Shin Pads

Hi Guys,

Been training for about a year. Currently an orange belt, soon to be green. I did judo for a few years when I was younger. I'm introducing my kids to it.

Anyway.... Lately my shins have been taking so many hits, it's getting to the stage the bone hurts for weeks. Considering going some form of shin pads.

Is this allowed or is it frowned upon? If it's ok any thoughts on brands or sorts?

The kid and I train twice a week at the moment.

Thanks!

nothing wrng with shin pads. Usually an indication that people are practicing chopping wood rather than real ashi waza. Get the kind that can be washed. Their usually white. No sense taking a ton of pain from people who'd rather chop your leg in two rather than practice good ashi waza.

Oh come on!  Let's have a huge JudoForum style pissing contest ... though the JudoForum probably would have censored the word "pissing."

Shin pads ... and compression underpants ... are for pussies.

Edit:   Oh and rash guards ... I guess we are in agreement that they are for spineless wimps without any pain tolerance whatsoever.  Does that even need to be said.   And finger tape ... don't get me started.

Uber-edit: And when Jim Crow (his real name) reached in and pulled out a clump of my manly and unwaxed titty hair and then I found said hair smeared behind his right ear ... well, that was way cool. Freaked him right out.

Next!

In my days of sport ju-jitsu competition, I wore soft (regulation) shin guards to take the sting out of leg checks against kicks.  What the referees didn't know is that I wore plastic (non-regulation) football/soccer guards under the shinguards but facing back against my calves.  The reason was that I had permanent bruises from heel to mid-calf resulting from hard, poorly executed sweep attempts by training partners and opponents.

In a match against the Canadian light-heavyweight champ I threw him hard enough with ura nage that the impact caused both the plastic (non-regulation) guards that he was wearing as shin guards to fly out the ends of his zubon and end up across the mat!  The match was halted while he was sternly reprimanded by the referee and the plastic guards were ordered off the mat.  I put on my best indignant and maligned face as I adjusted my plastic guards inside my regulation shin guards!  

Meh you can consider me a sook all you want. However since I have started to get random pains in my legs where I have been kicked I think it is a prudent idea.

Any thoughts on brand / supplier?

Torlaz wrote:Meh you can consider me a sook all you want.  However since I have started to get random pains in my legs where I have been kicked I think it is a prudent idea.

Any thoughts on brand / supplier?

OK, you wanted a serious answer ... apparently one that agreed with you. You asked if this is frowned upon. Yes, by many it is. In he absence of any chronic condition, I am one of those who frowns.

It's not part of the uniform, that's the first reason. Why should you be special?

Pads and other added protection not only protect, they bend the style of the person playing as well as the people they practice with. Habitual use of protective devices prevents the body ... and the mind ... from growing accustomed to the particular challenge. A digression would also include the comment that pads can be used as weapons, that's one reason hard pads are banned.

Once a protective advantage like that is taken, it becomes very difficult to break the habit later on. You are going to forget one or both of your pads and remark "oh shit" when you open your bag at the dojo, you are going to think a moment at least about passing on a training session. i believe that I am on solid medical ground when I propose that at least in some cases ... if not many ... immobilization and lack of challenge leads to repeated re-injury.

In your case you are not protecting a broken finger for a few weeks. You are not stabilizing a knee until you save up the cash or courage for that ACL surgery. You are not padding the titainum left in your ankle after it was broken. You are trying to avoid a traditional owie.

It would be better to learn to take a solid shot, cuss a whole lot, have your partner learn not to do that, and come back the next day sore and purple and let both the shins and the judoka improve on their own ... no pain, no gain. I advise after a workout where you take a good kick that you apply ice, wear a compression sock at night for a few days, elevate your legs while watching the tube. Twenty years or so hence you'll find people kicking you, apologizing and you in the position of saying "that's OK, that stuff stopped bothering me years ago."

there's taking a solid shot and there's people who insist on treating your shins like firewood as they try to kick the sh!t out of them, as if making you jump is the same as good ashi waza.

It's one thing to take the occassional shot. we've all been there. It's another thing to subject yourself to continual shots by a lumberjack.

When I go to shiai, I look for the people wearing pads and see who they are warming up with - those are the people I worry about.

Judoka are generally a tough lot, and for a judoka to start wearing shin pads is an indication of poor ashi waza on the part of at least one training partner.

And, fwiw, I wear a junior volleyball kneepad on my right ankle. Not because there's anything left in terms of hardware in there, but because the bone hurts every time it gets bumped. And when I mean bumped, I mean the gentlest rollout causes me pain. So, should I toughen up? Tried that, the pain just got worse. Should I quit? Or should I take the advice of another human being and put a pad over the offending area? And, if some lumberjack comes along and hacks at my ankle when it's fully on the ground, I go over, grabbing my ankle and trying to prevent too many tears from coming out of my eyes.

Yep, wimp. But I wear neoprene on my knees, too, to keep them nice and warm.

Maybe I should change my handle to "judo wimp". I don't believe in unnecessary suffering.

Of course teaching people the correct method of performing Ashi Waza from the outset would be a very good place to start too.

I remember The Late Harry Meehan, A Man Mountain of a Genial Irish Gentleman, with a temper to match his 6'35" and 2700lbs (or at least thats what he looked like to me as a 4th, 3rd, and 2nd Kyu)

He taught me about correct Ashi Waza after he became severely pissed off with my poor attempts to hack his shins from his body................

His words to me were.......(select Strong Irish Brogue here)..........

"If'n ya divint starp fookin' kickin' me fookin' legs ya useless fookin' Englishman, I'll fookin' kill ya, now start fookin' larnin' ta fookin' footsweep proppa ya c**t"

Followed by an Okuri Ashi Harai that lifted me at least 3 feet in the air sideways and buried me into the Tatami !!

As a consequence, I apply correct Ashi Waza and can't stand hackers and kickers.

HARD LESSONS ARE LONG REMEMBERED.


Miss you Harry R.I.P.