Kendo shell shock?

[stinkyKote]

Hey guys, I've been taking kendo for about the past year and a half and I was wondering if anyone has ever had a problem with slight dizzyness, disorientation hours, or even days after pratice.

I practice 3 times a week, and often times outside of kendo I find I get brief mild dizzy spells and a kind of weird throbbing sensation in my head ... kind of like the feeling you get when your men himo are tied too tight...

Does this sound like something I should be worried about? :confused:

[Confound]

There could be a few explanations, stinky.

First, check that you're tying your tenegui properly. If there are bunches of fabic pressed into the wrong parts of your head (namely behind your ears, or above them), it will hurt. (from personal experience.)

Secondly, as you said, make sure your men isn't too tight, and that you're not tying your himo too low. If you tie them too low, you could be cutting off a little bit of blood to your brain, that never helps anything.

Thirdly, are the people you practice with striking men in the right spot? If you're being hit repeatedly in the wrong places, you're going to feel dizzy and sore. Ask your practice partners to be more careful. Remind them that kendou isn't about having the strength to knock your opponent out cold. (I really hate that type of kendou, I suspect that the people who do it don't have anything but strength to rely upon.)

Fourthly, you may just have an ear infection. Go see a doctor.

lastly, contrary to popular belief, the brain is the most important part of your body. if your head hurts, go see a doctor. you only get one brain you know.

c

[ben]

Dear Stinky,
I concur completely with Confound. Go see a doctor. It will almost certainly be nothing, but you don't take chances with your brain. The doc will probably tell you to take some time off. BTW try and find a doctor who already knows what kendo is. Many docs equate full contact sports with the devil.

All Confound's words of advice are good and worth acting on. I'll add a few more: you might need more padding in your men, or your men may not be offering the protection it once did. Ask a senior person in your dojo to assess the men that you're using. You might need to purchase an insert.

b

[JSchmidt]

Sounds like dehydration and/or overtraining (Are you getting enough carbs and rest?)...see a doc.

Jakob

[nodachi]

Aso, make sure that you have not changed any of your usual habits like your sleep schedule or your eating habits, etc. Before looking at Kendo as the cause, make sure that everything else has not drastically changed to rule out other possible causes. I once developed alergies to certain foods, but I blamed playing soccer out in the summer heat too much as the cause. It took me three months to realize that it was food alergies and not the soccer.

[Kendoka]

See a doctor. NOW!

:dead:

R

[Confound]

Also, in another forum, someone (possibly cyphersushi) suggested placing an old mousepad in your men for additional cushioning. Try that as well.

c

[munenmuso]

How about CT-SCAN?:)

[stinkyKote]

aaaah! man ... I don't really wanna irridiate my skull unless it's really necessary... thanks for all the advice guys, I'll go see a doc as soon as I can...

hmm, changing my sleeping/eating habits? hmm... started going to the gym three times a week, started eating all kinds of wacky protein shakes and bars... sleeping less... d'oh....

hey, thanks for all the advice everyone- I'll let you know how it turns out-

[JSchmidt]

"hmm... started going to the gym three times a week, started eating all kinds of wacky protein shakes and bars... sleeping less... d'oh.... "

Ok, almost definitly overtraining...and unless you want to bulk up muscle, cut the protein bars/shakes and get carb ones instead.
Consider using a HRM for the gym (and the mornings) if you want to train hard..that way it should be easier to tell if you are overdoing it. (your resting heart rate will go up, if you overtrain)

Take a couple of days off, eat and drink (not alcohol) a lot.

Jakob

[stinkyKote]

yah, I'm trying to put on a few pounds ... I suppose I've been pushing a bit too hard lately...have a shiai coming up this sunday and I wanna do well... stupid weak body :hurt: ... oh well, I've got some time off work this month, seems like a good time to wind down for awhile...

[munenmuso]

It must be stress or overfatigue. Why don' t you try the cheapest way to solve it? Just take a rest some times or a long sleep. When you wake up, it's a different ballgame for you.

No more CT-SCANS for now.(Sigh!!!)

[rottunpunk]

sleep is allways good
and make sure yopur eating and drinking properly

just to re-iterate the advice already given

:p

[JSchmidt]

Don't wind down later in the month..if it's overtraining wind down *now*!..otherwise it will only get worse. Only do light practice for the rest of the week, if absolutly necessary. Stay well out of the anaerobic range (ie nothing that makes you winded!) and do nothing Saturday.

Jakob

[Ares2907]

As an aside, if you are trying to put on lean body-mass, you'll want to get as much rest as possible - that's where most of your growth occurs. Any professional BB'er will tell you that rest is just as important as diet and training.

[stinkyKote]

Man, you guys are no fun .... ah well, I guess you guys are right though... thanks for all teh advice ...yay... break time!

[munenmuso]

BTW Mr. Stinky, do you eat alot before you practice or you don't eat for several hours before picking up you sword?

[Matthew Lagden]

i've been meaning to ask this - how much should you eat before keiko - big lunch then just like a bar of chocolate or something more substantial?

[JSchmidt]

Depends...it's very individual. In general, I try to have a bigger lunch, as practicing on a full stomach is very uncomfortable.
If not, I'll grab granola/sports/carb-bar (chocolate-bar is also good for energy, but fat content is very high) during the late-afternoon.
Having said that, our kendo practice in general, is anywhere near hard enough to make you bonk out...but having a reasonable amount of energy-reserve will make the practice more comfortable.

