Nails

[Chris McKaskell]

...People can get cut up pretty badly during clinch work, or by long toenails during sparring.

Which is not to say that everyone always follows these rules, but we're pretty vigilant about it.

I wonder if attitudes have changed since the rise of resistant bacteria??? I am reminded of stories my brother-in-law tells about playing rugby -- as a young feller he was on the national team -- very successful, very competitive.

He says it was quite common for some players to grow facial stubble so they could rub it against parts of other teams' players during scrums.

The idea was to create a painful rash on the skin of opposing players -and often it caused infection.

Another example:

In university, another friend was a women's water polo player -- they would intentionally grow their toenails and fingernails long to slash at the other players underwater where no one could see.

For them it was just part of the sport -- but this is also before the rise of deadly drug resistant bacteria.

[Jake Steinmann]

...People can get cut up pretty badly during clinch work, or by long toenails during sparring.

Which is not to say that everyone always follows these rules, but we're pretty vigilant about it.

I wonder if attitudes have changed since the rise of resistant bacteria??? I am reminded of stories my brother-in-law tells about playing rugby -- as a young feller he was on the national team -- very successful, very competitive.

He says it was quite common for some players to grow facial stubble so they could rub it against parts of other teams' players during scrums.

The idea was to create a painful rash on the skin of opposing players -and often it caused infection.

Another example:

In university, another friend was a women's water polo player -- they would intentionally grow their toenails and fingernails long to slash at the other players underwater where no one could see.

For them it was just part of the sport -- but this is also before the rise of deadly drug resistant bacteria.

No idea. I know a number of grapplers who don't shave before tournaments, so the practice hasn't entirely disappeared. On the other hand, it's meant mostly to cause discomfort, not to actually open the skin.

I've never heard of any fighter purposefully letting their nails grow too long to use as weapon. That's the sort of dick move that gets you black listed, or beaten really, really, badly if your opponent figures out what you're doing.

I suspect most combat sports have specific rules about that, actually. I'd have to go look it up.

[robb buckland]

"In university, another friend was a women's water polo player -- they would intentionally grow their toenails and fingernails long to slash at the other players underwater where no one could see."

it's generally known I'm from the school of disqualification ..the toenails sneek out nicely from under those "floatation foam footy pads" (ask Billy Blanks ) buuuuuut.............health concerns should prevail. Lets hope we've truely gotten smarter as weve gotten older...now in the street then anything goes !!