Comments | terrencechan: sparring partners, safety and respect

terrencechan

sparring partners, safety and respect

Dec 20, 2010 23:38

I'm normally a positive and happy person and I rarely wish malice to anyone, but tonight that positivity is replaced by anger. Some huge guy at the gym today decided to assert his superiority by fucking up my already injured arm. Had he exerted so much force on my good arm it probably still would have caused damage, but on my bad arm, it probably ( Read more... )

life, jiujitsu

Comments 10

ahhunter December 21 2010, 01:48:16 UTC

Fuck but that sucks. I really need to take this to heart--I have a habit of being that spaz, which needs to go away, and that's why. I've never injured anyone with a submission, and I don't think it's likely I will anytime soon; I don't have a problem with applying too much force, I just rush things more than I should, because my jiujitsu is fairly chaotic (and not very good) and I don't have a wide window, just as you say. But even that's a dangerous, bad habit, and thank you for reminding me why I should fix it immediately.

How bad is the injury? What recovery timeline are you looking at?

terrencechan December 21 2010, 01:52:39 UTC

How bad is the injury?

Bad enough that I reached for a plate at dinner and pulled up lame.

What recovery timeline are you looking at?

I never know how to answer this. Even though I've been injured a number of times, I have yet to figure out the formula for time to heal as a function of intensity of pain.

Honestly, cuz I'm dumb, I'll probably just train tomorrow, selectively, and tell people about the injury.

chloepear December 21 2010, 04:38:53 UTC

This happened to me, back when I was involved in martial arts. The injury (to my leg) was bad enough that I didn't walk normally for about 6 weeks. The guy who caused it? Left training that day bitching to his friend about having been paired up with a girl.

It sucks. Hope you recover quickly.

whipartist December 21 2010, 05:27:51 UTC

Dude, that sucks. You deserve cooler partners.

Sucks but.... anonymous December 21 2010, 06:36:09 UTC

Terence,
All due respect etc but unless you tell the person about your injury in advance, you are presuming his intelligence and sensitivity. As a poker player you know that one does not project one's thinking onto someone else. He is who he is and you should not be assuming that he will think like you.

Now? Glucosamine will help repair then focus on what is good about the situation! Work on fitness, kicks, flexibility, leg strength etc while watching more than usual. Then determine not to spar unless tou are fit or have advised the opponent in advance and felt their understanding.

Take the crap and invest it for the future. Bad beats happen away from the felt too. Good luck.

Re: Sucks but.... terrencechan December 21 2010, 12:55:31 UTC

Sorry Anon, I cannot agree with this.

There are a number of situations where we are subject to the trust of other people. If you have stopped your car at a red light, you trust that the guy in the SUV behind you will stop too and not plow into you at 70mph. If he does and you get whiplash, do you say, "shit, I should have had a bumper sticker that says, 'I have a bad neck'"?

Bad beats happen away from the felt too.

Yes, but this is not a bad beat. When I injured my MCL on the freak throw, that was a bad beat. Random variance, part of the game like taking a 1-outer. Being injured by a spaz with an extra 90 pounds is more like being cheated.

Re: Sucks but.... gunga_galunga December 21 2010, 16:43:16 UTC

Why would you spar with a guy that much bigger? Sounds like he was George in Of Mice and Men and you were the rabbit.

Re: Sucks but.... terrencechan December 21 2010, 17:58:29 UTC

To get better.

And also because big people deserve to train too. Very few schools are so well-populated that people can roll with only people their size and skill (nor would it even be a good thing to do so). Big guys don't have it so easy because there are only so many big guys around -- if none of the small guys wanted to train with them, they'd never get better.

This btw is part of the reason why the heavyweights in MMA tend to be less skilled: if you're a HW, you either have a hard time finding sparring partners your size, or you train with guys who are too small to really challenge you. OTOH the pro 135-155ers are awesome because they've had to develop technique to avoid being squashed by their teammates in the gym.

anonymous December 21 2010, 20:38:09 UTC

I gather from your post that the guy was just too gung-ho, as opposed to having the goal of injuring you.
Was the guy fairly new? In my experience, the trainees that don't differentiate between sparring/training and a real fight (and are instructed on this) are either told to leave or learn the meaning of true skill from an instructor.
Similarly, the ones that are looking to hurt others are usually told to leave, but as one instructor commented a long time ago: Somewhere out there, there is a bad person learning this skill as well.

I suggest that as far as training goes, act like the smart person that you are and give yourself time to heal. It sounds as if you know you should not be training but plan to do so anyways. This is an excellent way to wind up with a chronic condition or permanent injury.

terrencechan December 22 2010, 02:30:16 UTC

We didn't really have a heart-to-heart chat about training time but I doubt he was also that new since despite his spazziness he did very much know what he was doing. A little knowledge is dangerous, etc.