Norton's Syndrome and Kendo

[cesarekim]

One of the fellows in my dojo has been diagnosed with Norton's syndrome (basically agony in his feet) and chronic knee inflamation. As a result, he's had to limit his kendo severely. We've tried to get him to use jodan as he is quite tall but he's not really comfortable with it. Has anyone had similar problems or knows of ways to adapt their kendo to limited mobility?

[shred_lord]

Use suri-ashi cutting? (No impact on feet and knees)

[The great I AM]

One of the fellows in my dojo has been diagnosed with Norton's syndrome (basically agony in his feet) and chronic knee inflamation. As a result, he's had to limit his kendo severely. We've tried to get him to use jodan as he is quite tall but he's not really comfortable with it. Has anyone had similar problems or knows of ways to adapt their kendo to limited mobility?

One of my boys was born with club feet and had many operations to correct them. He can't sonkyo, rarely does a full practise or goes the whole week without somesort of pain or injury, and we decided to do jodan with him because otherwise he would have quit because his left ankle was too weak to take proper ashisabaki. 2 weeks ago he passed shodan, doing jodan. Exhaust all your options before admitting defeat my man, and if the guy wants to do it, then he'll find a way. Our guy did.

[cesarekim]

Gibbo,
Sounds like the way we want to go with the fellow. He just failed 2-dan yesterday and is PISSED. Still trying to figure out what we can propose to him as a solution. He literally can't take a walk without pain and he still keeps coming. His challenge yesterday was pretty much par for the course. He got a couple of good hits but pissed them away because he wanted to destroy his aite. He's a nice enough guy but he gets really emotional. I remember a beautiful scene where he literally threw his men into the stands. He'd just gotten a bit of lip from a girl and was about to do something nasty. Had to tell him to cool it.

[Kenmei]

Isn't Norton's Syndrome something like Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome? If so I'm sorry to hear your friend has it ;(

Footwork is definately limited, but you can always work on arm movement and technique. Also if you have access to a sports trainer, you can ask them for ways on binding the foot so as to somewhat lower the pain when moving.

Exhaust all your options before admitting defeat my man, and if the guy wants to do it, then he'll find a way.

Exactly

[JSchmidt]

Gibbo,
He got a couple of good hits but pissed them away because he wanted to destroy his aite. He's a nice enough guy but he gets really emotional. I remember a beautiful scene where he literally threw his men into the stands. He'd just gotten a bit of lip from a girl and was about to do something nasty. Had to tell him to cool it.

Sounds like his feet isn't his biggest problem.

[cesarekim]

I'll go with that statement... To put things in perspective, we're talking about a guy who used to ride bicycles, ski, run and do kendo. In the last 9 months, he's been forbidden to do anything while they figured out what was going on. When he tried to get on his bike, he had to give up after 3 clicks when his average run had been 30+. I took him to an orthopaedic specialist who is a kenshi and he's been back in the dojo for about a month and a half. Our first objective is to get him to do something where he's not dangerous to himself and to others. Once the pressure has been relieved somewhat, we can talk about him seriously doing kendo again.

This isn't some adolescent we're talking about. He's a young 45....

[MrBump]

This condition, it is permanent? He's only had it for 9 months... have they given up trying to treat it?

If he is still undergoing treatment, the best thing is to wait and rest like his doctors said. If he stubbornly works against the pain then he risks permanent disability.

Sorry for stating the obvious, but I think you should counsel him to see the forest and not the trees. It is a hard time when someone has a bad injury and cannot think through all the pain, frustration and disappointment. You can help as a friend and fellow kenshi by helping him with some perspective, e.g. kendo is for life, taking a break for a while to heal up is actually maximising the total amount of kendo you can do in your lifetime.

[ratdeau]

You describe a Morton syndroma not Norton
http://healthgate.partners.org/brows...39;s%20Neuroma
I've one between second and third toes.

[ZtefaNNN[K]]

It sounds to me like patience and surgery arre your best options, it shouldn´t be too complicated IMO.

[namabiru]

Gibbo,
I remember a beautiful scene where he literally threw his men into the stands. He'd just gotten a bit of lip from a girl and was about to do something nasty. Had to tell him to cool it.

Um, eek. Does this guy realize that rank doesn't just represent one's physical kendo, but one's character as well? If I saw someone throw their men, well, I'm not much inclined to respect him at any rank, good kihon or not.