Bumps and Bruises, Pulls and Tares

Everyone who practices BJJ is familiar with these.  Bumps and bruises happen training every day.  The pulls and tares are far less frequent (hopefully anyways).  Since I’ve been practicing BJJ I have been KOd by going head first in to a cement pillar surrounding the competition area, tore my left pectoral, dislocated my shoulder, broken my finger, broken my nose (several times), popped my knees (both, several times), received stitches, received black eyes, and now pulled my groin (not in a good way).

It’s my own fault.  I came to class with little time to spare.  As I popped in my mouth guard and stepped on the mat, we got right in to it.  I had no time to warm up.  As you get older (I’ll soon be 40), you need to prep the body for combat if you want to be injury free.  I made it through drilling ok without getting hurt, but rolling… That’s another story.

I was sparring against a big and strong kid.  His BJJ level is very low, but he’s got a lot of natural instincts for it.  He’s a former football player and did some wrestling in highschool.  He’s got a double leg that’s more like a spear.  When I go against him, I always pull guard and work my way out.  It’s great practice for me.  Well I was trying to keep him in a closed guard for a kimura sweep.  He pushed hard and tried to break guard and I squeezed my adductors as hard as I could.  It worked, but after the match, my left groin was quite sore.

I finished the rest of the rolls, but played half or butterfly guard.  Last night while in bed, every time I rolled over I would wake to a sharp pain.  Now I barely sleep as it is, so needless to say, it was a long night.  Today it is very sore as well.  I couldn’t do too much at the gym.  I spent my time on the rowing machine, skipping, and riding the bike.  Hopefully it heals quickly.  I don’t want to miss too many classes if I can help it.  I already miss enough between work and not being motivated.  The final OJA tourney of the season is coming up and if I want to compete, I’ll need all the training I can get.