Lets Roll…

I am wincing as I type this….no, not from my painful turn of prose..I took a beating in the dojo where I attempt to learn jujitsu. Well, the truth is I take a regular beating there but this one taught me a lesson. Hopefully only a temporary pain but a long remembered lesson. I love jiu jitsu ..it’s like adult wrestling and chess mixed together.

…and the workouts where you spar / grapple / roll even for 3 minutes can leave me feeling exhausted. I love that feeling. If I am going to work out I want to feel beat afterwards. Now let me admit that I am terrible at jujitsu as my attendance has been less than stellar this last year. When you don’t practice often enough it’s hard to remember the right moves and counters. I know that if I go more often that has to help. Since in my profession I exhort my patients to work out more regularly I thought it would be wise to practice what I preach and make jujitsu attendance a bigger and more regular part of my routine. So,I set my schedule for twice a week. Between twice a week at the dojo and my biweekly sax lessons I am bound to improve myself somehow and someway.So there I was at class last friday. rolling with a guy less than half my age, twice my strength, and much higher belt level. I knew this guy doesn’t roll lightly. But I’m there for the challenge and besides when you are as old as I am , relative to the rest of the class…and as inexperienced as I am ..pretty much everyone is better than me and I am bound to get whooped each and every time. My ego can take it and it’s always great exercise and hopefully I am slowly getting better.I like it when my opponent has a serene look…this one guy wouldn’t recognize serene if he saw it in a magazine. Maybe it’s my innate paranoia but I get a subtle “ I’m not going to get much out of rolling with this guy..its a wast of my time “. That’s absolutely true…!! .I have watched him roll, he is very good and goes hard so I understand where he is coming from. During our roll he actually took it easy on me and I think that might have pissed him off even more because even when he went easy it was hard for me to sustain an attack or defend myself. During just one of the many times he was choking me or using an arm bar I might have resisted a bit too much for too long and got myself in a position where my opponent was locking my arm up to make me quit. Whenever you feel you have been bested and are ready to admit defeat and start again all you have to do is tap the other guy and they will let up.When people don’t tap they are telling you to use more pressure , better technique etc before they will admit defeat. So when I didn’t tap immediately the higher belt took it to a higher level and we could both feel when I hyperextended my elbow. It didnt get dislocated just stretched a wee bit more than usual.It felt funny for a second then everything was back to normal and we continued the three minute session. I rolled with two more guys before I staggered off the mat. It was only later while driving home that it started to hurt. I knew nothing was broken …just painful. It was very tender today but there is still fullish range of motion and terrible swelling or bruising so let’s see how it goes before I go running off to the doctor. As long as it gets a little better each day I will just follow it. I had already learned long ago that active people will get injured. You can’t stop because of injury …you have to modify. This elbow thing will not allow me to use the rowing machine so I will spend more time on the bike and ski machine. No the lesson I learned this time was to TAP EARLY ! Don’t be all macho on the mat…When you know you have been beaten… accept defeat and move on. Leave the dislocations to someone else…anyone else. I am not normally a guy that says “Know your limits.” How can you know your limits without testing them. Don’t sell yourself short. I try to remember this is a marathon not a sprint. If I resist too much and get hurt that affects my overall ability to train. Recurrent injuries have made many a person finally give up their sport. If I take it a little easier I can stay in the game longer. Let’s see if the other guy is still rolling when he is my age.! Jujitsu is one of the few sports you can do at any age…you dont see a lot of guys playing baseball, basketball, soccer or football as they get past 40 years of age..but you can “roll” on the mats until an advanced age if you have the desire. I hope you have some physical activity you can keep interested in through all phases of your life. Until next month…get well …stay well…and when you get injured regroup and get back in the game !

Dr. Barry