Im pretty new to the arts and have only been practicing since the beginning of my freshman year at the university i attend. Ive really gotten into pretty die-hard and train contantly. Currently I am training under two masters, one in teong long and the other in dragon kung fu. Coming off of running competively in high school for 4 years (12 seasons) I was naturally tight at first. And its taken me a while to get control of my legs. When i learned of the stadion technique on here about 3 weeks ago i started practicing this stretching every morning and night, along with kicks at night. And I have made significant improvements, now being able to kick head hieght. Problem is, ive started to get some sharp pains in my hip joints after doing the dynamic streches, enough that it affects me when i do kicks and movements afterward. The pain goes away, till i start kicking again in most cases, but i dont want it to affect my training and sparring.
does anybody know what i am talking about? I believe i am doing them correctly. Am i overtraining? I dont want to lay off, and I have not mentioned anything to either of my instructors yet b/c i dont want to show any weakness.

Just ask your instructor. If you have it, theres a significant chance he had it to, thirty years ago or what have you. And if you instructor believes asking questions to be a weakness, get a new teacher.

- Op. Skinny Ninja

Don't worry, it's not that bad. I'm 18 and have back pain (fell on a gate rail).

I've studied a handful of style of karate and TKD over the years - and kicking obviously is a large portion of it. However I seldom did the extremely high kicks which might be more damaging to one's own hip.

I heard of a TKD black belt (5th degree I think) who quit TKD (and eventually martial arts) due to his hip pain. I heard that he had to get a hip replacement!!! (He mentioned that he practiced lots of spinning high kicks for demonstrations).

Many activities can be done in moderation, but if taken to the extreme they can permanently damage your body.

If your pain persists, check with a doctor or physical therapist.

Martin

I kinda have the same problem. Its not actually the joint, but the a muscle called the hip flexor. This muscle is almost impossible to strecth and the reason for the pain is that its simple under developed. While your developing it at a later stage the muscle is pushed in front of the hip, where as people who have done martial arts before adolesnce the muscle deveolped around the hip. When you kick your pushing the muscle down into the hip and you get pain. All you need to do is strecth longer than most and massage the area while stretching. Its a bitch but its all the only way i'd know how to deal with it. I'm not 100% on the facts but its something to do with the muscle and hip along those lines.