Tag Archives: injury

Freak Finger

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Surely going back to the lower grades syllabus should be easy? You’d think so, easier at least at any rate, but no, not for me. Last night I managed to do something nasty to my finger doing the very first set sparring combinations from the old Moo Duk Kwan syllabus. I’m so clever!

It should have been a simple combination; the attacker throws a rear-leg front kick, I block it with an inverted inside-to-out palm and retaliate with a reverse punch and kick of my own. It was going really well until the last kick of the session, when for some reason my brain decided that a much better block would be a straight-fingered spear hand to a moving shin… I had that weird few seconds at first where you aren’t sure what happened, followed by the realisation, pain and the ‘ohmygod, ohmygod, what happened? Did I break anything? Is there blood?’ shock reaction. I’m not sure what I did exactly, but it was incredibly painful.

So today I have a freak finger. It’s about twice the size of the one on the opposite hand, and the middle knuckle is now turning purple and red and all kinds of interesting colours. If I try to make a fist with my left hand now it looks like the same kind of fist you’d make if you were trying to strike pressure points with your middle knuckle, and I also look a bit special trying to type. My first thought when I got home last night was that I’d broken it, because it felt just like when I broke my finger last year, the same throbbing pain followed by a dull ache and not being able to put any pressure on it at all, but I’m not so sure this morning. I’ll just keep an eye on it for the next few days and see what happens, I really want to avoid going to X-ray again because it’s so incredibly boring.

Other than that little episode training’s still going great. Little changes made to the most basic techniques have made it a real task trying to re-learn without losing power or form. Things like floating a foot through the most basic blocks make them feel a lot more powerful, but I know I’m getting sloppy doing them. It’s all too easy to let the forward momentum throw your body forward into a lean, and forget about keeping square shoulders and hips… for now at least.

I started back at Dog Agility last week after a while away thanks to my excursions and those of our teacher, and it was great fun. We’re back to Monday evenings now, but with a 5:30 start, which means it’s a pretty frantic race home, get changed, get Murph ready and get over to the ground. We still both love it, maybe this year will be the one which sees me get him measured and entered in his first competition :) .

Seasonal Shenanigans

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My cold has decided to compound itself by developing into a sinus infection now, which is really nice.  That combined with my incessant coughing and sneezing means that I haven’t trained since Sunday now, and even that was a light session. It’s starting to get me down when I think about it too much, my fitness is going to be absolutely shocking by the time I get back to BJJ and TSD properly. Still, I know I’ll get back there, it’ll just take more hard work again.

This weekend it’s the annual CAMRA Falmouth Beer Festival, so with a bit of luck, a group of us are going to head down and sample some ales and ciders again. I’ve not been to one for ages now, and I’m really looking forward to it. The atmosphere is hard to top, it’s full of local people sharing a beer, chatting and laughing. Considering the amount of alcohol consumed over the two days it’s amazing that there’s never any trouble or aggression, but I suppose that’s due more to the people attending (i.e. not chavvy alcopop drinking idiots) than anything else.

Christmas is drawing ever-closer now and so far it’s pretty much passed me by. Usually I’m overly excited as soon as I start to see mince pies and that sort of thing on the shelves in shops, but I’ve been so busy with one thing or another I’ve not really taken it in. I’m glad I think, it’ll be great when December hits and my trip to Cologne, I’m positive I’ll be my usual festive self by then. I loves me some Christmas after all! I probably ought t start thinking about what I’m going to get for people. I like to try to be good at presents, there’s nothing as nice as a gift from someone that shows they really gave it some thought.

I’m really, really looking forward to next week now, although it’s going to be knackering. I’m off to Plymouth with the TSD guys for the Halloween rock night on Friday, and it’s always a good night there. I don’t have to drive this time which is particularly nice, I can’t remember the last time I had a drink there. I never really drink at a rock night because I spend so much time throwing myself about on the dancefloor, and any time I have gotten merry I just end up sweating it all out (attractive!). When I get back in the small hours of Saturday morning I’ll grab a few hours sleep before dog agility and hopefully some gentle BJJ (making positions, no rolling), then we’re off to the Halloween party in the evening. I’ve been commissioned (well, asked nicely) to do a pumpkin carving for the night, and I’ve not even thought about it yet, let alone bought one to carve. I really enjoyed doing the Lost Boys and Frankenstein’s monster ones last year, I think it might have to be movie themed again this year. Costume crafting this evening, fun times :) .

