Monday, November 5, 2012

November 2nd - Open Mat (Setback)

Went to open mat after work on Friday and I was feeling pretty good.  Jerad had arrived just before me and I had to wait a little bit to get a partner.  I rolled with Jerad twice and did a pretty good job for the most part.  I was trying to be more aggressive and assert that I want to be on top instead of just playing the game I usually play that is if I get the sweep I get it.  This thinking tends to keep me on the bottom because I feel like I try half halfheartedly and if it doesn't work I give up on the technique too easily.  Part of this also conserves energy but I could conserve a lot more energy if I was in the dominant position.  So I've decided that I should make more of an effort to actively take the dominant position and not lay in guard.

During one of our exchanges while he was passing my half guard I felt a twinge in my left knee.  It wasn't terrible pain and we continued for another minute or so.  After he submitted me I stretched and massaged it a bit to see how bad it was.  It was tight and felt swollen but I decided that I could go for one more roll so I allowed Jerad to dominate me another time.  Like usual my defense was good but I could only keep him at bay for so long before he caught me in something.  I've forgotten what he submitted me with because I've been so focused on my knee since then.

I've decided to take a month off from Jiu-Jitsu while I heal.  I recently read a blog post from another Jiu-Jitsu practitioner that was on the subject of training for the long term.  I agree with many of the articles points in that I'm not going to be a heavy into competition I should be training to make myself healthier and so that I can continue to train for several years to come.  Part of my philosophy already is to tap early and tap often, I'm not going to try to power through a submission especially an ankle lock when the risk is there to get hurt, when I can just tap and start over again.  I'm going to try and give my knee the rest it deserves and when I come back I'm going to have a different outlook on training.  Deep down my true focus lately has been trying to get more hours on the mat than everyone else so I can catch up to where they are.  It has been disappointing for me to miss Tuesday classes or those evening classes that we had for a short time.  I know I didn't take the time off that I needed when I hurt myself the first time because I thought I could train through it and eventually I would be fine.  That wasn't the case. 

I'll post my progress on here.  I plan on making swimming my primary form of exercise.  I'll be continuing with my Wednesday and Saturday morning classes at the Chung Do Kwan as well so I don't go cold turkey from martial arts.  I have plans to improve my pullups and do some other strengthening activities.  I'm not sure how much time I'll be spending watching Jiu-Jitsu videos as that might just make me miss it too much. 

3 comments:

  1. sorry you'll be gone for awhile. i think you made a great training partner. i may finally have a cage fight on Dec. 7 at the royal grove. maybe you can make it. get better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's great Ken. Let me know when you have more details, I'd love to be there when you fight. Will you ask Conan to corner you?

    ReplyDelete