So about a month and a half or so ago, I caught a roundhouse kick to the jaw. That broke my jaw in two places and I had to get surgery to put plates in over the fractures. Now I'm at a point where I'm gonna have to make a desicsion. I'm not sure if I should continue martial arts or not. If I take another heavy hit to the face/jaw I am more likely to break my jaw again, and thus surgery once again. If that happens, I don't think it would have been worth it to have kept at it. I was wondering what some people out there in the martial arts community think of my situation. Please no suggestions of 'next time don't block with your head' .
Next time block with your nose I feel for you. What was it like after breaking it? do you really have to suck food out of a straw? That sounds like a nightmare. You could always try something that uses fewer kicks, or lower kicks. Boxing maybe? Or perhaps always wear headgear when sparring?
I don't think anyone can really help you with this decision. What it comes down to is how much MA means to you, and how much you're willing to risk.
Yeah, it all depends on you. How far do you wanna take your MA training? Personally, I'd keep training.
LOL I don't think any of us can answer this - it's a deeply personal decision that only you can make. I like to think that I would keep training no matter what, but the truth is I honestly have no idea what I would do in your situation. I think anyone who is a reasonable person would not blame you if you decided to back out. It's a serious injury.
You can always keep training just back off from the sparring. That or join a Cardio Kickboxing group and mack on the chicks.
You know.. I think I read a line by General Kwan (patron saint of chinese martial arts for those not in the know.. ) I believe it said "Pain is the greatest teacher, but no one likes his teachings" I'm not sure if this helped you, but chances are man, if it didn't kill you.. it made you stronger. Keep your head up (or down/side to side ) and keep training. Focus on evasion a bit more this time. Chances are when you got it broken you left yourself wide open. Now I can only assume, and we know what happens when you assume, but thats my guess.
If you're really that worried about it breaking again, just don't spar anymore. No need to stop training.
I'd say keep going but lay off the hard sparring or use a face sheild for a while. Be careful, but not fearful. A month and a half isn't that long, give it at least another month or two before mixing it up with head contact. Right side or left? The ligaments on the left side of my jaw are all but shot so it can partially dislocate and lock on me sometimes (old fighting/sparring injuries) guess I should have worked upper left side defenses more often. Hey, I finally figured it out, and it only took a few <awkward pause> hundred hits to the head. Good luck to you whatever you decide.
You can easily continue martial arts... however you really need to consider if you want to continue the full contact sparring. Ouch! Mohammed Ali had his jaw broken by Ken Norton in the first round and then fought for twelve more rounds to beat him. Ouch! Broken jaws are not all that uncommon in fights and many fighters get them broken and go right back to fighting once they've healed properly. You can sure bet they rock up with a new and improved guard as well. There are still a gazillion options for you in martial arts... but you may want to seriously consider backing off the full contact stuff for a while. Something like a broken jaw is a drag... so you'll want to let that wear off a bit in your mind. Remember those who ride a horse and fall off and don't get back on usually make poor cowboys. Those who fall off and get back on usually make great cowboys. So while no one can directly answer that question for you - there are still many many types of MA you can do and probably with whatever the specific MA you do there are many options as well. It may be a matter of changing gears for a while till your 100%. Good luck and hang in there.
OUCH!!!!! Kudos to you for having the guts to consider going back at all as many would see this as the end regardless. Have you thought of taking up an art where this would be less likely to happen? Suggestions include Judo/BJJ, Aikido, Kendo or even Iaido. (Or any other art where there isn't punching/kicking to the head.) Hope you're feeling better. Cheers, Matt.
I figured I hear that I'll answer the couple things I saw with the other posts. It was on my right side, one fracture just in back of where my bottom right wisdom tooth is and one just in front of my bottom left kaynine. It wasn't wired shut, they made put permenant plates on the bone over the fractures in. So they made an incision on the inside of my mouth and on my neck just below the jaw. Meaning I'm sporting a new 3-4 inch scar on my neck. I think I'm going to go back to karate and hapkido for a little bit and see how it goes. Definitely no sparring for a while and I'll see how it goes from there. I just don't want another broken jaw (like anybody does), because I'd be right back in surgery. I don't care if you guys think I'm a wimp or something . My surgery was 8 hours (8am-4pm) because they had trouble placing my jaw, and after I was off anesthsia I was vomitting, shaking, and over-heated for the whole day. Not to mention the recovery afterwards. It was not a pleasent expirence. Although I suppose no surgery is a walk in the park
