The Universe is telling me to quit kendo

[Haowen]

A long time ago in a distant land....

Actually 2 years ago in California, I was happily learning kendo, when I developed trigger finger tendonitis in my left hand.

Stopped for 8 months, and it sloooowly recovered, but then I developed a pinched nerve injury in my right arm for no bloody reason. Since it was aggravated by computer use which I could not avoid, I lived with this injury for a year before it finally healed sufficiently for me to swing a shinai again.

Went back to practice. One session. Hello trigger finger tendonitis my old friend.

Rested for a month. Trigger finger gone. I say to myself, "this week is the week I return to practice".

Then I stumbled on the bus and stepped on someone's outstretched foot and tore my plantar fascia (tendon on the bottom of the foot, you can tell I am getting good at naming the parts of my body that are quick to break and slow to heal).

It's been 3 weeks and there's no improvement in my injury. I've been treating it with bandaging and heat and ice and shoe inserts, but from the looks of things it will be several months before it goes away.

Oh by the way I'm 25 years old, not 75.

It has been utterly impossible. I'm quite ready to give up on kendo forever, having it lurk on the horizon and then disappear with each new injury is just madness-inducing.

[nodachi]

Stick with it. Like the guy pushing the rock up the hill in hell who eventually said I will keep doing this and make it fun and then it no longer felt like hell.

Well, think something kinda like this... Eventually life will stop throwing curve balls your way if you prove to be more stubborn than it.

[Kendoka]

Have you been to a doctor about managing your injuries?

If not please do !

Plantar fasciitis stopped me from normal training (I still trained, but differently) for over a year, then it took/taking ages to get everything to work the way I wanted.

And then 6 months to fix a basic bad habit, that had developed as a result of me trying to protect the injury !

See the doctor!

[Shoki]

Stick with it, it may sound hokey but the things most worth while in life are the ones that put up the greatest struggle. I had Plantar Facetious myself and it does take several weeks to three or more months to go away. I ended up getting physical therapy , but what they had me do you can do at home. It’s all basically stretches. Warm up your tendons by biking or walking, followed by calf stretched, stand feet flat and then raise your self on tipy toes (mmmm feel the burn), after that sit on the floor, legs stretched in front of you, take a belt and loop it over the bad foot (just below the toes, around the ball of the foot). Take up the ends in your hands and pull toward you, hold for a count of ten and repeat. There is also a foot rocker called a “Pro-stretch” that you stand on and rock slowly back and forth to stretch out the tendons. After you’re done wrap with a cold pack. While you are healing up it provides a great time to practice your swing.

[ben]

Yeah, hang in there Haowen. The fall was a one off. The rest is perhaps due to computer use. I know when I've had jobs that involved a lot of typing/mousing my whole right arm and shoulder have been stuffed up and it has really affected my kendo.

Nodachi have you been reading Camus again?

[nodachi]

Sorry, ignorant me forgets who Camus is. I vaguely recall learning that little anecdote sometime from high school, but I wasn't paying much attention then. Forgive me.

[Confound]

Camus: French existentialist writer. If I remember correctly, his father was a petty colonial bureaucrat in one of the African colonies. His most famous novel is 'The Stranger', which is about a murder, and a fellow having heat sickness, to put it very baldly. (I rather liked the book, but there are many, many others I would recommend before it, and prefer to it).

Mayt I recommend some Sartre? He is by far the better writer.

As to the 'fellow pushing a boulder up the hill in hell', you'll find him mentionned in the Aenid, and I think the Odyssey. You may also hear of the hungry and thirsty fellow standing waist deep in a pool with some fruit just out of reach, and other diverse and interesting torments. If this sparks your interest, may I also recommend 'The Inferno' from Dante's Divine Comedy?

c

[Antonin]

The story Nodachi was refering to is the myth of Sysiphus. In the greek traditon, he was punished (don't ask me why or by whom, it's all greek to me.... It was a long time ago. Counfound is probably right, it must be in the Aenid) by pushing a boulder up a slope, seeing the boulder fall, and having to do it again forever. This was originally seen as a punishment. In Camus' short story, he describes the plight of Sysiphus, but in a twist says at the end that one must imagine him to be happy, a symbol of the happiness that one can get by ding someting, even though it may look futile.
This could be a fitting parallel to kendo indeed, where we train so much and always do the same exercises, never seeming to get anywhere (in my case anyway...), but we enjoy nevertheless. I've always found this particular Camus story very depressing.
Maybe here is not the best place for a literary discution anyway. Especially with Confound :-p
Antonin

[James]

Camus was not just talking about doing something futile, he was talking about life itself.
Basically if we are going to die (let's assume there is no afterlife for all the zealots reading) - then why bother.

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.* Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.* All the rest – whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories – comes afterwards.* These are games; one must first answer [the questions of suicide].”

In The Myth of Sisyphus, he comes to a conclusion that we should accept that life is indeed basically 'absurd', but to embrace the struggle that is life ('live life in revolt' is the commonly used phrase) - and then we can find hapiness.

c'est la vie,

j

Yes, depressing isn't it, but like your kendo injuries, accept them, take the time to get better then get back in the dojo - and good luck.

[reicheru]

If I recall correctly, the reason Sisyphus was condemned to pushing that boulder in the first place was basically that he mocked death (gave his wife a weird "test" which she failed, so he got permission to go back from the underworld temporarily to set her straight, and then decided he didn't feel like returning to that underworld). I think he was also accused of putting Death in chains. How that relates to continuing to practice kendo while injured, well, I can see a number of interpretations.

Anyway, you definitely shouldn't quit kendo. Do take off some time to get better (says the girl who went to practice tonight with a strained groin muscle), but don't give up.

Rachel

[Paburo]

i got the tino sinuvitis - tendonitis in the palm of my hand thing that hurts like hell and then some injury on the heel/achille's tendon.

the trick is, i use like 20m of bandages and a heel protector when i train, plus pain killer medication and heat sprays.

i skip work and i'd skip anything... but kendo.

it's funny though, cause in the last tournament i had to fight my sensei in the semifinals, and we both had a 'broken' leg. so it was like a limps fight haha... (he went jodan on me though, scary stuff...)

needless to say, it ended up as hikiwake 1-1 (kote-kote).

my advise is you don't stop training. if you are hurt, then train with the newbies in a slow paced manner. or train katas. or use lots of bandages. just find a way to keep going. if you really like kendo don't let it banish on the horizon.

get better soon k.

[BigG]

I've been off work for 5 weeks with all sorts of nasty glandular things, i considered giving up kendo until i realised that 'getting better' to resume training was making me feel better.

Hope this helps

BigG

[Haowen]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. It's easy to get frustrated by an unbroken string of injuries but I guess the secret is to focus on the positive. If my foot is out, I can train my upper body. If my arms get tendonitis, I can train my mind. As long as I am doing something, then my troubles have not bested me. Yah!

[nodachi]

Think of it this way: If there are all these 60, 70, and 80+ kendoka out there, there is no reason you can't keep at it. The 80+ kendoka gotta have more aches and pains than most of us, and yet they can keep at it. I want to strive to be that way when I am "over the hill".

[toreisu]

Haowen,

I heard from dojo-mates that yoga can help heal plantar's fascia. It may also help to stretch and strengthen other parts of your body to prevent other injuries. I don't know from personal experience if it works, but I am joining a yoga class this month to see if it might benefit my kendo.