Leaps And Bounds

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The unseasonable weather continues with some gorgeous sunshine, and we were blessed with some on Saturday too which was a real treat. It meant that although the field was absolutely soaking at dog agility, I didn’t have to wear a massive coat and end up looking like a drowned rat. Murphy’s going really well at agility now, he’s turned a corner and when I think back to a year ago when he started, it’s like having a different dog. It used to be nigh on impossible to keep his attention or to stop him buggering off to sniff something or someone, but now he’s a little agility machine! It used to be the case that I could see he was a way behind the others in his group, and although Murph couldn’t care less, I found it quite demoralising. I’m fiercely competitive in just about everything I do, and not being the best at something (regardless of having a few days or a few years experience – I expect to be amazing at everything straight away) was infuriating for me. But now he’s really very capable. Granted, I can’t work as far away from him as some can, but I’m sure that’ll come with time.

We’re up to 20 obstacles or so now on a course, and that’s including everything except weaves. This week was the first for us with a seesaw in the middle of it, and he absolutely nailed it. Weaves are by far the most difficult obstacle to learn, there’s so much to it and there’s so much that can go wrong. You always enter the poles from the right, and making sure they do that at speed, from any angle, and without skipping a pole is really tricky. I’ve been holding off entering any competitions with him until I was confident he was capable. I know he’d have fun regardless of how well he did, but I’d like to be able to give a good account of myself. I think he’s nearly there now, and while it probably won’t be a full agility course (he’s not up to 9-12 weaves in a course yet), he could still do jumps and tunnels or something similar. Maybe once I get him measured we’ll look at entering something in the Spring.

Training with a broken finger and with most of the club away at the tournament was pretty depressing, but in a way quite rewarding as well. Other than the person instructing, I was the only adult present. It was quite good to work one-to-one with the kids, especially with them having just graded. It meant I was able to help them start to learn their new one-step and self-defence techniques. Tonight’s where it’s really going to hit home again what I’m going to be missing when I don’t train at BJJ. I went up to see the guys at our new gym on Saturday and let them know what happened, and my instructor (speaking from a lot of experience) told me I’ll be looking at two weeks before I can start to make positions again, and four or so before I can roll properly. I wanted to get back a lot faster than that, but after giving myself a day off the splint yesterday and spending a lot of it in a lot of pain, I’m sure it’s not going to happen.

Halloween isn’t far away now and I’ve got a fancy dress party to go to. I’ve had an absolutely genius idea for a costume, and I can’t wait to get it done. How many people will recognise it? Probably not too many. I don’t care though; it’s far too cool to not do.

Neither Here Nor There

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Right about now I should be sat in a car on my way to the midlands with a bag full of equipment, starting to get nervous about taking part in the British Tang Soo Do championships. Instead I’m sat at a desk clock-watching and waiting for the weekend.

I knew from the start of the week that I wasn’t going to be able to go, thanks to a mix-up at work with annual leave, and in a way that’s almost a blessing in disguise. I didn’t break my finger until Monday night and at the time I didn’t know it was broken, but if I was still going at that point and found out that I wouldn’t be able to compete I’d have been absolutely gutted. As it stands I’m more annoyed than gutted. I’m envious that I’m not going up with the folks from our clubs, and I know envy isn’t an attractive quality in anyone, but it’s tough. I’ll be going along to training tonight to show some support for the few left down here in the normal class, but I won’t be able to do very much myself.

I spent my lunchtime up at the hospital in the fracture clinic. I had an appointment at 11:45 and when I got there I couldn’t believe how busy it was and how many people were waiting to be seen. In the end I waited just over an hour for my appointment, an appointment which took approximately ninety seconds. By that point it was more despair than anger at having to wait so long to be told almost nothing. According the specialist I saw it will take about a month for the bone to set properly, and if I catch it wrong before then I’m going to know all about it. He didn’t say I definitely couldn’t train, which is good news, but told me I should wait until I can stub that finger on a table without it being agony before I try anything much. I’ve tried it since. It’s still agony.

