Ah the old addage if it ain’t broke… well, it seems that in a lot of sports, not just jiu-jitsu, the question of “Are you hurt or are you injured?” is answered with “I don’t know.” And with good reason. When we were kids (cough cough) I’m not dating myself here, but remember when kids played outside and scraped their knees and kept playing? or crashed their bikes, picked them up, brushed themselves off and kept riding? Helmets?! what the… we were crazy, but we were tough. Our parents were tough, and their parents were tough. You did not go to the doctor for a sprain; a broken finger was allowed to heal crooked and you wore it like a badge! If you had a game, you better wrap that ankle and run on it anyway!
Oy vay! Can you blame anyone for having the mentality no pain no gain? There is a certain mental toughness required when playing any type of sport, not just to overcome the anxiety, and be mentally prepared; but to have mental toughness against physical pain from exerting yourself. Mental Toughness against exhaustion, pain from training, exertion, competition, & that extra match inning or quarter; and yes, the injury. But how do you know if it’s serious or if you just need some tiger balm and an ice pack? How do injuries affect you; affect your view of the sport, your training, your drive, your… well just everything?
In asking around, my fellow jiu-jitsu practitioners, of various rank had this to say (and no-one said one word about quitting 😉
* your partner’s errors are your broken bones…train vigilant”
*No matter how hard you train, how strong you are for your size, or how tough you feel, you are not invincible!
*If you are drilling with your partner who is much larger than you and you think he is going too hard, SAY SOMETHING. Don’t just act like you can handle it because you feel like you have to prove yourself. Speaking up could be the difference between having a great training session and getting your arm broken when your partner, or you, makes a mistake
*I have never been mad or disappointed if I thought someone could keep going , because I don’t know how they are feeling.
* Not everyone has the same pain tolerance.
* I think it is time to say stop when you have a doctor tell you it something gets worse you will need a surgery with a 6 month recovery time lol. That is how they got me to take 2 weeks off.
*The difference between being hurt and being injured is kind of hard to explain lol because I don’t really know when I am injured
*Did injuries change the way I look at sports –
Not at all. I grew up in a house where injuries didn’t stop you from playing.
*Everything in sports is about facing adversity, and that is all an injury is. It is an excuse to work on something new or work on your bad side.
*An injury only effects you as much as you let it.
*Also, the best advice I have for anyone who is injured is to keep going to training no matter what. Even if you can’t get on the mat because it is so difficult to get yourself to go back when you haven’t been in to train for a while.
*So I wish I had known you are better off with nothing than with bad habits.
*I wish I had known enough to know that I didn’t know anything.
*When you are hurt you can keep going, when you are injured you NEED to stop.
*Taking a week off to fix an injury is better then training half-assed for weeks until it blows up and then you’re out for 2 months.
*Being a pro fighter is tough you are hurt all the time you need to maintain yourself in order to fight and perform. It a tough line to walk.
*I also think it’s important to be in a good physical condition in order to do jits or Thai or mma. A friend of mine used to say you get fit to play sport you don’t play sport to get fit.
Listen, we all want to be warriors, off to fight another day. No-one wants to stand or sit on the sidelines. No-one wants to watch the rest of the team ride off to do battle. So to ensure that doesn’t happen trust that your body is telling you something important and listen to the message it’s sending. There are always more tournaments, more medals, more glory to be had. There is only one you.
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by sweat and blood, who strives valiantly who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Thoedore Roosevelt
