judo is great because it teaches a strong ethos of self-defense, tradition, and respect. Nonetheless the rules of judo provide for strangulation techniques in which the blood supply to the brain is blocked by stress on the carotid arteries; such techniques create anoxia and possible coma if the wounded fails to submit.

During our times the protective equipment in use were hardly effective but during these days the equipment during the sparring are world class. Some practitioners believe that physically defeating the enemy, as opposed to winning a sport match by rules, is the only important matter in hand-to-hand combat. Other styles treat martial arts only as matters of self-defense or life-and-death situations. Many of these practitioners may prefer not to participate in most types of rule-based martial art competition, electing instead to study fighting techniques with little or no regard to competitive rules or, perhaps, ethical concerns and the law (the techniques practiced may include attacking vulnerable spots such as the groin or the eyes). Hence the use of Protective Gear is utmost vital. There is a higher rate of lower limb injury in tae-kwon-do (as it relies more heavily on foot techniques) than karate where more commonly found are the limb injuries. Different martial arts have significantly different types and distribution of injuries. Martial arts appear to be safe for young athletes, particularly those at beginner or intermediate levels.

The Protective gears commonly used are::

• Padding should be used for shins & feet to avert the injuries.
• Good quality Mats for Rolling & Tumbling to avoid the back from getting overtly strained.
• Head Gear to ward of the various kinds of kicks like roundhouse kick Recent studies conducted on 93 competitive kick-boxers have revealed that head injuries like concussion is common although the lower limb injuries were relatively low compared to other martial arts.
• Groin Cups which are vital & are mostly used by all Martial artists.
• Mouth Guards, stomach, chest guards forearm and elbow foam guards, use of mouth protectors is a must in martial arts internationally.

Some Do’s & Don’ts

• All male/female participants must wear a groin protector (healthy support with cup) at all times.
• All participants in sparring activities must wear approved hand pads, foot pads and sparring helmet.
• All sparring pads and helmets must be in good condition and must be safely secured to the wearer (securing straps intact and fully functional, there should be no large punctures or cracks in the pads or helmet).
• There must be no lingering body fluids on sparring pads and helmets. Sparring pads and helmets must be cleanly maintained.
• Sparring pads and helmets must be the accurate size for the wearer.
• It is strongly recommended that all participants in grappling or sparring wear a well-fitted mouth guard
• Most importantly there should be strict enforcement of rules preventing targeting of uncalled for target areas.

These equipments are normally available in most of the sports shops’ & specialized martial art studios, martial arts equipment dealers.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Martial Arts Equipment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.