Against perhaps my better judgement (I am rubbish at self-control when it comes to injuries), I went to Judo last night.
My left shoulder, due to the dodgy AC joint, is tender. However, what is frustrating is that it becomes painful with certain movements only. As an example, I can raise my arm to the sides, swing it in circles and so on. But having to push it outwards against resistance hurts.
This effectively makes the arm useless in Judo, and nullifies a lot of core strength. Fear of that pain reduces speed. Sometimes I found myself being attacked where normally I could post with the arm to easily block it, but I just had to let the attack happen and find another route. Really frustrating.
Still it did open up a few opportunities. I got caught in an arm lock during Newaza (I would have easily avoided this with a working arm!) and did not have the strength to pull it out due to the injury. I’m not saying to always use pure grunt to work against things, but I couldn’t use the arm as a lever in an effective way due to the shoulder. I was forced instead to use my other arm to help move around the body, and then blocking the technique with the rest of my body. That worked. Even got a pin!
Another issue is that I would see an opening, but my instincts would say, “Hmm, if I do that, but then they pull against me, it will HURT” – so I don’t go for it.
Standing work was better, but again I was slow due to “the fear”. So I concentrated on gripping strategies and the like instead.
However, I am setting myself up for secondary injuries. By having such a fear of landing on the shoulder again, it would negatively impact my breakfalls… so I could do more damage.
Ronda Rousey has a recent entry on this sort of thing:
What sucks about injuries though is you really have to humble yourself. Instead of trying to twist and turn and funk your way out of attacks, you have to take a lot of falls you wouldn’t normally have to. You see openings for throws or in ne-waza that you have to for yourself not to do because it will strain the injury.
Yup, that’s it 🙁
I really need to rest it properly.