Kendo High Noon

If you go back to my first blogpost you can find out a bit of my recent history regarding my current persistent injury. The main concern has been numbness and tingling in my right hand. This has been diagnosed as some disc pressure on my nerves but the scans I went for weren't conclusive. I'd also had a second opinion that was - I could just as easily get hit by a bus and if it was the only exercise I was doing then I may as well carry on. I took time out a few years back but as the symptoms didn't improve I thought I may as well carry on doing kendo if I'm still suffering the same discomfort.

Throughout 2011 I noticed that symptoms in right hand had improved greatly, however they had started in my left and to some extent they were more persistent than the right. I'm not sure which was more worrying the potential loss of ability in my right hand for work or the potential loss of ability of left hand to do kendo. It got to a point where I felt I had to go back and see if the problem was the same issue, it getting worse or something else entirely. So between Christmas and New Year I had another MRI scan and it was back to the consultant today for the results.

Armed with the questions,

• what's the worst that could happen?
• will it get better?
• can I do any exercises to make it better?

The consultant gave me the answers I didn't want to hear. He reiterated that kendo was really not an activity I should be participating in and the results could be as unpleasant as one could imagine. It's not going to get better, although the symptoms may improve, that's just the nerves getting used to being squished all the time from this naughty disc.

So, here ends my kendo career. Cut short a couple of months from my grading. I've had two years of fun and training since my first diagnosis so I should be thankful for that. The risk is too great and I'm pretty sure if anything were to happen my BKA insurance would be invalid. Having now confirmed condition I know it would put other kendoka in an unfair position opposite me and I can't exactly ask them not to hit me on the head!

So where does that leave me? Where does that leave this blog? Well, tomorrow night is Winter Training Week 3. It starts off in hakama and gi and we continue the exercises and some other cutting practices from weeks 1 and 2. I will take part in those and at the point we all don bogu I will watch. Tomorrow will be my last practice proper. I will still try to attend kata as I'm not being hit on the head and my skills can still benefit those who wish to grade in Glasgow. I will still help out with the Club Website, help organise the BKA Seminar and Kyusha Taikai - which I will referee at and any other events the guys wish to drag my carcass to, and also update the Kendo Clubs of Great Britain Google Map.

I'll also nip to training occasionally to help out, maybe on Beginner's Nights, though I'm not sure what kind of an advertisement I am for kendo that I had to stop doing it because concerns about being hit on the head. Just to point out I spent many years during my teens attending rock concerts and rock clubs, which involved a great deal of head-banging which could just as easily been the cause of this condition. The consultant did not say kendo was the cause of my problems but he said they would not help.

I will continue to be a part of the British kendo community in some form and there's still some things I want to share on the blog for a while at least. And of course there's one thing that I can definitely continue doing - Winter Training! For two and a bit practices a year I can return to my dojo and join all those I have travelled this path with and we will be equals once more.