to be honest nunchuku are so dangerous to the person using them its a wonder why people still bother lol. 'ok heres a stick loaded with centrifugal force that you'll smash into your knuckles, face and groin a lot. have fun!'

I hurt my shins plenty of times while warming up for bo practice. And I once almost forked myself with my sai. Oops, that hurts!!
I can't wait to get my tonfa, nunchaku and kama, to "condition" myself! (I must state, here in the Netherlands only foam / safety nunchaku are legal.)

Foolsgold: "I have a bad habit of not moving when I see a kick coming in sparring"

LOL...I do it too, we wear shin pads for sparring almost all the time and if the guy is not kicking me hard enough and I am tired I just "eat it" and try to hit him with a hard cross/knee or combination of ? while he is kicking me.

It`s a bad habit to get into though I think, in some ways though it does work too. Getting hit with a bare shin hurts a lot more.
I see that not haveing shin pads really changes the way people fight/spar. Once the shin pads come off I find most people will start pulling thier kicks, afraid of hitting a knee/elbows or shin on shin. With muay thai style leg kicks and the countering blocks this is very common and it hurts like heck if not your shins are not conditioned yet.

From what I see it is mostly only the fighters that bother to condition thier shins well enough that they can really kick full out. If they have fought once or twice they know it is worth it if they plan on doing it again. In this case conditioning can win the fight. If I can block a guys kick shin too shin and he hurts himself and I don`t he is in very big trouble. I will just start pounding away with leg kicks.( although I would probably try that any way, because I can...I love leg kicks, it doesn`t hurt me much any more and heals quick enough too. Plus I get to stay out of the other guys punching and kneeing range mostly that way...I like it best if I don`t get any extra "un-intentional conditioning" on my face.)

A guy who does no such conditioning is pretty much defenseless vs some one who does at least as far as the leg kick go. ( gues he can always shoot and go too ground if he knows how and is quick about it, and its legal, its not in muay thai )

Linament and adrenaline help with the pain in a real fight, but not in sparring....no linament then. If you can do it with out linament your laughing at the other guys pain when you get the ring.

PS I made I don`t know how many sets of nunchukas as a kid.
we actually "fought" each other with them. Thank god we did not have any heavy kind of wood, just old broom sticks. I honestly think I probably hit myself in the nads or head with every single pair I made too. Those things are more dangerous too me when useing them than too any one else.....8).

I only sparred once without shin guards. After the third time of getting hit in the same spot, I had to stop because I couldn't put any weight on my leg. And that was just from the other person blocking my kicks. I wouldn't fight in a tournament without them. They help, but they certainly don't prevent injury. At the last tournament I was in, my opponent and I were both wearing shin guards, and at one point in the match we both moved and kicked such that we ended up coliding shins with a significant amount of force. Even with both of us wearing shin guards I ended up with a with a very colorful lump and bruise that took almost a month to go away. I have no doubt that if either one of us had gone without shin guards, one or the other of us would have probably ended up with a broken leg. Man, that was a fun match. Definately the most challenging and heated I've been in, and the center ref was old school, so didn't give deductions for excessive force. must...control...tournament...craving....;)

Laura

Broken legs happen but they are actually not that common. More likely to break a shin if its not conditioned I would think.

I have seen one broken leg my instructors, I broke it. It was his tibia, it is quite asmall bone actually and not normally a target. It was sort of accidental, I had nothing else I could hit from inside a clench, and was getting hurt and tired so I kicked his leg where I could. We did not even know what had happened, thought it was a nerve at first.

I was at the dojo one night and some kid kept playing with the "BOB". He ran up and punched "BOB" hard and body swayed back and poped the kid in the face hard and he hit the ground. I usually keep a stern look on my face in class but I was rolling on the floor crying, laughing so hard lol.

I popped myself on the elbow really hard one time with the nunchakus trying to show my students some moves with it. Also, the back of the head really sucks too. That big bone is so tender lol.

My training room is right next to my kitchen. The other week while I was waiting for the kettle to boil I picked up my rattan's and started swirling against the bag. Trouble was I must have caught the bag the wrong way coz the stick bounced off the bag and hit me just above the eye. Leaving me with a nice little black eye and a trickle of blood running down my face. I felt a tad silly explaining that little injury...."I smashed myself in the face with a stick whilst maiking a cup of tea!"