Jakob

[James]

That is good advice for before keiko but remember after the practice
it is also important to replenish alcohol levels in the blood as these can be seriously diminished since lunchtime.

[Matthew Lagden]

speak for yourself about how tiring our keiko is - but i have found my kendo improving since i started drinking beer afterwards....

also i have trouble getting to sleep because i am so damn hyped after the session....

[stinkyKote]

I try to not eat an actual meal within it least three hours before practice, usually about an hour before I'll have a granola bar and a bottle of water or gatorade- afterwards I try and eat a good meal ... usually ends up being burgers and beer or fast food though- If I eat alot before, I find I get fatigued a lot quicker--

[mingshi]

Originally posted by stinkyKote
I try to not eat an actual meal within it least three hours before practice
During college term my life gets so busy that I have very irregular lunchtimes...... Now it's usually 2pm when I can finally sit down and bite on some sandwiches. I tend to eat very heavy lunch, and on various occations I upset my stomach during rather vigorious Kendo practice. So now I have to go to practice with my stomach only 20% filled...

Because it's a long drive from Taikai venues, I can only manage to eat breakfast on the day... Time scheduling is a bit confusing here... Once it's only during lunch break that I found out I've to fight in 3 hours later (i.e. no food!!!). But it doesn't affect my performance much (it's crappy anyway :p). As long as you're not dehydrated, skipping a meal is okay.

On a TV program I saw that there are dogracing trainers cheat by giving their dogs a lot of food before the race... To slow them down and make them lose. If you eat, more blood will go to your stomach for nutritioin transportation, so your brain will have less oxygen. That's why you feel tired after lunch at work too. (Hmm... don't remember much of the middle-school Biology...)

I wish they have more food in the pub after practice....

[etherknot]

I also try not to eat for about two hours before practice. I grab a drink of water while practicing if I REALLY need it. Afterwards though I grab some cold green tea or chai or something nice to drink and a small snack.

[nodachi]

I'll eat a small bowl of cereal as close to an hour before practice. I think it just depends on how quickly you digest food since everyone is a little different and how much you eat matters too of course. The biggest thing for me is the water. Dehydration is the killer for me so I will drink a lot of water about an hour before practice, but stop as practice nears so I have time to let it all settle.

[Raiza]

Heh, the fun part is when all that water has settled a bit too far and you get hammered in the head by some wood-chopper. You won't see that in an Attends ad...

Seriously Stinky (and anyone else for that matter), don't avoid a CT scan if you're ordered it, and it probably wouldn't be ordered unless there was a compelling reason for it. I just had an MRI done on my head-the principle behind the two is the same and there isn't the freaky ionizing radiation that makes you glow in the dark and your gonads shrivel into raisins. As long as you don't have anything metal in you, you don't have anything to worry about. If you need it, get it done!

I find if I don't get something significant to eat roughly 1.5-2 hours before practise or an energy bar within an hour if I've skipped meals, the possibility of getting dizzy and passing out goes up enormously. Usually I clue in and get some grub regardless of the time before practise when my hands start to shake. If you're head's ok, Stinky, be aware that when you do return you might be underfeeding yourself prior to practise, and no matter how much junk food you plow into after. Big meal for breakfast, something good for lunch, and some light carbs (e.g. pasta or as nodachi mentioned, cereal) before practise (I presume you're practising in the evening) and some protein-intensive stuff for the dinner afterwards so those muscles can recover and adapt while you sleep.

Take care :)
Raiza

[kendokamax]

hey i think i know why..


because your kote STINK TOO MUCH!!

proof of this is when I fought you in keiko the other day, I felt dizzy which is why I lost my last match!! (even thought our keiko was after the final match....)

anyway, wash them!!!!

[stinkyKote]

actually, I use white kote for practice, bought them used from one of my sempai ... I swear to god they smell like mcdonald's french fries ...

[Tato]

:puzzled:

[Tato]

Errr, I think that there's a small problem with those little icons, I wanted to say that I find this horrible as an smell.

So, everybody recomend to munch something energetic 2 two 1,5h before keiko?

Rei

[KATSUJIN]

i would like to ask u guys abt something...have u guys ever experienced blurred vision due to vibration occurring on your eyeballs when u kiai? i have been experiencing that for a few times recently.......anybody got any comments?

[etherknot]

Originally posted by KATSUJIN
i would like to ask u guys abt something...have u guys ever experienced blurred vision due to vibration occurring on your eyeballs when u kiai? i have been experiencing that for a few times recently.......anybody got any comments?

Do you wear glasses that fit really tightly in your men?

[KATSUJIN]

i don't wear glasses or lens.......its just that my eyeballs vibrate when i kiai at a certain ......pitch u might say....and my vision gets blurred..

[stinkyKote]

hmm.. could this be the dreaded 'retina detaching'???

[Ares2907]

sounds like you've found the fundamental frequency of your skull. Better kiai at a different pitch. You wouldn't want your head to explode now would you?

[Confound]

Actually, have yourself checked for uveitis, conjunctivitis or retinal detachment. Also, if your dojo floor is dirty, or your mem or tenegui are dirty, clean them. It is rather easy to get an eye disease if your dojo floor isn't clean.

You only get two eyes you know.

c