Triumph over adversity - Jason Bourne's got nothing on me :)

[Andrew MacLean]

Jez

Take care of your eyes!

And, yes, it is good to be able to learn from mistakes. Let's hope you never face the need to defend yourself 'on the street', and that your experience has equipped you better to defend yourself 'on the mat'.

Andrew

[Jeremy_123]

I'm usually pretty good at keeping my head out of the action, yesterday was just bad luck and basically being knackered by the end of the session, had had a long day yesterday before getting to training. I've generally got more to worry about with broken bones than black eyes as such. This morning took the sterry strips off and it was just a break in the skin. In fact if you didn't know that I'd caught someone's knuckle with my forehead you probably wouldn't be able to tell that anything had happened.

Eyesight mind you is fine and looking after my eyes is usually my number one priority during training, in the past when we have been practicing techniques like releasing from a headlock that involve things such as eye gouging, you usually train this method gently and when practicing try and go for the ridges of the eye sockets rather than how it would be in a real fight situation and shoving your fingers right in. I also make sure that my training partner knows that I do have a problem with my eyes when doing such techniques so they know not to go in too viciously, I also don't put up too much resistance as an attakcer in situations such as that. All in all this is the first time in nearly 8-9 months of doing it that I've needed any treatment after a session and even then it was nothing serious.

Obviously I'm not blase about incidents such as this and any training accident is something that everybody would rather not have happen but they serve as good reminders that what we do is potentially dangerous but that even when you take every precaution possible to prevent injury, something can still happen. In terms of sporting injuries though this is nothing compared to my achilles tendon which I partially tore in 2004, that put me out of any major sporting activities apart from swimming or walking for a year.

My old philosophy regarding life however applies in a situation like this: shit happens, deal with it, get on with life.

Still don't worry guys, I probably do far more to protect myself than anyone else in the group I train with.

Jez.

[Jeremy_123]

Hello all,

well it's been a while since I updated my little topic here, needless to say I'm still at this, I keep telling myself that it is all good fun but even I'm having trouble believing my own lie

Haven't lost any more blood since I last posted on here so that is rather good (all it was back in June was just a small opening of the skin above my left eye brow, no bruising or anything whatsoever, not even a scar ), learned my lesson however, if I'm getting overloaded by what's going on, keep my guard up and back out of the training situation, catch my breath, compose myself and then get on with whatever we're doing.

Currently my arms hurt somewhat at the moment, was practicing various upper cutting and vertical elbow strikes this evening and also learning how to defend a knee attack with sort of the rear quarter of your forearm. This is for if someone has taken you by surprise or managed to hit you in the guts and winded you etc. Either way quite bruising stuff tonight but a good session nonetheless.

More importantly however the next set of gradings is coming up in September so that will lead to 2 very knackering Saturdays, the pre-grading to check that you're ready to go for the test and the main event itself. Either way I'll try and get into a few better photos this time, rather than me being used as the demo target in February haha.

Anyhow still enjoying it and still not letting KC get in the way too much of the things I want to do, either way it's all good.

That's all for the moment, now where's the nearest pillow............

Jez.

[Andrew MacLean]

All the best with your gradings next month.

Stay well, and take care.

Andrew