柔道 aka The Gentle Way

[gaojun]

I started Judo club today, after finally persuading the IMA to lend me a gi to practice in. Judo is basically like Japanese wrestling plus throwing and tripping, and my god, what a workout. I pretty much got my ass handed to me. A couple of the guys I did mat work with pinned me well enough that I broke a bunch of capillaries in my face straining

Comments

[wuyuansheng]

Dude, be very very careful.
Spend a lot of time training on the basics!!

Until 'break fall' comes natural.

I took the speedy way and injured myself really badly in a fight with a pro.

[gaojun]

Yeah, I know what you mean. We take it pretty slow, and I've practiced breakfalls a lot, but last time someone did a shoulder throw incorrectly on me, my head hit his leg on the way down, and I landed painfully on my side. I was OK, but I don't really trust that guy to throw me anymore.

What kind of injury did you get, and how did it happen? Not a head/neck/spinal injury, hopefully?

[wuyuansheng]

Luckily, not too serious injury

Someone threw me off balance, I tried to use my arm to push myself up. Bad idea. The tendons at my elbow was seriously injured. It hurts even when I tried to make some movement of my right arm by using my left arm to push it around.

It took 2 months to heal completely. But lucky thing is no fractured bones or anything.

[gaojun]

Yeah, the first thing we learned is not to catch yourself with your arms when you fall, but to slap the mat with your hand instead. It's still hard to train away that instinct to catch yourself though.