As I won’t be able to train at BJJ tomorrow, I’m already trying to come up with ways to occupy myself so I’m not left thinking that I should be somewhere else training or competing. Luckily dog agility has moved to Saturday mornings now that it’s too dark in the evenings, so that’s the morning taken care of. I intend to do a lot of cooking I think; I enjoy it, it keeps me occupied and I get to eat the results :) . We’re all getting together on Saturday night for a few drinks and some films to try to cheer up one of my good friends who’s had an exceptionally rough time of it lately.

Time to actually choose some music for the drive home. I grabbed a random one without looking from the pile of CDs in my car this morning, and the scandinavian girl singing at me was a real blast from the past and instantly took me back to earlier in the year. Spooky. Spooky and really distracting when driving!

Them’s The Breaks

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Well, my finger is definitely broken. After being badgered into going into Minor Injuries last night with my kinda gross-looking purple sausage finger, I went back this morning on the advice of the nurse I saw for an X-ray. I got down nice and early but it still took about an hour and a half before I was able to see the pictures and see what I’d done.

If you look at your finger, look at the last bone where your fingernail is. Right where your fingernail starts, that’s where I broke the bone underneath. The top-down X-ray shows it straight with a faint line where the crack is, but the side-on one is different. You can see the last bone looks quite wrong, instead of it following a smooth curve like the rest of the bones, it sort of bends up part-way along. It got snapped backwards clean in two. Apparently the bleeding from inside the bone is why it looks like a massive, swollen black chipolata.

It’s unlikely it’ll need anything doing to it, they’re happy that it’s naturally reset in a good enough position and that I didn’t break the joint, and therefore not needing pinning. I’m going to the fracture clinic on Friday to have a final say on what I need to do. For the time being it’s just a case of wearing my splints, resting it and taking lots of paracaetamol and ibuprofen for the pain and swelling.

It sounds daft, moaning about the last bone in my little finger, after all it’s not exactly vital or used much, but it’s incredibly inconvenient. I can’t write properly because I can’t rest my hand on that finger any more. I can’t type properly as my last two fingers are tied together in a splint. I can’t put my phone or wallet in my right pockets as putting my hand in is agony. I’ve been told absolutely no contact sports, and this is my biggest problem. No sparring, no kickboxing, no squad training, no BJJ. It leaves me with, wiiiith……. well, forms practise I suppose. I really hope the fracture clinic tell me it’s not going to take long. There’s only so long I can not train properly and put up with this ‘flipper’ on my hand before I go mad.

Green Fingered

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I wish this was an update about my gardening prowess – although my first lawn is growing like mad – but unfortunately it’s more literal today.

Last night I went along to BJJ, but for the first time at the new full-time gym. I say full-time, it’s only open in the evenings, but the point is it’s the club’s building and it’s not shared with anyone else. It was the first time I’ve ventured out to see it and I’m impressed, it looks really clean and good.

Our club's logo and a nice clean floor and wall

Our club's logo and a nice clean floor and wall

I didn’t realise it but the lesson time had moved from 8 to 7.30, so I got there 20 minutes after the start of the lesson – oops! It was quite a small class and thanks to the new mats with their super slippery tops, making the position was really easy. We worked another De La Riva sweep which rolls up beautiftully into side control thanks to a sneaky push/kick half-way through. We went into some open rolling which was absolutely awesome. Not having to worry about putting your head or feet through the chipboard wall is great, and having all that extra room to work makes it feel far more open. The slippery top to the mats will take a week or two to wear down, which will be a good thing. Although I really like being able to shrimp and switch hips so quickly (it’s like grappling on ice!), it makes some stuff really tricky. I got caught in full mount at one point and whereas normally I’d bridge into Upa, my feet had absolutely no purchase and I got choked out quite nastily. Overall it was good though, I spent the majority of the time I was rolling in either side or mount, and scored with Americana once. I can definitely feel the beginnings of my ‘game’ evolving, and I know where I work well from and where I tend to end up in trouble.

Some of the guys checking out the rest of the gym

Some of the guys checking out the rest of the gym

Getting back briefly to the title of this post, and my green finger. While I was rolling with a guy about the same size and strength as me, neither of us wanted to pull guard so there was a lot of pushing, shoving, grabbing and general bullying going on, trying to get on top. At one point I took his lapel and passed it over his arm to help me tie him up, but just as I got a nice pistol grip on it he tore it free. My little finger got caught up as he did and there was a loud crack and a lot of pain. I’m still not sure exactly what I did, but for the rest of the class I taped it up and cried like a girl when it got hit was totally manly and didn’t bat an eyelid.

