Blog

Just gotta say: so good to be back rolling again!

We had two blue belt tests yesterday (yay Nate and Turtle!) It’s not like belts tests at my old TKD school I went to as a kid. Coach gives you promotions as you earn them in application (sparring, competition, etc) – the test is a rite of passage more than an actual graded test.

First off, it’s 20 minutes in the shark tank. Everyone takes turns attacking the initiate, not giving them a second of rest. Fresh partner every couple minutes. (We almost had some vomit this time!) Phase 2 is the whipping. The victim, er, team mate gets on their hands and knees while everyone removes their belts. The black belts each get 5 licks first, then everyone joins in as promotee crawls from one end of the mat to the other and then back. Bonus points if they squeal. Belts are then awarded and everyone crowds around to play “count the welts”.

Adding this to my “things to look forward to” list.

I’m feeling lazy and not wanting to list techniques step by step anymore. If anything exceptionally awesome and cool pops up I’ll list it.

Got to roll hard last night! Felt so good! I did 3 rounds and a think I’m definitely better than before. Coach said I was “really moving good out there”. I can’t take pressure on that right side yet, but I make sure I roll with guys who have enough control to stay off it.

In class this morning (6:30a), it was just me and a new guy. Twas his first class – so coach let me kinda teach a bit. Showed him how to shrimp, and escape to belly. Then worked with him on cross choke from knee on belly. Listens well and catches on quickly – he’s gonna do well!

I’ll be heading back to train some more in an hour. Coach is gonna give me a private lesson on Friday after 6:30a class. Yay!

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I took it easy for the rest of training today. Did a couple rolls at 10, a round of grip fighting, then chilled until 11:30 class. I ended up sitting out of 11:30 though since the class was drilling takedowns and full guard/back escapes – two things I’m still avoiding. I used the time to do my strength training stuff. Those hanging leg raises suck!

That’s it for today! Tomorrow I’m hitting it harder. I don’t want to over-do it and reinjure myself so I’m trying to be smart and reign myself in.

Well I finally got a good roll in at 10 today! I wasn’t rusty at all – and it’s actually easier to roll than to drill. With drilling I can work around the rib since I know what movements and positions I can and cannot do. I got tapped once, and avoided many more subs. Not bad since I was going against a purple belt instructor!

I did pay for that roll with an amazing black eye. See picture below! It turned purple almost instantly and has been darkening all day. I’m actually surprised I’ve made it this long without facial bruises… Can’t wait to see how it looks tomorrow!

The position of the week is knee on belly. So at 6:30a class, we went over achieving kob, and then an armbar from kob. For the kob from side control on their right side:

Maintain head control by applying pressure across their face with your left shoulder.

Use your right hand to feed the bravo to your left.

While holding the bravo, place your right hand on their left hip and do a push up, sliding your left knee onto their upper chest by their chin.

Plant your right knee in their belly, posting the left foot back to keep the hips open and based. Maintain bravo grip.

Extra points for pulling with the bravo while grinding the knee in!

Armbar from this position if they try to push you off with their right hand:

Grab their sleeve with your right hand and pull their arm up and under your right arm.

Release the bravo grip and post your left hand back while your left leg swings over their head and knee slides off to their right side.

Apply armbar like you know how to by now

I already shared 10a class happenings, so on to 11:30a

Learned a new take down that I can’t put into words properly. And also two back escapes that I couldn’t practice due to rib pressure. Oh well – maybe next time!

Tomorrow I don’t work so I’ll be hitting competition team training at 10a, then advanced gi at 11:30a. 5p is our tough roll class – not quite healed enough for that yet, but I’ll go to watch (and heckle!). No-gi is at 6 – may join that one. Then we have another advanced gi class at 7:15, with extended sparring until 8:30/45ish.

Yay!!!

Coach let me roll around with one of our brown belts Tuesday evening – just to move around and see how it felt. Nothing hurt so he said he’ll let me do some light rolling next week. “No setbacks” is what my orders are.

I felt a little rusty, but by the end of class last night I was feeling much better! Coach taught us the move that he won his gold round with. It’s a really simple way to get both your hooks in (points!) When they are really curling up their top leg to guard. Starting attacking their turtle from their right side:

Always keep pressure on them and try for a choke, but if they defend their neck well, just grab the back of their collar.

