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Am I executing elbows with poor technique? When practicing my elbows at Krav, my elbows get rubbed raw, which takes weeks to heal 100%. The skin is rubbed off and they start to bleed. Some other students experience this too, but the majority do not. I will certainly start wearing pads on my elbows ASAP.
But my question is \”am I doing it wrong?\” Because other students NEVER wear elbow pads, and they never seem to rub their elbows raw while striking pads (whether they be focus mits, Thai Shields, Punching Bags, Tombstones, whatever). Do I just have sensitive skin? Or am I hitting the pads wrong? I asked one of my teachers, and he said that I was sliding on the pads once my elbow made contact with it, but another teacher said that my technique looked good and strong, and that I must have sensitive skin that needed to be toughened up a bit.
Any thoughts? A few others have this same problem in class, but the majority do not. Is it just a matter of how tough your skin is on the elbow area, or is it bad technique when striking pads or bags?
P.S: I do seem to have overall sensitive skin, but was wondering if that was rreally it.
Raw elbows are just the nature of the beast. I am sure that over time, your elbows will toughen up.
Think about doing shoveling or wood splitting. If you don’t do it very often, your hands will blister and become raw. Whereas if you do it everyday you won’t have a problem.
I don’t think it has anything to do with your technique. In fact, it actually shows that you are doing it at least partially correctly. Some people seem to want to do a forearm bash instead of connecting with the elbow. Since your elbows are getting raw, you are at least hitting with the correct part.
elbow joint ?
If this is elbow strike #1 (targeted straight ahead), it may happen when you strike with elbow joint. I recall my elbow strike #1 rather a forearm strike(close to elbow joint) to the pad.
Otherwise, you are not retracting the strike back to yourself.
But anyway, I don’t think it’s overall bad to have scratches to your elbows. Because in real target, you will be bleeding the opponent (elbow strikes often cut the flesh). So there’s not much to bother with \”scrathes\” to your elbow, but be aware of any soreness.
And it is not a shame or anything to wear elbow pads. Wear as many as you like.
Re: elbow joint ?
Well, it’s not just a little scratch…not at all!! It’s completely raw, and it’s about the size of a half-dollar coin. And it’s not on the exaact point of the elbow, rather it’s off to the side of the elbow point. The skin has been completely rubbed off. Has happened before. Takes almost 5 days for a scab to form, and then another 5 to 7 days for that to heal.
Yeah, I guess there is no shame in wearing pads. Just wondered why it happens to me and only a couple of others, and not the majority of students. If it’s not poor technique, then I guess our bodies are all different and we are built differently/heal differently and need to take measures accordingly. Will buy some pads tomorrow.
I’ve had the same problem with my elbows, knuckles and knees when I was a beginner 10 yrs. ago. But overtime, they got calloused (more common in my knees) and I haven’t had any problem with them anymore. I also made it a habit of using more snap as well as retracting my strikes. Just to be safe, I still apply lotion on my striking limbs prior to hitting the heavybag or Thai pads. The only protection I’ve ever worn for my striking weapons are boxing/mma gloves. I also don’t wear handwraps anymore. Takes too much time.
Well, are you hitting the pad square with your elbow, or grazing it? It won’t take much for you to peel some skin off if you’re throwing glancing blows.
Re:
quote \”G.V.\:Well, are you hitting the pad square with your elbow, or grazing it? It won’t take much for you to peel some skin off if you’re throwing glancing blows.Hmmm…I guess it depends on who is holding the pads for me. Sometimes, it seems like the pad holder has them at the perfect angle/height/distance, and I hit the pads square on (retracting quickly), and it’s fine. Other times, it seems like I have to really move in and adjust to execute an elblow strike, and while there still might be some good force behind it, the elbow area grazes (or slides) on the pads a bit, scraping off a good chunk of skin in the process.
So come to think about it, it seems like striking \”moving\” targets (focus mits or Thai pads while on the move) produces the most problems, while striking a stationary heavy bag with my elbows doesn’t seem to pose much of a problem.
My knuckles used to do the same thing when I first started before I bought some gloves, then the problem went away. So I think it’s a combination of: sensitive skin AND possibly grazing the pads when on the move. In any case, I think the elbow pads I bought will help, but I really want my teacher to examine my elbow technique this week to make sure I’m not grazing the pads to much.
Do it slow
I believe this is a common principle in any martial art technique.
If you don’t know what you are doing, do it slow and soft.Do your first 10 shots, slow and touch the pad. Determine which surface you are hitting with. Anything you feel wrong, show the slow elbow strike to your instructor.
