Back From Hawaii

Our trip to Hawaii was great--very restorative, a real chance for my wife and me to reconnect.

The photo above is taken at a black-sand beach on the big island of Hawaii. I'm eyeing one of the big green (endangered) sea turtles resting on the beach there. (They don't look green in the air; for some reason, they look green underwater!)

I've added a link to yet another martial artist who's undergone ACL surgery, and in my absence I've gotten comments from others who have undergone or are undergoing the surgery. I know we've got a self-selecting group here, but it does feel like ACL damage is epidemic in the martial arts!

Knee Pain

ACL recoverees, you might not want to read this post just yet.

I'm finally starting to say to friends, "My knee will never be the same."

Thank goodness I had ACL surgery. My knee is stable now, and it wasn't before. I'm not collapsing in a heap when I put my weight on my leg, as I was before the surgery. It was worth the pain of ACL surgery and the long recovery to be able to rejoin martial arts, to not worry about things like dashing down the street or walking on a wet floor.

But I do have continued low-grade pain in my knee at times. I feel my knee in a way I never did before when I do something as simple as walking down the stairs. Just doing drills Wednesday night in martial arts class, blocking very mild low kicks with my shin, made it hurt more.

In February, I return to kicking and being kicked during sparring, and to grappling (how I tore my ACL in the first place). I wonder how those activities will feel. I'm going to take it really easy, and ask my classmates to do the same--I'm going to try to team up with Larry, who also went through ACL surgery.

I'm nervous about it.

One step at a time.

Wednesday night, my entire goal was not to re-injure my knee. On Saturday, my wife and I fly to Hawaii for our delayed 25th anniversary trip--delayed, that is, by my ACL surgery and recovery in the spring. I succeeded in my goal.

We're going to the Big Island, and one of the things we want to visit is a very rare green beach (see photo), which is, I think, due to a volcanic rock called olivine.

This is the perfect time to be going to Hawaii. I can't wait.

Shadow Boxing

Today, while my wife and daughter were at a hair appointment, I went to the gym and after warming up simply worked on shadow boxing. Instead of just working on punches, I tried to imagine opponents standing in front of me, and worked on defense and offense--slipping and weaving into position for a hook punch, slipping and changing angles, etc. I think this kind of mind-and-body work is tremendously helpful for sparring, but I seldom take the time to do it.

It's interesting to imagine opponents you know because what might work with one person probably won't with another, so it's helpful to think about variations for different opponents in advance.

I was working on speeding up my bobbing and weaving. Larry says that when us middle-aged guys bob and weave, it's like waiting for an elevator to come back up, which kind of defeats most of the purpose of the defensive move.

When I return from Hawaii in early February, I'll return to kicking in kickboxing (I've just been boxing during free sparring). I wonder to what extent the boxing moves and skills I've focused on will still be viable when my opponent can kick as well. I think they should, but I'll just have to find out. (One thing I haven't worked on--frequently I see boxers bend at the waist when the duck--this doesn't work at all when your opponent can kick or knee you in the head. I've worked on ducking by bending at the legs.)

Not Golfer's Elbow

Yesterday I tried to do a personal training session at the gym, but my trainer stopped it early because I was feeling pain on the muscles inside my elbow. I just ran on the elliptical machine instead.

I did a very brief check online of pain on the inside of the elbow, and saw something called "golfer's elbow," but the illustration doesn't look like where I was hurting. Then I saw tendonitis of the biceps, which makes sense to me--the pain seems to be where the biceps connect to the inside of the elbow. Many of the references were about the connection to the shoulder, but there were some referring to the elbow, too.

There's also an article about "distal biceps tendon rupture," which, according to the about.com article:

is usually an injury that occurs with heavy lifting or sports in middle-aged men. Most patients with a distal biceps rupture will have surgery to repair the torn tendon.

It's times like this that I hate the Internet.

I don't think I have a dbp, I didn't hear anything snap. Whatever it is, the likely cause is the insane push-up session we went through Thursday night at martial arts class. It's what you get when a 20-something athlete of a black belt stands in to run the class.

Why We Fight (And Watch Fights)

The headline on this article in Science Daily doesn't quite get it right.

It's not that "Aggression [is] As Rewarding As Sex, Food And Drugs, New Research Shows." But--from what I read in the article--it is that aggression seems to use the same reward pathway in the brain as sex, food and drugs.

At least it does in mice. So it probably does in people.

Tough Sparring

I haven't been going to sparring consistently because of things like birthdays, holidays, etc. I'm going about once every two weeks instead of weekly.

One of the things that holds me back in sparring is that, to try new things, I have to be willing to look bad or screw up. Tonight I was determined to try to work on some things I don't do enough.

Tonight I was sparring exclusively with my buddy Larry. We're about the same age, about the same height, have the same reach.

Tonight I was working on defense, moving, and not backing up. It's hard not to back up against Larry because he's strong and relentless--he just keeps coming. He's also starting to move his head much better than he used to.

How do you not back up when somebody's coming at you and won't stop just because you hit him? 1) Move to the side. 2) Cover up so his punches don't have the same effect. 3) Clinch.

I worked on all those things, and I should feel good because I was trying to improve my skills. But it still felt like a difficult evening of sparring. There's the level of skill you aspire to, and the level you're at, and the contrast can be disheartening.

I also, toward the end of the evening, worked on forcing myself to throw combinations of three or more punches--real combinations, not just pawing at the opponent.

Combinations are easy to throw in drills. They're easy to throw when you outclass the opponent. They're hard to throw in contact sparring when your opponent is good because, whenever you're throwing a punch, you're open. The tendency is to just throw one or two punches to limit your vulnerability. There was one instance where I did throw the classic jab-cross-hook and the hook really landed well--just like everybody says.

How Long?

There's a very interesting post from John Vesia that, among other things, addresses the question, "how long will it take to get a black belt?" I love the opening anecdote, which I'm reprinting here, and which lets you know his perspective:

Recently an adult student at our school announced at the end of his very first class he wouldn't quit until he received a black belt. Immediately, the chief instructor removed his tattered obi and handed it to him. "Here you go, it was nice knowing you", he chided. I think the new guy got the point.

It's a good reminder for me that it's the journey that counts. I've been a brown belt now for more than three years.