By the time I got home a small bruise had started to appear under it, and by the time I got to bed I couldn’t bend it thanks to the swelling. Here’s how it looked first thing this morning…

My broken/dislocated finger started to go pretty colours

My broken/dislocated finger started to go pretty colours

The bruising’s gone really dark now and started to go green around the edges, so I think by the middle of the week I’ll have a really attractive green finger. It’s throbbing like mad and I keep doing stupid things like shoving my hand in my pocket which hurts like nobody’s business! I’ve busted my toes before and although they hurt, it’s nothing like as impractical as that finger. I can’t type properly, write and whenever I drink I look like a ponce with my pinkie sticking out. C’est la vie. Rafa showed me his fingers at the end of the class and his knuckles are a mess, I guess it just comes with the territory.

On top of that I’ve found out that because of ‘work-related differences of opinion’ I can no longer go and compete at the British TSD Championships this weekend. I am absolutely gutted, I’ve been looking forward to it for ages, and now I’ve had my chance to go taken away. I’m not sure if I’m more angry or upset. Never mind, I know the rest of the guys will do me, the club and the county proud, and come home laden with silverware again. Good luck guys, even though you don’t need it.

Mir Locks & Making The Most Of The Mini-Summer

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After a fairly busy few days of training, including getting back to BJJ on Saturday and some pretty heavy sparring on Sunday night, I went to BJJ last night after an hour of Dog Agility first. Murphy was overjoyed, you should’ve heard him squeaking with excitement when he realised which way we’re driving (his sense of direction is awesome, I think I should have called him TomTom), and surprisingly he hadn’t forgotten any of his training.

I motored over to training afterwards and we did some technical work, quickly switching from open guard to a kind of spider/half-guard hybrid for a sweep, and some other sweeps working from a spider pass attempt. I love the technical stuff, it’s enormously satisfying when you get it right and barely use any power. We went on from there to putting the higher grades through their paces in a series of ten minute pressure tests. As soon as a point was scored either way, the junior grades jumped off and someone took their place, continuously, for ten minutes. I jumped in to roll with my instructor and he was really gunning for it. I was determined not to let him sweep me, but an attempted sweep quickly turned into a strange locking of arms as we both rolled sideways. The next thing I knew I was on the other side of the mat in enormous pain, holding my arm, which had made a pretty sickening ‘pop’ noise.

I’m not sure now what I’ve done to it, but about an inch below my elbow is very tender and I have no strength in it at all. I was told after that what I’d described as feeling like ‘a bizarre kimura’ was in fact a Mir lock. I have no intention of ever being caught in one again, let alone resisting it. Still, I’m not there for a nice cup of tea and a site down, and I’ve learned a good lesson.

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Over the last week the weather has been absolutely gorgeous down here, as if trying to make amends for the rubbish summer we had. Determined to make the most of it, a group of us headed down to the beach on Saturday afternoon in an inpromptu celebration for a friend’s wife’s birthday. We arrived early, and for once I didn’t mind waiting for the (habitual) latecomers. I grabbed a nice spot on the grass at the top of the cliffs and had a lie-down in the sunshine, which was the perfect tonic after being mauled earlier that day at training.

The view from the cliffs looking over Gwithian beach

The view from the cliffs looking over Gwithian beach

The afternoon rolled on and everyone turned up eventually, so we all headed down and grabbed a sheltered spot under the cliffs. A few of us decided to brave the Atlantic and get wet, and I’m so glad I did. I haven’t been in the sea since Christmas, and September is when the water’s at its warmest, so we spent a while bobbing about and body-surfing. We sprang back over the beach like something out of Baywatch and got settled for some barbecue action. Barbecues on the beach always taste good, especially after being in the sea and working up a proper appetite. Stuffed, worn out (after a game of what was meant to be Rounders after the food), and sipping some cold beers we sat around and chatted while the sun went down…

The sun sets over the sea while we eat barbecued meat

The sun sets over the sea while we eat barbecued meat

As the evening wore on we were joined by one more who came bearing gifts from the East (including Soju!), so we drank a bit more, celebrated her return and then a few brave souls (I say brave, better prepared might be more accurate, I didn’t bring enough dry clothing) headed back down for a last dip in the water as it got darker and darker. We made the decision to head a couple of miles down the road to the Sandsifter, a bar which has been done up for the middle-class surfing wannabes – and has the prices to match. A great night, and worth all the clambering about over rocks while tipsy in near darkness, if just for the sunset and twilight.

