Hi Bullshido I’m novicegrappler a long time lurker but first time poster. About 3 months ago I sustained a knee injury at a judo class. We were working on seoi nage (sorry if I have misspelled that) and my knee just buckled under me and the 250lb guy I had loaded on my shoulder at the time. Long story short I ended up with what I was told was a torn hamstring. Apparently the injury wasn’t bad enough to warrant any surgery but I ended up having to take about 6 weeks off work.
Ever since I got injured my confidence has gone through the floor. As much as I want to get back on the mats (which my doctor has said should be ok) I have been having real anxiety about the possibility of getting injured again. I’ve been thinking about just sticking to ground work for a while before trying to get back to the stand up side of things, do you guys think that would be a good idea? Also do any of you have any sort of psychological tricks to help with this sort of thing?
[QUOTE=Novicegrappler;2949813]Hi Bullshido I’m novicegrappler a long time lurker but first time poster. About 3 months ago I sustained a knee injury at a judo class. We were working on seoi nage (sorry if I have misspelled that) and my knee just buckled under me and the 250lb guy I had loaded on my shoulder at the time. Long story short I ended up with what I was told was a torn hamstring. Apparently the injury wasn’t bad enough to warrant any surgery but I ended up having to take about 6 weeks off work.
Ever since I got injured my confidence has gone through the floor. As much as I want to get back on the mats (which my doctor has said should be ok) I have been having real anxiety about the possibility of getting injured again. I’ve been thinking about just sticking to ground work for a while before trying to get back to the stand up side of things, do you guys think that would be a good idea? Also do any of you have any sort of psychological tricks to help with this sort of thing?[/QUOTE]
I had ACL recon in 1987, and the hardest part of recovery was the psychological.
I started back doing ne waza, although it’s no cure-all. When I started back to throwing, I was doing a lot of solo drills (tandoku renshuu), and light uchikomi.
I focused at first on ashi waza, and as I rehabbed and got strength back in the leg (very important thing to do), was able to start with easily controlled throws like O Goshi.
Taking falls was tough as well, as impact was painful for quite a while.
Take it slow, and you will get your confidence back.
[QUOTE=Novicegrappler;2949813]Hi Bullshido I’m novicegrappler a long time lurker but first time poster. About 3 months ago I sustained a knee injury at a judo class. We were working on seoi nage (sorry if I have misspelled that) and my knee just buckled under me and the 250lb guy I had loaded on my shoulder at the time. Long story short I ended up with what I was told was a torn hamstring. Apparently the injury wasn’t bad enough to warrant any surgery but I ended up having to take about 6 weeks off work.
Ever since I got injured my confidence has gone through the floor. As much as I want to get back on the mats (which my doctor has said should be ok) I have been having real anxiety about the possibility of getting injured again. I’ve been thinking about just sticking to ground work for a while before trying to get back to the stand up side of things, do you guys think that would be a good idea? Also do any of you have any sort of psychological tricks to help with this sort of thing?[/QUOTE]
I feel for you, I haven’t practiced martial arts in ages but I’m in the army and have smashed my ankle up which means I’m literally useless so the end result is the same. The mental battle is awful but whatever you do starts small and be patient, patience is key despite how much it psychologically hurts. I feel for you, good luck and be patient.
Thanks for responding and the advice BKR. Im definitely going to be taking things slowly to start out. I like the idea of focusing on ashi waza to start with, I’m pretty much the tallest guy where I train so I generally prefer those types of throws anyways. Am definitely not planning to load anyone that big on my back any time soon.
BKR and Kovacs are great, listen to them. I don’t have any expertise in judo, but I have recovered from a fairly recent knee surgery. Gentle exercise over several months really helped me regain my mobility (I did tai chi, specifically).
Glad to have another long-time lurker join us. Keep us posted on your progress!
[QUOTE=Novicegrappler;2949825]Thank you for your reply Kovacs and for your service if you dont mind me asking what unit are you in?[/QUOTE]
I’m in the British army in a light infantry regiment. Apart from taking it slow I can’t comment on much more but there’s a wealth of highly experience grapplers on here who might be able to give more specific advice regarding your injury and chosen art, stick around.
Generally speaking, I would say that the techniques you learn in judo for handling falls are far more likely to spare you broken bones and major injuries that cause them. So don’t let that fear stop you. Check out the dojo and get a feel of the instructor and the schools approach to training. That will be a good indication of the safety.
Thanks for the reply mind_wave. I agree with you that the ukemi in judo is incredibly valuable, it’s a big part of what attracted me to judo in the first place. I’m also not too worried about the training methods at the club. I’ve trained there off and on for a while so I know that what happened to me was just a freak accident. That said I will definitely discuss how to go forward with my training with the coaches at the dojo.
So a bit of an update (sorry for the necro) after I recovered from the knee injury I returned to training for a while in both judo and bjj I then had the misfortune to suffer a ruptured l5/s1 disc that required an operation and consequently had me out of training for about 9 months. finally got back to training in July, although I decided to pretty much stick to bjj and just do the occasional judo class. Today I was awarded my blue belt in bjj which was quite a nice way to start the year as well as being a confirmation that I can overcome injuries and anxiety and keep moving forward. Thanks again to all those who posted when I first put this up here.
[QUOTE=Novicegrappler;3061738]So a bit of an update (sorry for the necro) after I recovered from the knee injury I returned to training for a while in both judo and bjj I then had the misfortune to suffer a ruptured l5/s1 disc that required an operation and consequently had me out of training for about 9 months. finally got back to training in July, although I decided to pretty much stick to bjj and just do the occasional judo class. Today I was awarded my blue belt in bjj which was quite a nice way to start the year as well as being a confirmation that I can overcome injuries and anxiety and keep moving forward. Thanks again to all those who posted when I first put this up here.[/QUOTE]
Congratulations!