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.