Put your left foot above and between their feet (you can pull their butt up using their belt if you need to).

Right knee shoots into their side.

Roll them backwards at an angle (turtle is weak at angles). As you roll, your left foot peels their right shin away and you slide your right hook in and lock it down.

First order of business, secure a grip on their upper body. I use a seatbelt grip.

They then curl their left leg up to prevent you from getting the second hook in. So…

Plant your left foot on top of your right, stretch them out using full extension, then quickly slip your hook in.

Listen to them curse you under their breath.

Continuing with the choke:

Leave the hook in just long enough to get your points, then take it out, locking down their bottom (right) leg.

I already have my seatbelt grip over their right shoulder, so it’s easy to switch to collar grips now.

Right hand grips the left collar as deep as possible. Left hand grabs the right collar.

Figure 4 legs and come up on right elbow. Use jerky motions to pull your right elbow back, and pull your left arm straight toward their groin.

Listen as their cursing turns to gurgles

It was a pretty slick move! I found a blue belt my size to work with and he told me he looks forward to rolling with me when I’m good to go.

Looking forward to Monday morning!

Oh yea, I got a picture of my rib x-ray yesterday. Arrow points to the crack right on the 11th rib. I managed to skip the most commonly broken 10th rib and went straight for the floater.

So far so good this week! I’ve been going to class, doing warm ups, and some drills. Thankfully this week we are drilling turtle attacks so no takedowns.

Really been hitting this clock choke to bow and arrow transition – it’s pretty sweet. If attacking turtle from their right side:

Keep weight heavy on their low back so you can feel if they shift their weight.

Pummel your left hand under their left arm and grab their collar, pulling it tight and keeping your elbow high to prevent them from grabbing it.

Right hand slides between their hand and neck (like you’re shaking their hand), to grab the left collar.

Left hand releases their collar and drops down to grab their left forearm, pinning it to the floor.

Slide your hips forward to the back of their head, with the left leg leading.

Put your head on the mat to the left of their head and walk your feet in a circle – leading with the left.
If they feel this coming and try to roll onto their back – rolling into you (if they roll the other way gives you their back):

As you feel them roll, maintain your right hand collar grip and scoot back, shooting your knee up inside your right elbow – behind their neck.

Left hand grabs their left pant leg and you sit out and pull with arms for the choke.

You can also bounce back and forth if they keep rolling. Eventually they’ll mess up.

I was evaluated by a sports doctor/chiro yesterday. I asked for a head to toe eval so I could know what I need to work on for injury prevention. Results:
Overall in really good condition. Nerves, muscles, joints – all excellent.
Normal ROM in upper body. Extremely hypermobile from the waist down.
Textbook deep squat form.
Strengthen traps and rhomboids to correct forward shoulder rotation.
Main Problem:
My lower abdominals and glutes are too weak so my low back is over compensating, which will eventually lead to back injury.

So synopsis is that I’m adding to my weight routine:
Hanging Leg Raises
Dead Lifts
Weighted Squats
Bent Rows

As far as my rib goes – I was told the rule of thumb is: “if it hurts, don’t do it”. I told the doc I hope to be back to 100 percent by the end of the month and he thinks I can totally do that.

My goal is to hit up NAGA in Memphis on June 9th. That gives me enough time to heal up and get some good training in. Gonna kick some butt!

Okay, biggest news: my coach just won gold at Pan Ams! So awesome! He just dominated – made the other black belts in his division look like newbies!

At NAGA I was barely able to refrain from competing. Almost everyone from my team placed – with a whole lot of first places being called out. I’m sure we got ourselves a team award.

I got to scope out my competition, and I’m gonna tear them up at NAGA Memphis in June. I had a team mate in that category and she took home gold in no gi, and silver in gi. We determined that for June, she’s gonna drop to featherweight and let me handle lightweight. We’d rather not try to kill one another when we can just spread out.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow! I get to rejoin class! I’m now able to do pull ups and handstands without any pain/pulling. I’ll go easy and see how it feels.

Just sent our team off to Pan Ams. We’re sending about 15 from our school and they all promised to kill everyone (go team Lloyd Irvin!)