The last light of the day...

The last light of the day...

Legless

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Friday was great, really great. A hot day in work got followed up by a very hard hour in training, as one of our fold who left to join the forces came back for the weekend, so he was given a good one to remind just how hard we like to work. My legs were in agony after the running the night before, and then that workout, so I was looking forward to cutting loose a little in Plymouth.

The club was pretty busy by about midnight, and everyone had a great time. 2am rolled around and I was starting to feel the need for bed, all that dancing on top of the hard training had finally caught up with me. We got some food then started heading back. After about 20 miles I noticed we had been followed by a Police Land Rover for about 5 miles, and then they decided to pull me over…. Apparently I was swerving(!), when in fact if anything I was just trying to see, as their stupidly big car was blinding me in all mirrors as they were driving right up my backside! He asked me if I’d been drinking (not a drop), and just couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that we’d travelled up for a night out, asking me why my car was registered in Cornwall if I live in Plymouth…. Anyway, we rolled back into Cornwall and I got back at about 3.45am, but as I got out of the car I was in for a bit of a surprise. Somehow, in the last 60 miles of driving, my knee had decided that it wasn’t fine, and that I wasn’t going to be allowed to walk properly. I got out of the car and nearly fell over, and walking down my (steep) lane took ages and was so painful it brought tears to my eyes. I put it down to tiredness until the next morning when I got up and found I still couldn’t walk properly. Not exactly the best start to my nice relaxing Saturday.

As the weekend’s gone on, it’s gotten no better at all. The pain is on the outside of my left knee, and it really hurts if I’m doing anything other than walking on the flat. Stairs and hills are my worst enemy right now. It means I’ve missed the seminar we had booked for today, and that I’m going to miss training tonight too. I’m still going to go along, maybe I can hold some pads or something useful. I’m pretty worried about it though, it doesn’t feel like a simple muscle pull, and I really doubt right now that I’ll be training again this coming week. It’s one of those few things which is actually going to stop me, the idea of twisting into a good side kick and permanently mangling my leg is one I’m not really going to entertain. If it’s no better by midweek I’ll be popping up the road to the hospital where the self-referall physio is. I’m feeling quite miserable now.

So all in all, excluding the first two hours, this weekend has been pretty terrible. I’ve spent the afternoon on the sofa with a bag of frozen cauliflower tied to my leg, and before I know it it’s back to work again. Surely next week can get better, please? I don’t know whether to feel sad or really f’ing angry, I’m starting to lean towards the latter.

Here’s a song which caused me to put my drink down, halt all conversation and leap to the dancefloor on Friday night.

Static-X – Push It.
[youtube SCsdGZIgoH0]

The Irony Of It!

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I had a lovely big post worked out here, detailing my minor annoyances and niggles and how they seem to bog me down, and typically WordPress refused to save it and I lost nearly all of it…. someone up there is having a good giggle at my expense.

So instead here’s a good old-fashioned whinge.

I’m absolutely shattered today, I think it must be two pretty tough training sessions in three days combined with a lack of food. I’m on a bit of a healthy eating kick as Christmas is just around the corner now, and the likelihood of me being good over that holiday is slim at best! I’ve also set myself a goal of losing another stone before my next grading which is now only two and a half weeks away! Either way, I feel as weak as a kitten today, that same feeling you get after your first training session back after a bad illness. My knees, shoulder and elbow are hurting (the elbow’s my fault, hyperextending during punching drills – stupid!), and I managed to open my knuckle doing knuckle pushups last night.  Over the holidays though we’re encouraged – nay, ordered – to do nothing training related in order to give our bodies a chance to rest and repair themselves. It’s a nice treat and really helped last year. I only wish I had it now, I have a class on Friday, a Drew Neale Sparring seminar Sunday lunchtime, a class Sunday evening followed by an hour of extra sparring training.

*gulp*