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[Gurre]

Originally posted by Kensei:

I often get asked by younger guys why I stopped doing Judo and sport Sambo. I still throw on my white PJ’s and run out on to the floor to train or teach Karate, but I have dropped grappling from my training completely. I always say I got hurt and try to leave it at that. But recently I have been doing a bit of grappling after work outs and thinking about what I left behind. My interest is peeked again, despite my mother coming over the other night and telling my wife the story of my hospital stay! That’s right, My hospital stay!
My Mom comes in from out of town every three or so weeks and crashes at my place with my wife and I. My wife always gets around to asking stories about my youth and the things I was known for as a kid, we have only known each other for about six years and she knows about Karate, and has seen my other gear, but never asked what the funny booties were or the blue and red jackets were for.
I have been trying to get back in shape and not look like my age as of my next birthday in July, with this resurgence of training and my time in the Dojo, My wife has started to ask what I was like before we met. She knew I was 160 pounds at 5’5” and stone hard…er, muscular. And I would work out seven days a week. But now that I am back training, all old injuries are showing up.

The shoulder is a rather gruesome store…So I know you will like it, and this time I get hurt, not my training partner. When I was in my early 20’s I was training to get my black belt in Judo and I was doing some small sport Sambo tournaments in and around Canada. I was not really into it as much as other guys and with my training in three sports, Karate, Judo and Sambo, I was never really recovered from one tournament before I went into another. I was bulky for a short guy and had a lean midsection, wide shoulders and big legs from all my Karate training. I was about 155-160 and would go into the judo tournaments at 160 or better and lean out for Karate. One such tournament was a Winnipeg Judo tournament that was held at a high school and was known as being a hard inter club work out tournament or Shiai. We would round robin in our weight classes and because the tournament or “training tournament” was smaller we would be put in fairly big weight difference divisions. That day I had come in off of a Karate tournament and was at 155. The clubs were not really used to smaller older guys and I ended up in a category that was between 150 and 190 pounds.
First round I was facing a younger guy that was about 160 and the round went well, he got a throw but I landed and basically bounced up and countered. After a few minutes I had him down and did my human carpet or KOS impersonation and won.
But the next round I was facing a guy that was said to be 190, I say he looked more 210 to me. He was a big country boy and had a flat top hair cut, he was about a foot and a half taller than me and he looked like he wanted to eat me or something. I tried a hip toss and basically can say it was like trying to toss a phone pole! He fell on me as a form of counter and my shoulder strained as it was partially behind me as he landed full force on me. In our Shiai if you were not dead or you were not “injured” you kept going. We stood up and I tried to off balance him and sweep him down, He countered with a scooping movement that got me going backwards, I extended my arm back to catch myself and again hurt my shoulder. It was already apparent to me that I would have a hard time whipping my arse the next day!
By the third round this guy was showing he was not that good of a grappler but was darn hard to throw or sweep. He was longer than me and he was stronger than me as well. I tried for a desperation trip and he fell hard, air out of lungs as he flopped on to the floor. I tried to hold him down, but he shrugged me off pretty easy, I moved for an arm on knee arm bar and he stood up and picked me up out of the squatting position. We tangled and he spun and picked me up over his hip and instead of a smooth throw….he dropped me on my head and shoulder. My shoulder gave and you could hear….or I could…the shoulder coming out of the joint and the strong ligaments that normally hold your shoulder in place shred like tissue paper as the joint came apart with my weight and his landing on my upper body.
My coach was mortified and saw the pain on my face as I rolled around in pain. Funny thing was All I could think of was how pissed my mom was going to be! I won that match by default, spiking was illegal in the Shiais and his definitely tried to spike me!
The shoulder was out, it was sitting end first in my armpit and my fingers were about half a foot lower than my other hand. The shoulder had a huge step in it and my neck was starting to look bruised up as well. My coach and the geeky first aide guy that was hired made the call to get an ambulance for me. After I was put in the ambulance, with a neck brace, back board and a crap load of tape on my head I was escorted to the emergency ward of the Health Sciences center in my blue Judo gi and with out any clothing or any “civilian clothing”.
Two hours of doctors poking me and then a very painful reduction of the shoulder…and a crap load of pain killers, I was sitting, cotton mouth and all in a room, arm in sling and high as a kite. My mom showed up and the first thing she did…was slap my sore arm and start yelling at me! Nice!

Two surgeries later and a lot of physio, my shoulder still aches when it is about to rain, it still kills to do push ups and it hurts when I start doing weights. But Yes, I am thinking of getting back into sport Sambo and Judo again…Crazy? Maybe, but when you are born to bang and love a good fight, win or loose….you often think Crazy things are the norm! Besides what is the worst thing that could happen? I already have a bad shoulder!
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