On the path to Recovery.

My two month classroom hiatus ended last night with me gi'ing up and actively participating in class again. I injured my shoulder- it was first diagnosed as a partial rotator cuff tear and I had to take an MRI to verify and then we, positively, learned it was more my bursa (whatever all these things are) and a cortisone shot was recommended with physical therapy. Unfortunately, the biggest snow storm in ages kicked in and I went a bit overboard with the activities and maybe compromised the positive effects of the shot, e.g. shoveling & snowblowing over 5 x driveways (I have many elderly neighbors) and the respective sidewalks, sledding, snow fort/man opns with my midgets, biking (poor attempt) and a great 6+ mile XC Skiing through the community. I realized I was pushing it for the weekend when my shoulder started to ache a bit. Anyway, I'm in Physical Therapy learning quite a bit- I'm really paying attention to the exercises which I can do every day and will help me with Injury Prevention in the long run.

I have to confess- in November, realizing a SECOND show stopping injury in a year, I felt like it was time to hang up the Gi, that at then 38 (now 39) I'm too old for this sport. However, I really love this sport- I thought I liked martial arts before- but BJJ has proven to be all the things all the years of Combatives really didn't live up to, i.e. effective! Plus, after 2-years I'm still in the clueless phase. As a blue belt, I think you understand enough to survive to a certain extent, you are familiar w/ the positional hierarchy (or at least you should be) and a respective understanding of base & posture, have a tool kit of basics to work your way up and down the ladder with an array of submits here and there.

Last night the class began with a bit of frustration doing some guard drills- I was hasty, wasn't paying attention to my partners attacks and worked straight to trying to execute a sweep. I failed and my guard was passed (jammed my thumb also)- I rethought what I was doing and focused on making sure folks didn't get their grips, breaking posture and just settling into the flow of things again. Overall, it wasn't too bad of an evening- I almost got a triangle choke on a purple belt- he was passing my guard, I set up my right knee for the triangle on his shoulder and was able to get into the position. I had a hard time moving my hips so I could work to secure the triangle, but managed that and was able to look it in, however, the purple belt secured his chin to defeat the choke and worked a purty good escape. I wasn't excited about my seemingly relative success against a purple belt- he is someone who works his weak points in class, so I knew he was taking risks and thus my success. I'm just happy I was able to execute a plan. After class and icing my shoulder I reviewed some guard basics- I did a good job defeating folks securing grips, but I think I need to add some Gi Choke threats/attacks to ease set up breaking posture and ultimately going for a sweep. Just gotta get into the rhythm of things again.

I have 4-8 weeks of real recovery with my shoulder (because I'm old) so I've concluded that I'm really going to focus on my guard in this time and this year.

It is good to be back in a mood of working towards success. Injuries have a greater mental impact when you are older. It is one thing to get injured, however, recovery is much longer and two things happened to me- one the shocking realization of my vulnerability. I was a great athlete in my youth- I know this from my success in competition and just being an Airborne, Ranger Certified Infantry Officer demands quite a bit of a person. You learn how slow/weak you get in sport typically by failing to perform and or getting hurt. The second thing that comes with this awareness of vulnerability is self doubt. Once you learn how to train successfully and get results, you get a confidence in training and performing under pressure which erases doubt. I would only doubt myself under pressure if I didn't train enough or failed to succeed in a facet of training- however, it isn't that simple with age. Since my arm was out of action, I trained my lower body and strained my left knee in the process in November- that did nothing but to compound my sense of vulnerability and self doubt to whether or not I need to focus on more passive sports- like Mountain Biking. Master Dalla helped me stay focused and gave me some insight into how to change my game via less reliance on athleticism and I focued on the future- "Fight for Inches", i.e. focused on proper diet so I wouldn't get fat while off the mat (lost 5-lbs in the two months) and I maintained conditioning where I could. I also forced myself to come to class when I could and watch others- this really helped to keep your mind in the game (and the peer support is good also).

The future of my BJJ progression is a greater emphasis on Joint flexibility, sustain conditioning and also focused on maintaining these small joint/muscle exercises and incorporating more Ice post training when I have a little ache. As an "Old Grappler" you have to make adjustments and balance competing demand, e.g. Family, Work, Civic Duties (ack I volunteered be the Neighborhood Watch Coordinator), Physical Fitness, Grappling and FaceBook and XBOX - LOL...fight for inches.