I injured my left hand. No cool story, just a spazzy day for me. Somehow the ring finger of my left hand got caught in my gi sleeve during a bo kata. Later in the class I managed to clonk it with a tonfa. It didn’t hurt much at the time so I didn’t follow the advice given to me by my Filipino Martial Arts friend Jackie Bradbury. Her advice to squeeze the injured finger does work, it’s just… I didn’t think to do it this time because my finger didn’t hurt much. Later, I regretted it.
I’m also very glad I’m not in the habit of wearing my wedding band. As of this writing, eight days later, the finger is less colorful but still swollen and stiff. I can’t make a proper fist.
And yet… Stupid, stubborn martial artist that I am, I still sparred even though I was injured. Not once, but twice this week.
A friend of mine opens his dojo to trusted martial artists and their senior students for intensive sparring sessions twice each month. I did just fine sparring four days ago (Wednesday). I was careful of my left hand, kept my right foot forward most of the time, and adapted. We spar for two minutes continuously, then one person steps out and another takes their place – so each person goes for two rounds back to back. It’s a time for us to grow in our skills, to work on specific things if we need to, and to experiment. In my case, my only objective that night was to see what happens if one hand is disabled. I did well with adapting and didn’t hurt my hand at all.
I thought I was prepared for yesterday (Saturday). I drove for three hours to attend two belt tests at the Honbu Dojo (headquarters) for the karate organization I belong to. But sparring at belt tests isn’t “conversational.” It’s point-sparring, which means the “conversation” keeps getting interrupted. Not only that, for candidates testing for brown belt and higher each bout goes until the candidate scores a point on their opponent. That opponent exits then immediately the next opponent enters the ring. Depending on rank, age, and gender there can be as few as three opponents or as many as ten.
Sparring with a candidate is completely different from my friend’s intensive sparring sessions. Most of the time I don’t want the point as badly as the candidate because, after all, I’m not the one testing. But there’s still incentive for me to keep the candidate busy at least a little while before they score a point on me. It’s intense and given my injured hand I probably should have stayed on the sidelines.
To my credit I saved myself for one fight. Once all men had cleared the building two ladies in the women-only class tested. One of them I’ve known for years and she was testing for her brown belt. I was second in line to spar with her and I watched her so that I’d know how she moved, what her tactics were, etc. It wasn’t until I stepped up to the line that I realized Wednesday’s “conversational” fighting hadn’t prepared me for fighting with an injured hand against someone who very much wants the bout to be over quickly.
“Oh, crap. I ain’t got nuthin’,” I thought as I stepped to the line.
But in a flash, as I stepped forward with my right leg, keeping my injured hand back, I remembered a lesson I’d taught at the Women-Only class a year or two ago. I had the ladies drill something to do if someone messes with your lead hand during sparring. I have found that using the little push as a cue to launch a reverse punch is very effective, but one needs a partner in order to develop this into a reflexive response. I had the students drill for at least fifteen minutes and hoped this would become a more or less regular drill for them. In that moment as I stepped out towards the candidate I decided my tactic would be simply to see if the candidate remembered this lesson.
With my right hand I tapped the candidate’s glove, pushing her lead hand down a bit, then stepped back quickly to see what she’d do. After seeing her reaction I thought I’d up the ante a bit – do it again and throw a jab from the same hand (my uninjured right hand). The second time I tapped her lead hand she remembered my lesson and immediately launched a reverse punch that scored.
I am super proud of her.
Yeah, it looked like a terrible performance from me. Arguably I shouldn’t have been in the ring at all with my injured hand, especially if I wasn’t prepared for the situation. But then again maybe I was prepared for the situation and just didn’t know it. I did come up with something, after all. Plus I got to experience clear and undeniable evidence that I’d made a difference in someone’s karate journey. And hey, the candidate looked great: honestly, it was her time to shine. That’s what it’s all about. The students. Watching them learn and grow, and helping them along the way motivates me like nothing else can. Sure, karate is fun, but experiencing moments like this? Priceless.
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