pinky finger soreness

[stinkyKote]

....so I've been playing for the last few months, and have been getting hit on my left pinky finger a fair bit lately, resulting in quite a bit of soreness ... this is really screwing up my kendo because I can't grip my shinai properly... so I'm overcompensating with my right hand ... and not getting good snap on my hits ... and doing kirikaeshi wrong ..etc. etc. ...

anyway, nothing's broken, at least as far as I can tell, and I don't really wanna stop practicing to let it heal, as I believe it will get better as long as no one bashes me on it too badly...so I was wondering if there's anything out there I can wear underneath my kote for just a little while so that it doesn't get worse- ?

it'd have to be something that offers a little bit of protection, but still allows the finger to bend-

[emitbrownne]

Is it when they perform a men cut and your hands get in the way? or is it during tari tari (sorry for spelling) ?
Can you explain exaxtly how and when your "pinky" gets hit...

[stinkyKote]

it usually varies ...sometimes it is from incorrect tai-atari ... (alot of times my motodachi will tai-atari with their shinai on an angle... arghh.. beginners...) ... other times it will happen when I'm on the move, for example, one of my sensei clipped it really bad the other night as I was coming for men and he was going for nuki do.

I don't block with men with my hands up high, so it usually doesn't happen when someone comes men -- it's usually tai-atari or sometimes it just gets clipped during an exchange like during kakari-keiko or something-

[emitbrownne]

Im far from an expert, but maybe you should analyse your grip, and kamae. I used to get repeatedly clipped on the tip of my right thumb because I held the shinai in a too extreme grip (I "squeezed the towel" a little too hard).

If your Kamae is a little too high, your hands rise too high on your chest, you will find that when you lift with your shoulders that your left hand seems to project out a little more. Maybe this is another cause of clipping....

anyway like I said I'm far from an expert... perhaps you should wait until someone senior with more experience offers a comment.:D

[stinkyKote]

thanks, yah, my sensei has told me what I'm doing wrong, but in the interim while I try to fix it, the soreness is screwing up other parts of my kendo

[Steve]

Try wrapping your pinky in a few layers of cloth bandage tape. It'll help absorb some of the force from any further pinky-smashes.

[Steve Bishop]

You must be doing something wrong

[Ares2907]

You forgot to add a smilie. It helps to show you were being sarcastic or joking or something.

You were being sarcastic or something weren't you?