Coach said I’ll be going next year for sure – just have spend the next year getting my feet wet with other tournaments.

I’m gonna start some light training next Monday. I’m able to do forward, and back rolls, handstands, side planks, etc – all without pain. I can do a pull up, but it does make me feel a bit poked in the side – skipping that for a while. All in all, I think I’m healing up pretty quickly.

So next week I think I’ll just be doing light drill work and see how it feels. If I feel good with a week of that, I may try some light rolling the next week. I definitely don’t want to re-injure and put myself out again! If all goes well – I hope to be back to 100 percent by the end of April.

I was talking with one of my team mates earlier today and he helped me see this time out as a good thing. Since all I can do is watch and visualize, I’ll probably come back even better – since I’m learning to think through a match.

I did a massage on coach after class tonight – so when he gets back from Pan Ams he’s going to give me another private lesson. Yay for trade outs!

It’s been ten days of down time. I’m back to work and feeling pretty good for the most part.

I have been going to all of my regular classes this last week – not participating – but watching and taking videos. Okay, so I’m doing my share of smack talk and heckling from the sidelines. Everyone is cutting weight for tournament season so I’ve been telling them that with less of them to smash me, I’ll kick their butts easily when I get back on the mats.

I decided that I’m not going to risk competing on the 31st. I emailed NAGA and they let me transfer my pre-registration to a team mate. No sense going into my first tournament after 2 weeks of off time.

I’ve gotten the chance to talk with a lot of the “old timers” around the gym. They tell me that in the grand scheme of it all, a few weeks or even a month out doesn’t make that much difference.

I’ll be getting back on the mats after the 31st. I asked coach if he’d do the honors and give me my first beating when I get back. He promised to be really good and thorough. Oddly enough, I look forward to it.

I’ve had plenty of time to think these last couple days of staring at the ceiling. What I’ve been asking myself is, why am I doing this?

Do I have something to prove? Am I just a glutton for punishment? Is this just me looking for attention? What is my purpose in beating myself up like this?

Then I stopped myself. I realized, I’m just trying to answer everyone else’s questions. People seem to think that getting an injury will “snap me out of it”. Like I’m off on a mad, foolish quest – and I’ll figure it out eventually.

I can’t wait to get back on the mats! I love my team, I love my coaches, and I love to kick butt!

See, I’ve accomplished a lot in my life so far. Everything I’ve ever tried to do – I’ve done it. But I’ve never really thrown everything I have at something. I’ve always given it just enough effort to make it “above average”. When I knew I could have done better.

I’ve been curious to see what I could do if I gave something 100 percent. And I’ve chosen Jiu Jitsu for that experiment. Why? Because it seems to have no limits for what you can learn. And it’s awesome fun!

So let’s see where this takes me shall we?

And now for something (somewhat) completely different:

I think I’m healing pretty quickly. X-rays on wed showed a pretty wide crack halfway through my right 10th rib. I’ve been taking some prescription strength anti-inflammatories since then.

As of Friday morning, I could sit up fairly easily from lying down. On Saturday I found I can get in and out of the car fairly normally. It hasn’t been outright painful since thursday night. It’s more uncomfortable/annoying – like someone keeps poking me with a broomstick.

I have been getting short of breath easily – have to take more breaths when talking. Wearing a bra is a pain as well (more so than usual that is). My only other complaint is not being able to sleep on my side. Sucks!

I’m wondering if I actually broke it a while back. The doc I went to said something about how my flinching when applied pressure told him it was probably broken even before he did the x-ray. I’d been flinching like that for about a week. It might be that I broke it a while ago, and the hit I took on wed just pushed my body over the edge. In sparring on tues, it was so painful I hollered a few times and it limited my movements.

This could also explain why it seems to be healing faster than I was told it would.

We shall see.

Well 24 hours post break I’m feeling a lot better than I thought I would. Can take a deep breath and cough lightly without shooting pains.

My plan is to lie still until monday. Only getting up to pee as necessary. The psychological pain is the worst – I am not wired to lie still! Cabin Fever!!!

At any rate, my meds just arrived so I’m gonna go dope up on NSAIDs and muscle relaxers.