Slow Your Roll

I’ve broken, torn and sprang more than enough body parts during my time in BJJ but it wasn’t the sport that broke my body as much as it was myself that caused my injuries. I like to put a little extra effort into rolling and sometimes I forget my own strength as well as I used to allow my ego to seep into training sometimes and the next thing I know, I’m popping ibuprofen and taping up fingers and toes. But on the real, I viewed my injuries as a result of living life…being involved… If I didn’t want to get hurt, I could simple stay on the proverbial porch. But that thinking doesn’t stop injuries from really sucking ass, especially when your preparing for a competition or trying to enjoy your favorite hobby without having to continuously take time off from training to heal.

So to combat my injury prone body from breaking down I don’t worry about getting “the tap” when I spar….I will put 100% of my effort to protect myself, but if I get to the point of submitting, I stall a little to help my training partner attempt escapes so that we can keep sparring.  It’s a lot like playing tennis with someone that’s just learning.  If you serve the ball fast as hell and to areas of the court that you know they will not be able to return the ball, you rob them of the opportunity to hit the ball back so you can actually get some playing time in.  There’s no fun in waiting for a person running to get the ball that whizzed past them and this is all for the sake of feeling good about having an awesome serve against someone that hasn’t gotten the basics down yet.  Even if the person is well versed in the game I’m playing, I’d prefer to volley back and forth a while before ending the match. Plus if my partner gets better so will I. Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn…and its considered a loss only if you don’t learn anything. There’s time when its great to go to submission and push really hard but at my age and with my health insurance co-pay, I’m into crawling before I walk and walking before I run.