Hey y’all, it’s been a minute. Yeah, my bag about that. Things got busy and then they slowed down and then got busy again. I guess the kid has been on a proverbial roller coaster. Once again I apologize. The next few blogs will cover a subject that I enjoy a lot and have had the opportunity to treat plenty of athletes who participate in these sports.
Growing up in the ’80s and ‘90s it was hard to not be a fan of Martial Arts Combat Sports. Every year it seemed like there was a Karate Kid or Rocky movie to hit theaters. This was the era of Sweet Pea Whitaker and Iron Mike Tyson. Even cartoons when the way of martial arts with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Chuck Norris and the Karate Kommandos. With the arrival of Anime like Dragon Ball Z the action and pace further increased. Kids flocked to Karate studios in droves if financially able and if not well just put on your favorite Martial Arts movie, stand up and try to mimic the action at a frenetic pace.
I grew up in this time frame and I remember begging my mom to enroll me in Karate, Boxing, or something. I finally got my wishes when I happened upon the wrestling room in the spring of my freshman year looking for my boys Peacock and Miguel who were on the team that winter. The coach suggested that I try out next season and after that, I was hooked. Little did I know that foray into wrestling would also expand my interest in Physical Therapy and injury rehab. Injuries occur on all levels of combat sports and most of the time with proper treatment the combatant can return safely. For the next few weeks, I’m going to dive into some of the more popular combat sports and the common injuries. These next few entries will contain information on shoulder and elbow injuries, knee and ankle injuries, and spinal injuries.
I feel like this is important because I’ve come across many martial artists who have had injuries just snowball on them. It starts as a mild nagging thing and then just gets progressively worse and then becomes that huge rolling disaster that you see in old cartoons. Everyone pays attention to the traumatic injuries and we will cover them to but also need to focus on the non-traumatic one that if not taken care of can put you in a bad predicament to end up with a larger one. We will go over some of the exercises that the combatant will have in the treatment of injury and discuss other things. So hopefully you stay with me through these next few blogs as I try to make this educational and fun.
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