Injuries happen in the martial arts. It’s not stamp collecting. They’re bound to happen sooner or later. At our dojo, we’ve been very fortunate in that we’ve had very few injuries occur in the 6 years we’ve been in operation. But when they do happen, it’s important to minimize their psychological effects in the dojo.

When a person gets injured it serves as a reminder that what we do has its risks, and this “reminder” can act as a virus that spreads negativity and doubt throughout the class and to those who witness the event. Students become more cautious in their performance of techniques, and this “cautiousness” can cause them to move in ways that actually lead to the very injuries they fear.

So when an injury does happen in a class, it’s important for the instructor and senior students to minimize the psychological impact of it. Here are a few tips on doing this:

• If it is safe to do so, take the injured student away from the training area and administer first aid as necessary. This is not only important for the safety of the student and their classmates, but also to keep the incident from attracting too much of the attention of the students in the class, potentially leading to negative psychological impact.

• Whoever takes over the class should not discuss the incident in detail and keep the class’s focus on the continuation of the lesson. They’ll find out about it afterwards anyway, but it’s better that the psychological impact of it happens after class is finished and they have time to let it pass before their next training session.

• Don’t make any sweeping statements about injuries or let other students make them. When people start to say things like “Guess this is a night of joint injuries…” or “Guess this is an unlucky night..” or similar remarks, it can increase the negative psychological impact on other students. This is not a matter of “jinxing’ or ‘hexing’ the class, but such comments can increase other students’ natural tendencies to be dangerously cautious as discussed above.

• Re-assure the class afterwards by emphasizing that injuries are not the norm. Tell them that they are relatively rare occurrences if they consider the number of hours people train in their lifetimes as a student vs. the number of injuries actually sustained. This gives them the opportunity to dismiss the incident as “fluke”, which more often than not it is anyway, so they can confidently move on with their training.

I know it can be tough to keep all these things in mind, particularly when it’s a more serious injury, but it can help prevent other injuries from happening by containing and controlling the psychological impact that can occur.

Do you have similar processes in place at your dojo for when injuries occur? I’d love to hear about them in the comments. 🙂

Tags: martial arts injuries | psychological impact of injuries