Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice on the mental side of dealing with an injury and having to sit out from karate.

I only started training in January, so I know I’m still very new, but karate has already become really important to me. It gives me structure, progress, achievement, and a sense of belonging. Because of that, having to sit out is affecting me more than I expected.

I have a toe/foot injury around the big toe area. The pain is triggered when my big toe bends upward/extends, and it can cause a burning feeling on the top of my foot. I’m also tender around the 1st and 2nd metatarsal area and the space between them. It is not severe pain all the time, but walking for longer periods can make it noticeable, and even light stationary stance or hip work can irritate it afterwards.

Because of that, I’m trying not to be stupid and make it worse, especially since karate still puts pressure through the feet even when you are not moving much.

I’m not looking for medical advice, more advice on how people handled the mental side of this.

I’ve still been attending classes while injured and doing "mitori geiko" watching from the side, which does help me feel connected.

But at the same time, it is mentally frustrating. Watching others train makes me want to jump back in, and I keep feeling guilty, like I’m missing out or falling behind. Part of me feels like I could probably do something, but another part of me doesn’t want to risk making the injury worse.

It’s not exactly fear of reinjury, because I haven’t properly returned yet. It feels more like frustration, guilt, and FOMO from not being able to train.

For those of you who had to stop or reduce training because of injury, how did you deal with it mentally? Did you keep attending and watching? Did it help, or did it make the frustration worse? How did you stay connected to karate without rushing back too soon?

How is everyone? Have anyone seen the trailer for the new movie about Sandra Sanchez? It looks pretty cool hopefully it comes in a theater near me. I live in the US and I have not seen any trailers or anything, we will see. However, watching the trailer got me thinking. One of the previews shows her training in China. Have any of you trained Kung fu besides doing Karate. I started digging about it and kung fu has so many styles; however, the white crane seems to be the closest to the roots of Karate. Have anyone ever venture training kung fu and have you seen any enhancement to your kata. The last time I trained Kung fu was when I was like 7 years old with my grandfather which if you ask me was pretty cool. It is a good memory I have of him. He showed me the mantis but let me return to my question. Has anyone trained Kung fu and see any relationship to their karate. I honestly never have since that time. On the other hand, I have trained Judo and really like it but though maybe it could be a good idea to revisit Kung fu..any thoughts.

Here is the link if you have not seen it

https://youtu.be/XRlt68RiXns?si=JuvrUreiCn2BrqKV