(1/25/10 6:30pm) BJJ
One of the odd things about training in a gym that has yet to open is the fact that most every night is like open mat. For me this proved to be a very good thing as I am still nursing my shoulder and back…back to health. The pain all day had been very mild which was a welcome change. For days it has felt as though the muscles in my back had gotten shorter and like someone had shoved a small rock underneath my shoulder blade. So, to whoever it was that shoved a rock in there…..a very sarcastic Thank You!
As far as training; I found someone else who just wanted to go light and we worked on drilling a few specific techniques. Armbar from mount, a neat side control kimura set-up from Braulio’s Invisible Jiu-Jitsu, and as always I worked on my guard retention.
After enough reps we moved on to specific training. I put myself into bad situations (mostly under side control) and worked to get back to guard or to reverse completely and end up on top all the while my opponent tried to pass to mount or submit. I forced myself to try a few different escapes. In live rolling I typically rely on the upa-shrimp-up to knees and shoot for a single leg. That escape has served me well but from time to time I am against people who can greatly out-wrestle me and I typically end up losing any advantage and end up back where I started. So for this session I really tried to work on getting to half guard and getting back to full guard.
I had a great deal of success with getting back to guard and I think that now I will be more apt to do the same in live sparring when against a formidable wrestler (of which we have many). Now I am not discounting the fact that I need serious help with my wrestling. If I happen to find that one gem in the rough that is smaller than me with even less wrestling skill I end up doing well. But most of the time I end up working from a bad position. I guess that should be another goal for this year, to improve my wrestling / judo.
When I got home my shoulder started to talk to me again. I dosed up, hit the sack and this morning it feels much better. I am debating between doing jits again tonight and risk aggravating it or to just hit 24 Hour Fitness with my temporary pass and just work cardio and such to save my shoulder. Decisions decisions.
2 comments:
A quick note on your shoulder blade - I used to get really bad muscle spasms under my shoulder blades (prior to my jiu jitsu career). I lived with this torture for five years... couldn't really carry anything on my right shoulder without it spazzing out.
Then one day I went to a massage therapist, and he showed me how to get at the small muscles between the ribs of your upper ribcage, along your clavicles, and around the tendons holding your head up.
After that massage, I very very rarely get shoulder blade knots anymore. Apparently, they come from trying to counteract tightness in your pectoral muscles and rib cage!
Hope that helps yoU too!
Thanks Elyse. It is feeling much better now. Thanks for the tip. I'll keep a close watch of it and if there is any hint of it coming back I will take that action. For now, fingers crossed it is just a one time occurance.
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