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The 11th Month In Jiu-Jitsu

(2022-06-01 09:41:37) 下一个

The inexplicable injury went away in two weeks, my lower back felt as good as

new, and I returned to jiu-jitsu with renewed caution. I have long noticed that

experienced guys, especially above the purple belt level, do not seem to

struggle with all their strength in sparring. If they are caught in a bad

position and fail to defend, they simply tap. They seem to treat fighting as any

other school subject. Coach Gene, ever protective, sometimes reminded me to tap.

He once told Tim, watching Gell and I dueling on the mat, that both guys were

stubborn. "They'll learn in their own ways." he said.

 

So far, I feel thankful for the sport. My upper body strength has improved

significantly over the past year. It is again the anti-fragile process: a living

organism recovers stronger after the right dose of stress and many of my body

parts, e.g., the neck, the shoulders, the hips, etc., have gone through the

drills aka minor injuries. These days, I enjoy simple things such as pleasant

walks, smooth shoulder-checking when driving, lifting with ease five gallons of

water as I recall what it felt like when I was injured.

 

I learnt a new way to rise from the floor hands-free. Coach Eric taught part of

it in a warmup exercise and I saw it in one of JJM's videos: from a half-W sit

position, say with the right foot at the back,

- push the right foot to rise and shift weight onto the left knee,

- step the right foot forward,

- do a windshield-wiper movement to point the left foot backward, and

- push off on both feet.

 

The move has soon become mine. As I sleep on a hard mat on the floor, I do it

daily. Each time I enjoy the coordination of the lower limbs and the core in

carrying the steps out. It is a beatiful thing.

 

Steve Maxwell once talked about the importance, especially for older people, to

be able to get up from the floor and his own parents' inability to do it. I used

to be able to rise from the cross-legged sitting position by pushing straight

down with my feet and legs. It required a good deal of lower-body strength. I

lost that ability for a year due to the abdominal tendon injury from running.

 

On the mat, people told me that I had improved and I could feel it. It was still

not easy for me to pull off triangles or armbars. But as I kept studying and

coming back to train, my partners found it increasingly hard to submit me or

hold me at the bottom. I became slippery and better at finding spaces to get on

my knees, a strong position as known as the turtle, and from there to launch

takedowns. It was a good feeling when I could get chances to attack when

sparring with guys outweighing me by 50 to 100 lbs.

 

I have also started to sweep and attack. So far, from the cross-side, I have

been experimenting with the paper-cutter choke, the Dan Camarillo arm bar, and

even the scarf-hold position, all from Henry. From guard, I had some success

with the arm-wrap choke and even did a couple of hook sweeps. The last day of

the month, I learnt a simple knee-bar from Gene. The knowledge kept coming like

drinking from a fire hydrant.

 

Two of the coaches were former wrestlers and another had a judo background. As a

result, we practice takedowns from the feet often. (And that could have

contributed to our students' huge successes in tournaments.) From time to time,

I was really impressed with a lesson but quickly forgot what was taught. This

was true for jiu-jitsu in general. It was amazing how much one has to drill to

commit knowledge to muscle memory. So far, if I were to take someone down wrestler

style, I remember only the arm drag.

 

All the highs, progresses, and learning, great as they are, have not made life

easy. Most days I get to bed with sore muscles and painful joints. I remember

once in my running days muscle pain kept me awake at night and wondering when

suffering would stop. But the idea of practice has always helped. So have my

friends and teachers at the gym. So has Tim. I would recover and show up on the

mat the next day, not to win, just to get through it.

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7grizzly 回复 悄悄话 回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, 暖冬, for reading and liking.
I borrowed that metaphor from someone describing information from the Internet.
And yes, I'm much less ambitious now ;-)
暖冬cool夏 回复 悄悄话 The knowledge kept coming like drinking from a fire hydrant.
+1, an interesting metaphor.
I like the ending sentence!
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