As of moving target, yes that’s a possibility. Have your instructor taught you to elbow slightly drop to the target. In another words, trajectory should be like starting from a straight line and drops as it reaches the moving target. Your elbow may start from height of your ear(partialy, you duck down as you lift your elbow up).
Try getting closer to the pad. Alot of people when working with pads forget that elbows are a very close range weapon and try to throw elbows from punching range. Try taking a step closer and DONT aim for the pad. Aim for a spot somewhere behind the pad. The pad is not your target forget that it is there. The pad is there to keep you from injuring your partner. If you think of it like that, you’ll hit harder and you’ll cure your raw elbow problem.
Use long sleeve rashguards.
I use underarmour heatgear or all-season gear metal longsleeve t.
It’s expensive but worth it.
($49.99-$59.99)You will thank yourself for this purchase….especially when you have groundfighting sessions.
You shouldn’t be getting them on the piont of your elbow- you should be striking near the tip, but not with the point itself, unless you’re using a backhand motion, and then it usually doesn’t have the same grazing/scratching effect. You accomplish this by following nick.d’s advice. A few years ago I had this problem, so I got some tube socks and cut the toe off, and put the toe over the elbow. It worked OK, but ultimately I think I just cleaned up my techniqe. Anyway, the sock thing works but they will sometimes slide up to your tricep.
I’ve developed a strange recurring problem with elbows from doing lots of strong elbow spikes on a heavy bag (where you spear the elbow forward in a straight motion with the palm near the same side ear). Now it hurts my elbow when I lean it on things even when I haven’t done that sort of strike in days. I think it might be a sort of bursitis.\”As of moving target, yes that’s a possibility. Have your instructor taught you to elbow slightly drop to the target. In another words, trajectory should be like starting from a straight line and drops as it reaches the moving target. Your elbow may start from height of your ear(partialy, you duck down as you lift your elbow up).\” I don’t know if I agree with this, assuming I understand it correctly. On a downward elbow strike thats what you want, but on a horizontal elbow (or hook punch) you want your elbow pointed downward until you’re already pivoting to avoid telegraphing. So, it will make an upward arc and contact at a horizontal angle. After contact, it will then continue its arc downward and back to where it started, because you don’t want to keep your elbow up, and circular strikes return most smoothly in a slightly incomplete figure eight motion (I never realized this until someone told me a few months ago, even though I was already doing it). Anyway, striking with a slight downward motion will not eliminate the scratching if the range is not correct.
I had been doing elbows for about 6 months in LV1 class with no adverse affects. Then I noticed when I got home after one class were we had been doing a lot of elbows that both of my elbows were rubbed raw, (they took about a week to heal). I just happened to partner up with the same person the next time we did elbows. So I slowed down some to watch my form, trying to see if this was my issue. As it turned out it was not my form, My pad holder was not giving me any active resistance so my elbows were hitting the pads and forcing his hand back to easily and my elbows were just sliding right off the pad. So when your looking at all of this make sure you pad holder is giving you some active resistance also. Just my 2 centsÖÖÖÖ
CLFMak,
How would you use that elbow spike in a fight? What would you be aiming at? So you are not actually moving your arm as you strike, but just keep the hand close to your ear and the tip of the elbow pointed forward?
The elbow spike is mostly powered by the body, but I guess there’s a little bit of arm motion. I’d use it to target the sternum and chest primarily- it has lots of forward driving force but not the sort of short snappy energy of strikes like straight punches. As such it works best against a solid target- the chest is good because its the center body mass and because it’s more solid than, say, the stomach. The head may be a little too flexible, but it would work. You might use this against someone charging at you with a running attack and you couldn’t move to the side, or maybe you block a strike with your back arm as you twist into the spike off the front arm. It can also be used to step in and jam an attack. There’s also a sort of blocking/guard structure where your hand touches your head, palm down, and you block punches to the face with the point of your elbow or let them deflect up off the forearm angle. I don’t know if there’s a real name for this (the elbow to the fist is sometimes called a type of tool destruction), when I learned it we drilled it against straight punches with short arm motions, and against big roundhouse punches by stepping in. It looks like a groundfighting guard position standing up. You can attack with this sort of elbow from that position. Anyway, try it out on a heavy bag- the alignment and use of the body is key. Overall, its not the most useful tool, but like other unconventional strikes like shoulder drives and leg pressure techniques they can be useful.
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