Developing blisters from stickwork

[Mac]

I find myself developing a blister after an hour or so of hard contact stickwork on the side of my thumb (that's in contact with the stick).

Think of Pell practice (Euro style) for hard contact, or beating the snot out of a dead tree in the woods with a stick.

It's happened two or three times and it's starting to become clear that I'm doing something wrong. Any suggestions about what to do technique-wise or anything else for that matter?

[Snarlin Stef]

means you are either gripping the sword/stick too hard or have sweaty hands or both. wrap athletic tape around your thumb covering your blister until a caliss deveolps.

i suspect it is bcs you grip the sword too hard

[spiderchoke]

I never had the issue, but I agree, it si probably from gripping the stick too firmly. I personally only grip the stick immediately before and during impact. the rest of the time my hand is rather relaxed. This is the same practice used in boxing to conserve energy and keep your arms from getting as tired. Try a combination of everything here. The tape, the callis, relaxing your grip, and stop hitting trees, they are non-violent for the most part.

"Every day spent training is a day closer to learning something"
.....Spiderchoke

[XxSweetFacadexX]

starting to develop calluses? it happens.

[Juramentado]

I had a problem with this as well when I was starting out. Major blisters, huge ones, all over my hands. Which wasn't surprising considering we had once a week 6 hour sessions. But later on it just sent away and I think it does have something to do with how you hard you grip the stick. I still have the same problem once in a while with my left hand, especially after a lot of florete / doblete and tire work.

[Guro Dave Gould]

Striking until your hands bleed...

Hi Mac,

It sounds to me as if you are striking with intention which is a good thing. You should strike with your garote as hard and as fast as you can for as long as you can in timed intervals with intention of course. After your hands begin to bleed than you strike some more, day after day until the callouses start to form. Once the callouses have formed you will need to stroke your garote on a daily basis to ensure that they stay.

This will do a couple of things for you. The first thing is obvious which is to condition your hands to prolonged use of probable improvised impact weapons. Some times I will pick up a 2-by-4 from the ground while walking through an alley and swing to my hearts content and with amazement within only seconds the awkward corners of the board will start to eat away the skin of my hand. Regardless of how much I swing my smooth warrior woods in training (Bahi - Kamagong) the course texture of the discarded board will eat away all callouses and skin with-in mere seconds. Which is why now in training not only do I stroke with smooth woods but also with awkward items that I am more likely to find laying around on the ground in my time of need as well. The way that you train reflects best the way that you will respond to crisis situations.

The next thing is that it will help establish the proper mindset of a warrior forcing you to work through any and all pain, whereby not allowing any distractions to disrupt your focus and concentration in dealing with crisis situations. While fighting for your life you have little time to cater to non lethal injuries sustained in battle. If you are breathing and moving with effect that alone should be proof enough to continue fighting the battle until you either win or you die. You can lick your wounds "tomorrow" if you are so fortunate as to live through the ordeal and survive the situation. Should you hesitate only a second in combat this may be just the opportunity that your opponent has been waiting for and may seize it and break your head in the same breath taken while putting you down leaving only death to deal with you from that point onward.

By the way you really should develop and condition both hands in your training endeavors. I believe in not having a left or right hand to rely on but rather in having two hands equally capable leaving the closest hand to the most immediate threat to inherit the task at hand of defending life and limb. often times our opponent isnt as much our enemy as hesitation and indecision is. Train well, Ciao.

Guro Dave Gould.

[chalambok]

No Blisters

I realize you might not appreciate advice coming from someone who does Krabi-Krabong. I did years of Pekiti-Tersia before I went to the Buddhai Swan, and I used to get blisters until my wrists got flexible. But in Krabi-Krabong we support the stick or sword with our thumb along the back of the blade. This stops the weapon from moving around in our hand and thus no blisters. An added advantage is that your blocks are much stronger because the leverage gained is tremendous, the thumb by itself being stronger than all the other fingers combined. People will say you will get your thumb cut off or broken but if they are on that side of your weapon they will just cut your head off anyway. LOL Just a variation

[Snarlin Stef]

from my understanding concerning the usage of your thumb for support is that it makes you "feel" more powerful and more in control when in relity that is hardly the case. if i hit hard with my thumb up the spine for support my thumb quickly gets sore from the impact shock. (kinda the same false sense of confidence you get when you throw a kick without your backfoot grounded... sure you can kick higher and easier and it feels as though there is more power but that is hardly the case... we all know that flat footed kicks are much much more solid kicks)

furthermore yes you can get your thumb cut more easily.

another reason that i was taught that is a bad idea is that there are many ways of taking a weapon out of an opponents hand and "if" that thumb is up the spine instead of being wrapped around the weapon it is that much easier to be disarmed.

i know there are probably many counter arguements... but i was just stating what i was taught in arnis.

[arnis007]

you should have a firm grip with your index, middle finger and thumb. With or with out ring and pinky finger personal prefrence. another thing it could be is if your using a thin stick try a stick that's a little thicker it might help with the blisters.

[Keeper]

Hi

Don't know if i'm repeating what anybody else said (don't have time to read it all) but I suffered from the same thing. I was training intensive two hours a day in the Philippines, so the blisteres didn't have time to really heal. And if they did, they just opened up again. Don't know if your situation is the same, but all i could do was put rubbing alcohol on my hands and iodine in the wound itself. Did it hurt? HELL YEAH! But it's a part of the training right? If you do have time between sessions to heal, then I suggest you only do very light, slow drills etc between training at your gym/dojo.

And if you feel you can afford to stop all stick-work for a short time, then by all means do. Just to keep up the training when I was trying to let my hands (and feet!) heal I would practice the siniwali and fighting drills empty-handed - just pretending I was holding the arnis. That way I didn't lose the 'muscle memory'.

Good luck, and look foreward to when your hands are covered in rugged calouses. Some women find it sexy you know?

Keeper

[roz]

rubbing alcohol- its about time i hear that. that makes for tougher skin and serious devotion. blisters will always come. after a while they just heal quicker and go unfelt. you have to look at your hand to know they are there. in the beginning they do hurt, but don't let that stop you train well

[Labanman]

Are the positions of the callouses on your hand significant? I was wondering if more advanced practitioners develop their blisters/callouses in places where beginners do not. Has anyone else heard that?

[Keeper]

Hmmm, interesting. Very good question. I supose the locations of the callouses/blisters would be different for different people, seeing as everybody has different hand shapes and sizes. Not too sure about weather it would be different for higher or lower ranks though.

Personaly, mine were/are like this,

on the palm and just to the edge, below my little figer; and two or three that always occur on the rased lumps that are the under-side of my knuckles. They come from just generaly gripping the arnis.

But twirling drills produce their own speclial callouses. These are on the parts of the thumb and index finger that have contact with the stick, and also strangly on the blade edge of the hand (the part you 'chop' with)

A note to people who like to show off callouses - - When I got back from the Philippines and showed off my callouses, blisters and scabs to people, they were generaly impressed, but when I told my buddies about "look at my blisters. I got them from gripping my stick" it basicly resulted in endless masturbation jokes about me. "Nice to see you kept your self busy while you were away" lol

Some useless info for you there

Keeper

[RollPlayer]

What is the art of stick fighting called? Is there a style or styles?