On the Mat Day 364: RICE

Not this type, dummy

I got home last night and wrapped my shin in ice and slept with my foot on a yoga block to keep it raised. I remeber the mnemonic RICE, rest, ice, compress and elevate, from my first aid. Last night while using spider guard, my opponent came down heavy on my leg. It was probably equivalent to having a 30 kg dead weight drop on it. I've had this happen before on my right knee and it messed it up for months. The opponent was heavier than me. I've decided to make a rule that I will always stand with heavier opponents from now unless I am taken down or they jump to guard. The area feels a bit tender today but at least I can walk albeit with a slight limp. The area of skin feels like that of a bruised apple after being dropped on the ground. I also hyper-extended my left middle finger last night, that aches a lot. It's become the norm now to feel pain every day. I can't remember a time when my body was free of it.

Again I did about 30 mins wit Dmitri of uchikomi, just doing o-soto-gari and then a few mins of gripping. I think it's helping because during sparring I am focusing much more on getting dominant grips. I even blocked the opponent from switching to a dominant grip with my elbow. I'm trying to relax more while standing and just keep my grip tight.

I thought F-sensei would show us the spin to back technique but instead he focused on fairly standard half-guard passes. I've come to notice that probably 70% of anything he teaches is geared towards competitors who play from top. We often get instruction on passing various guards, mount and side control but not enough demonstrations on escapes and sweeps from bottom. It's odd then that I play bottom. Breaking my foot during a takedown long ago decided that fate. I only wish we had more classes that were bottom player focused. That's why I would have liked to attend the Caio Terra seminar in Taiwan, where K-sensei headed on Wednesday. Apparently he will get 2 days of teaching from Caio.

Sparring time: 6 x 6 mins = 36 mins (estimate because I had to take time out from getting hurt. I think I did 1.5 rounds in nogi)