the Shin Rolling "Myth"?

[GonzoStyles]

I have never been instructed to roll anything across my shins, and have never seen it done and was wondering how this method of so called conditioning stays alive and what its origins could be?

I have used sandbags and padded kicking posts and seen old tires used for conditioning, but never have seen the rolling of anything across the shins by Thai boxers after a workout for conditioning or after a fight to "remove" bumps/lumps?

R.I.C.E. always worked for me


I do recall the myths told to me by practitioners of other arts, the best was probably "There are no old Thai boxers that can walk they are all crippled from years of leg kicks" The shin rolling "myth" sometimes accompanied these tales.

I would like to ask forum members if they have witnessed this practice?

What is your opinion of it?

Not that anyone here is an M.D. but we do have some great members here.

So how about it?

myth or antique conditioning method?

harmful or useful?

[William]

Rolling things across your shins like rolling pins, glass coke bottles, bowling pins etc... is not something one should do. It's usually done by new students who hear it by word of mouth or from friends over the internet. I still have students ask me about this one. True, it will deaden the nerves on the front of the shin, but at what cost? All you end up doing is deadening the nerves before the bone has a chance to build density which will lead to injuries. Conditioning is a slow process of repetition, hitting the Thai pads and heavy bags over and over. That's it. No kicking telephone poles, Douglas Firs, or the bumpers on a 57 Chevy.

Leave the rolling pins in the utensil drawer, the bowling pins at the bowling alley, coke bottles in the trash (or at least recycle), and go start kicking the pads. Your body will thank you for it.




William

PS: Banana trees were soft. Nothing compared to an Oak or Pine tree here in North America.

[GonzoStyles]

Nice post William, I guess I am just amazed to see this urban legend have such a shelf-life (I heard this over 10 years ago) and was wondering if anyone knew of a fictional origin for this practice?

Kind of like the boxing with broken-glass myth.....

[GonzoStyles]

Taken from another Muay Thai forum poster was from San Diego

"I just asked my trainer to roll out a month-old knot on my shin. G****, that was the most painful thing ever. The worst part is that I did it at my gym, so I couldn't cry with all the girls around. Of course, he took a certain perverse pleasure in the act, frequently calling people over to watch the calcified lump on my shin roll around underneath the wooden dowel. I can sum up the entire experience in the words of my trainer: "Whoah...didja feel it CRUNCH just now?"

I just can't believe this stuff is actually going on.

[Tom Yum]

I've trained at a number of different muaythai gyms and have never seen the practice. Never. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I think kicking cloth pads, sand pads, heavy bags and doing light leg sparring is usually enough to toughen up your shins.

[Ghost]

Ive come across it in thailand, wont name gyms but it does happen.
I think the rumour has come about because some places actually do this.

[seany85]

kick heavy bags, thai pads,its safer in the long run.

[the tick]

I've trained at a number of different muaythai gyms and have never seen the practice. Never. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I think kicking cloth pads, sand pads, heavy bags and doing light leg sparring is usually enough to toughen up your shins.

I agree. Thats more then enough. Of course it's your own choice.

[GonzoStyles]

Guys I am not advocating this, far from it, it seems like an outdated method of conditioning and I am just interested in its source thats all.........

[fightstuff]

nice post William. I have heard so many stories like this before. The best one was someone using a cro bar to toughen their shins. Metal against bone it's just not going to work!!!

Anyway just coming back to what William mentioned about deading the nerves. Kicking the bag and pads will work for shin conditioning. However what I found with my own shins is that over time shin conditioning will just go out of the window, because the knocks what you once felt before you don't feel anymore. The reason why is that with your training and sparring you are deading the nerves. I do not advocate this been a good thing. However I feel that shin conditioning is somewhat overrated, because effectively all you doing is deading the nerves and only improving your shin strength to a certain degree.

[William]

The only rolling I do on the shins now......is for injuries....

I have used a cold (un-opened) soda can to slowly roll over soft tissue injuries on different parts of the body when there is a lot of swelling. Especially on the face. When I was training with Al Dacascos we were doing some full contact stick fighting (no armor) and I ended up with a knee to the face when I took my opponent down in a very unusual maneuver. We ended up in corto range and he was able to get me in a bear hug from the side trying to pull his stick up under my ribs. Instead of grinding my punyo into the back of his hand, I decided to try a take down. Being taller then my opponent I grabbed his arm and bent forward pulling him slightly onto my back and getting his feet off the ground. I did a half turn to the left and as his feet swung to my side I then arched backward and fell back slamming him on the ground underneath me. Of course, as I swung him around, his leg came around and over the top and smashed his knee to my face just after we hit the ground. I was still able to get turned around and mount him working in a cross choke with my stick. As he tapped out I look up and see Al do a double take when he saw my face. It looked like someone had pulled out my lower eye lid and stuffed a golf ball in there.
He immediately got me a can of coke from the refrigerator and had me start rolling it over the mouse and down my cheek. After a while the swelling had gone down quite a bit. Instead of having one location severely swollen, it seemed to spread it out over a larger area, but at a much reduced rate of swelling.

Now, maybe this was some ancient secret nerve deadening technique for the face that Al saw an opportunity to utilize on me? Hmmmm. Not really needed though, my head is as hard as a bowling ball anyway. Well, even so, it does seem to work well on injuries.




William