Adult Student’s Corner
by Sifu D’arcy Langois
Fu For You Fall 2024
At some point in everyone’s Kung Fu journey, there comes a time where you get to experience a…let’s call it an “opportunity to adjust your training.” This is a time when your body decides, “Hey, that’s a bit too much, let’s just chill for a second, okay?” I am, of course, talking about injuries.
It’s a fact of training that the more classes you attend, especially if you are prepping yourself for a grading, the more likely you are to suffer some form of injury. It could be acute, like a sprained joint or a strained muscle. It could also be wear and tear driven in the form of muscle fatigue. In either case, as you start to recognize that something is off, you must act on the “opportunity to adjust”, or you may risk making it far worse in the long term. To that effect, here are three things to consider as you approach this oft-encountered problem.
First and foremost, recognize that the easiest “opportunity to adjust” is to slow, or completely stop, your training for a period of time. This allows your body to put its recovery first, and a brief period of time (or longer in the event of much more serious injuries) can go a long way to making a true comeback in your training. While extremely difficult to do for a dedicated martial artist, sometimes it’s important to realize that a break from training may be the best way forward.
The next, “opportunity to adjust” is to protect the injury from additional harm, while continuing your training. It is possible to adjust your approach to everything we do in Kung Fu to protect yourself from worsening an injury, but it can be difficult if you don’t remain mindful of your actions. What does this look like? Well, some examples to consider: Shoulder injury? Lay off the push-ups for a little bit and find some other way to work your upper body strength requirements. You could take a break from shoulder intensive technique and restrict your range of motion during forms practice to give it a rest while you keep training. Lower body injury? Avoid putting undue stress on the injured leg by doubling up kicks on one side but be careful that you don’t overwork the healthy limb, as it may then also become injured! These are just a couple examples, but I hope they show that you can keep training with an injury, so long as you are consciously protecting it.
The final “opportunity to adjust” may be to consider a permanent adjustment to the techniques and forms that we train. This is a recommendation for a chronic injury that will either persist for a long time or may never completely heal. What does this look like? Find adjustments that work to not aggravate the injury (e.g. lighter weapons, shorter jumps/not jumping) to keep it from worsening, or further hampering your training. Make sure you always discuss this type of adjustment with Sigung before implementing the change.
Everyone will suffer injuries while they train, I hope this helps you see that an injury does not necessarily have to be the end! Note: Always be sure that instructors are aware of your injuries and limitations.