Question

[Hyarion]

My girlfriend started kendo a while ago. Her sensei has frightened her with a story of a woman who supposedly had the "breast nerves" under her arm severed by a misplaced do cut, and now she worries whenever someone is about to 'do' cut her.

Has anyone heard of this? Is there even something like "breast nerves" on the side of the chest under the arm? I thought men and woman were pretty much the same there...

[nodachi]

As with anything, the mention of a severe injury will preoccupy people's thoughts, despite how rare it may be. Typical kendo injuries are bruising and blisters. That's about it. Are other odd injuries possible... yes. Have we all heard stories of people getting shinai splinters in their eyes... yes. How often does it actually happen... so rarely. Probably the same story with this situation.

There is risk in everything, but for most people the risk to do kendo is minimal. Try to get her to focus on this.

[Dervish]

There's a risk in leaving one's home every day and doing one's daily routine. Realize from that perspective and seize the moment :)

[Alison2805]

sounds like a legend to me. A bruise is the worst Ive ever copped. Id be more worried about damaging nerves in my wrist from hard hits.

[imouto]

My girlfriend started kendo a while ago. Her sensei has frightened her with a story of a woman who supposedly had the "breast nerves" under her arm severed by a misplaced do cut, and now she worries whenever someone is about to 'do' cut her.

Has anyone heard of this? Is there even something like "breast nerves" on the side of the chest under the arm? I thought men and woman were pretty much the same there...

There are breast nerves I suppose. See here (http://www.cancersupportivecare.com/anatomynerves.html) for a diagram. However, looking at the diagram, my unqualified opinion as a medical practitioner of any kind and logical reasoning leads me to conclude that to sever a nerve with a shinai would require:

1) A large force.
2) The correct angle of delivery, (who in the hell would be slicing up when hitting there?).
3) A combination of bad luck, bad karma and freakishly bad timing.

I'd be more worried about placing my feet wrongly and stressing my knees out wearing out the cartilage resulting in knee reconstructions.

[turboyoshi]

My girlfriend started kendo a while ago. Her sensei has frightened her with a story of a woman who supposedly had the "breast nerves" under her arm severed by a misplaced do cut, and now she worries whenever someone is about to 'do' cut her.


IANAD either but severing the nerve would require a sharp object, wouldn't it? On the other hand, you can get hit hard enough with a blunt object to cause temporary numbness but I think that would be pretty rare, especially for kendo. On top of that, the damage would almost always be temporary.
Another thing is, let's assume this actually did happen. It is possible, maybe even likely, that the girl involved had some physiological quirk that made such an injury more likely. Ie. the nerve wasn't protected by enough flesh, or was unusually sensitive.

This would definitely be an unusual occurrence and I don't think such a rare event deserves much concern.

sean

[babayaga]

My girlfriend started kendo a while ago. Her sensei has frightened her with a story of a woman who supposedly had the "breast nerves" under her arm severed by a misplaced do cut, and now she worries whenever someone is about to 'do' cut her.

Has anyone heard of this? Is there even something like "breast nerves" on the side of the chest under the arm? I thought men and woman were pretty much the same there...

The nerves that supply the breast come like all nerves from the spinal cord in the center of the body. They don't run under the arm. There is great tissue under the arm (called the tail of spence), but not any large nerves. Sounds like a situation of "telephone" to me (a story that has morphed through multiple tellings).

[Hyarion]

Great, thank you everyone.

[funnyface12]

There's a risk in leaving one's home every day and doing one's daily routine. Realize from that perspective and seize the moment :)

sounds like something my teacher would say