One thing I like about the club where I re-started karate (and the Kyokushin ethos in general) is how nobody shies away from sparring anyone when they're tired. Even young female students were choosing the bigger, rougher training partners after a solid hour of hard conditioning. It's that mentality of pushing yourself that breeds quality. Coincidentally, I came across this BJJ video in which the commentators are discussing a similar ethos at Marcelo Garcia's academy. Well worth a watch if you have time. http://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1011597138921454&id=345810438833464
It annoys me sometimes when, as often the only blackbelt at the session (apart from the instructor) I'm stood there with my hand up looking for a sparring partner. I get that some of the younger kids might be a bit intimidated or prefer to spar with their mates, and that these days I'm no great shakes at sparring, but in theory I'm the highest grade there and people should be queuing up to spar with me. In my day I sought out the higher grades to spar with as that's where you get the best pointers and progress IMHO (not always of course).
I *love* training with higher grades! The higher the better actually, because (well, in theory anyway) they should know what they're doing and you can learn *tons*, even you get your behind handed over to you. I don't care if it's technique, sparring or whatever. But - I'm very reluctant to actually ask them if they would train, let alone spar, with me. My highest grade is yellow, so I'm a beginner (with no solid skills once it comes to sparring). I'm a decent partner when we train new techniques, because I'm good as Uke, but I feel like that's it. So when it comes to choosing partners in general I feel like hiding. When it comes to ask higher grades - I'd love to, but I also know I slow them down and prevent them from making progress, so I get a bad conscience, if they are forced to train with me. Just a thought, as to why you might not find a sparring partner that easily. Could be totally different in your case, of course.
Honestly as long as you aren't an idiot I think you'd find most would gladly spar/train with you. Be flattered even. Our sparring is generally 1/2 minutes rounds where everyone spars everyone. Just pick the nearest new person and go for it. Any high grade that feels like that I'd say wasn't worthy of the grade. You can make progress with pretty much anyone IMHO and EVERYONE should be willing to go back to basics and polish them. If they feel like that I'd say that's their problem and not yours.
I don't think I'm an idiot. At least, I hope I'm not I think I sparred against everyone in our class at some point, and except one girl I learned from everyone, one way or the other. When I spar the teacher I even learned to block with my face He's all legs and arms I have to say, that I'm rather lucky and so far never met a high graded person, who thought themselves special, certainly not in the clubs I train. They are all grounded, nice, helpful - and aware, that there is always something else to learn, improve and so on. Some of them, especially black belts funny enough, even let me "play" regularly, when they're stuck training with me: Going into a lock, choke or whatever, but not finishing it but let me try to get out of it. Things like that. It's my problem that I just feel bad about it anyway.
I agree with you, man. Everyone can learn something from everyone, even if they're old (not saying that's you), slow (or that) or crippled (or even that). I disclosed my recent hip surgery for obvious reasons and most people are reluctant to do just touch contact.
I'd made great strides in regaining my flexibility, getting as far as 5-6" off the floor in front and side splits at the end of July. But then things started to feel a bit sketchy. And for some reason I didn't understand, my flexibility started going backwards to the point where I was 10" off the floor. Well, today I got some clarity. I went to my doc and explained that my hips felt weird. He referred me for an x-ray at the local hospital, which then became blood tests and an MRI, which became a positive diagnosis for prosthetic joint infection. I was blasted with a cocktail of antibiotics via an IV, and I've got to down a bunch of pills four times a day for the next fortnight. Hopefully the antibiotics will clear the infection, but I've been told to be prepared for getting opened up and having the prosthetic joints washed out. It's another road block. But I'll keep moving forward.
Gee, you really need to stop asking for every problem possible I wish you all the best and that the antibiotics can do the job!
Thanks chaps. Certainly not great news, but at least it's not severe enough that I can try just antibiotics first.
2 weeks is a short course too, so hopefully they feel that it his been caught earlier enough - Fingers crossed. Take it easy VZ Travess
I have another appointment next week to discuss potential follow up treatment, but I hope so too! It's the belief of myself and my doctor that the inflammation caused by the infection is the reason why my flexibility started going backwards.
Look man, if they have to open you up again just tell them to make sure they put some Crisco in those joints and you'll NEVER have this issue again. Not only that, but Crisco gives +100 flexibility. Given the numbers you were given, you'll easily be - 50 inches from the floor! Hope all goes well man.
Update. To cut a long story short: The prosthetic joint infection was cleared in the hip replacements without the need to wash them out, but it did unfortunately affect the bones. I developed osteomyelitis in both femurs, and if that wasn't bad luck, I was later diagnosed with CIDP (an ultra-rare neuropathy that causes spontaneous and irregular tingling, numbness, pain and slow reflexes in my legs). An investigation ruled that the guidelines for sterilising equipment were not adequately followed before my surgery. It sucks because it means I'm stuck with this condition indefinitely, it's so damn erratic (I've gone for weeks feeling fine, and some days I can't get out of bed), little is known about it and it may progressively get worse. But that's life, other people have much worse prognoses so I'm just grateful to be livin' and breathin'. The past 6-12 months have massively affected my fitness. My flexibility is essentially back at square one and I can only walk about a mile before I'm blowing out of my butt. So my goals are to regain my splits, high kicks and a competitive level of fitness. I want to be the first world TKD champion with a double hip replacement. So today was my first time back on the mats for as long as I can remember. To help me maintain self-discipline, I'm going to continue updating this log as often as possible. 5:30am - Flexibility & Mobility (2 hrs) • Plantar fascia massage (small ball) • Calf massage (foam roller) • Quad massage (foam roller) • Hamstring massage (large ball) • Adductor massage (foam roller) • Glute massage (foam roller) • Calf transverse friction (foam roller) • Quad transverse friction (foam roller) • Hamstring transverse friction (large ball) • Adductor transverse friction (foam roller) • Glute transverse friction (foam roller) • Calf trigger point therapy (small ball) • Quad trigger point therapy (small ball) • Hamstring trigger point therapy (small ball) • Adductor trigger point therapy (small ball) • Glute trigger point therapy (small ball) • Achilles & soleus dynamic stretch • Gastroc-soleus complex dynamic stretch • Quad-hip flexor complex dynamic stretch • Hamstring dynamic stretch • Adductor dynamic stretch • Achilles & soleus relaxed stretch • Gastroc-soleus relaxed stretch • Quad relaxed stretch • Hamstring relaxed stretch • Adductor relaxed stretch • Front split relaxed stretch • Side split relaxed stretch It probably looks like a hell of a lot of soft tissue work and stretching. But it's hard to describe how gnarly my tissue quality and joint stiffness is. 10:30am - ITF Taekwon-Do Class (2 hrs) • Jump rope warm-up (5 mins) • Turning kick variations on pads (45 mins) • Sparring (30 mins) • Fitness circuit (20 mins) • Cool-down & deep stretches (20 mins) I'll repeat the series of relaxed stretches from the morning flexibility & mobility session later tonight, after I've posted this. Dan 1 - 0 CIDP
Man you've been through the wars (literally). Sounds though like you have the d rive to succeed and I wish you well.
