Last night I was witness to the breaking of a leg. My stomach still turns as I think about it. Here is the story.

I take a martial art and was training last night. Class had just started and I was discussing some choke techniques with my instructor. Out of the corner of my eye I see two bodies tangled and falling to the ground. I hear this high-pitched pop as the two collide with the floor. I quickly look over to see this girl's face as she writhes and screams in pain. She is clutching her right leg just below the knee. Her foot is not quite pointing in the right direction. She is clearly shaking and struggling with the shock. I had to turn away as it made me so uncomfortable. She had not fully committed to the throw and her partner came down on her locked knee and extended leg. Poor form resulted in a break in the shin area.

The girl doing the throw had studied Ju Justu for about eight years and has been at our art for around two, but she had only been working on throws for three months. She is a strong girl at about 150-160 pounds. Trouble was, she was trying to throw a guy who weighs in at about 240. Also, this is an older gentleman who has recently had hip surgery, and at times he can be an unwilling partner, as he tends to protect his right side.

After the ambulance left we were instructed to resume class. Needless to say, the mood was dour. I was particularly uncomfortable, because I was to work on an escape from a choke that concludes with a throw and elbow break.

In the end, I am glad we went back to training. There was a lot of negative energy that could only be cleansed by a refocus of positive training. The senior belts stepped up and worked through some throws. Tension eased and the students focused on their work, but the specter of what had happened hung heavy with each technique.

As I mentioned, the look of absolute pain on the girl's face really shook me up. It is not something I will soon forget.

 

reminds me of when I saw Joe Theisman's leg get broken by L.T. very disturbing indeed.

 

I once saw a guy get his foot turned around the wrong direction at a wrestling meet. The bad thing was that there were no paramedics on site like they were supposed to and it took a 1/2 hour for them to get there. Mean while, wrestling continued on the two mats next to where the hurt guy was. I imagine it was pretty hard for the other wrestlers to concentrate with a screaming guy laying not more than 20-30ft away. I don't get grossed out by things like that, but looked pretty bad with foot hanging limp and pointed backwards.

I've also seen an elbow get dislocated when a guy tried to catch himself while being thrown. The best way not to get hurt in a throw is to just let yourself be thrown and not fight it.

 

I once saw a woman sever a major artery after walking into a glass door.
The amount of blood on the floor was absolutely shocking

 

Let me guess, Tai-otoshi?
Must be the "gentle way"

I broke my left foot almost exactly a year ago in a Judo
tournament. Stuff happens.

Between Judo and Hapkido I figured I was due for something sooner or later.

 

Sounds pretty bad. I guess she really needs to learn how to throw or land better.

 

She was trying Seo Nage. A basic hip throw. Different arts have different names, but I think we are talking about the same throw.

Yeah, it's too bad she had to learn the hard way. It definately reminds one that this stuff can be dangerous.

 

How did she do that?! Seo Nage is such a simple throw! Of course, I stopped training Judo because my shoulder kept popping out during randori. I never really grew to like rolling around on the floor with sweaty old men, but I did like tripping them up! I'll stick to Karate.

Speaking of which, my worst experience in the "ring" was when a nidan fired a fast side kick into my stomach so hard that his foot bounced off my spine. I went running around on my tiptoes because the pain was coming from INSIDE!! The same nidan once caught me with a side kick to the inner thigh of my supporting leg while I was shooting in for a reverse punch. My legs buckled, and I had a bruise from my crotch to my knee that was so painful that I literally could not bend my leg or stand up for a week.

 

Guess you haven't broken a bone. Writhing in pain describes it well. I've broken three but the arm was the worst. What sucks is it keeps hurting just as bad for a few days.

 

Nin009'
She did that while performing a shoulder throw? I imagine she probably slipped as she tried to take his weight. I thought it might have been Tai-otoshi (remember-body drop, like a trip, the person comes over your leg not hip) because if you screw it up, your oki falls right on your leg. Believe me I know.

Hopefully she didn't damage any tendons or ligaments. I much prefer breaking bones since they tend to heal better. Between Martial arts and roadracing I've broken my right arm/wrist, parts of both feet, had multiple pelvic fractures and broke the transverse process thingies off of two vertebrae but all that stuff has healed well but the damn tendonitis in my knee just stays with me.

I hate training with 240 pounders, prefer to throw kids and women...they're so much lighter

Sunchild,
I hear ya on the inner thigh...owwwwch, I train alot of lower leg kicks (ala Muai Tai) so I know how it feels.
Have you ever trained your shins?