Splint em...

I think it's safe to say that my cold is a dud. There will be no missed workdays (shucks) or training days (hurray).

There is always a chance of losing training due to injury. I've been working to minimize this. My most vulnerable area these days seems to be my toes.

They keep hitting the ground weird when rolling. I swear they've broken a few times, and constantly have blue nails even without my applying polish.

Recently I've been taping my most vulnerable little toes to their bigger next-door neighbours. This has made a huge difference.

They have not taken an injury even once while secured.

The problem has been the tape. I started out with duct tape. To make it fit I cut the tape into strips and layered the pieces around the toes. Time consuming, and left lots of tape residue behind.

I then tried one-inch surgical tape. It applies much more easily and leaves no goop behind. The downside is that it just isn't tough enough to make it through a class without falling apart.

Now it looks as if the perfect product has presented itself. It is a sort of thick, very strong two-sided tape used to secure things to walls and such. I put a little piece between my toes. It seems to hold very well, and comes off only when I want it to.

I wonder if any other master of combatives glues his toes together.