A little over 3 months ago I joined the Gracie Barra University to learn jiu-jitsu. It's a martial art, some might call it a combat sport, and it's a whole lotta fun. I'd even call it my new passion in life. I've played soccer almost my whole life. I love the game. The teamwork, the ball skill, the strategy of setting up or defending an attack on goal. It's all good. I've gotten busted up doing both sports so it got me wondering: Which sport is safer?
When I first joined jiu-jitsu I had bruises for over a month straight. They covered my chest and dotted my legs and hips. I was constantly sore and hobbling around but I'd heal. Even the bruises eventually went away, now I just get an occasional one or two. During training I've taken a few kicks to the face and elbows to the jaw but none of those really left a mark and it was always accidental. The worst I got it in jiu-jitsu was during the first, and so far only, competition I entered. My opponent caught me in an americana and cranked it pretty hard before I tapped out. Even though an americana is a shoulder lock my elbow got hurt. It was sore for a couple weeks.
Now onto soccer. Simply put, the worst injuries I've ever had came from soccer. I've taken elbows to the face, had my legs swept out from under me while running full speed, had the wind knocked out of me, taken some mean foot-stomps with cleats, kicks, kness, shoulder tackles, so on and so on. Those are the minor ones. The wear and tear has messed up my knees. Had some physical therapy for that. They don't give me much problems anymore but I know they're not 100% and probably never will be. I got slide-tackled real hard a few years ago and that really jacked up my ankle. That tackle combined with all the wear and tear led to surgery to remove all of the built-up scar tissue and help repair some tendon damage to my right ankle. It also led to several sessions of physical therapy. Today my ankle works well enough to run, but sprinting and cutting is a problem. It's also not as flexible as my left ankle. It'll definitely never be 100% again.
Then there was today. This morning I trained jiu-jitsu. The guy I rolled with was pretty good and when we sparred it was competative. It was exhausting, in a good way though. But during the course of training I took an elbow to the jaw. It hurt for a few seconds and then I was good. We shook hands and went back to training. Afterwards I went to play soccer. Been a while since I've played so I was going to take it easy and only play for about 20 minutes. So naturally I got hurt within 2 minutes on the field. I was making a run down the side, the guy defending me was a few steps in front so I cut to the inside. It looked like I had enough room to get around the guy. Usually, most defenders will stick out a leg or a shoulder to bump you away from the ball. Instead, this guy lead with his forehead and nailed me right in the face. To sum up, my front tooth is chipped and my nose is broken. Another injury - oh wait, those are two injuries - to add to the soccer list...so much for an easy-going game.
Now granted, I've played soccer all my life and I've only trained jiu-jitsu for 3 months. I've had much more opportunity to get injured in soccer. However, given the severity and long-term damage I've suffered from soccer I've decided that jiu-jitsu is definitely safer than soccer. Afterall, in jiu-jitsu it's training, people are there to learn and help each other out, and you can tap-out at any time and save yourself some pain. In soccer, it gets competative, you usually don't know the players on the opposite team, and things tend to hurt more when running full speed.
Go figure yeah...the martial art/combat sport is safer than a soccer game...at least for me. Now I'm questioning again - I had this question after having ankle surgery - if I should give up a sport I love and have played all my life. But hey, if I do that at least I can continue with jiu-jitsu...once my nose heals.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Ford Island Bridge Run
Today started at 3:30am and the only reason I'll wake up that early means it was another event: The Ford Island Bridge Run. It's a 10k run, which is 6.2 miles. Here's how it went.
I woke up way early and even though I went to sleep early the night before it still took half an hour to peel myself out of bed. First thing, I did some stretches to get the blood flowing and wake up. Then a shower and something to eat. Some people may ask, "why take a shower when you're going running and get all sweaty and dirty?" A couple reasons. First it helps me wake up. Second, and more importantly it makes me feel better and ready to go. One of my soccer coaches in high school used to have us wash our uniforms and clean our shoes before every game. His reasoning was simple. You wash and get polished to look good, when you look good you feel good, and when you feel good you perform better. I've carried that with me ever since, so I shower before every event.
Ok, went on a tangent there. Anyway, I headed toward Aloha stadium to find the parking area and, of course, not knowing exactly where it is I went to the wrong place. Instead of going into the overflow parking lot I ended up circling around Aloha Stadium. So with that little detour out of the way I got to right place and met up with my friends. It was pre-dawn. The sky was dim but the eastern horizon was glowing with the approaching sun. We made our way to the staging area and I got massacred by mosquitos. We walked less than 50 feet and I already got bit 6 times by those wretched insects.
Race time approached and I got warmed up, stretched out and made my way to the start line. The goal was to finish under 50 minutes. Like the Great Aloha Run, I'd be doing this race on my own (my friends weren't running for time) so I'd have to pace myself, which is kind of hard to do without a watch. I figure if I could run each mile at 8 minutes I'd make my time goal. I know what an 8 minute mile feels like so I felt I'd be okay without a watch. People were cluttered at the starting line, they were looking eager to go, and a woman came by dressed like Wonder Woman. It was going to be a good run. The gun fired to start the race and we didn't move at all. The road was a bit narrow for the crowd of people (over 3000 runners) so it took a couple minutes to thin out and get moving.
I spent the first mile weaving through the crowd searching for running lanes and taking in the view. The Arizona Memorial was off to the left, some military ships were docked in Pearl Harbor. Nice stuff. I got across the bridge and passed the first mile marker...damn that's a long bridge. I wasn't paying much attention to my form and I noticed my ankles were sore. I settled into a steady stride and soon my legs loosened up and the sore ankles went away.
Usually I'm really good and feeling what pace I'm running at but this morning it was a bit difficult. I felt sluggish and my legs felt heavy. It wasn't even two miles yet. I just told myself to keep going and stay with the people around me. They were military and looked like they held a good pace. Hey, if you're gonna pace with anybody might as well go with military. Those guys are fit and they don't quit.
A little after 3 miles I heard the time was somewhere around 26 minutes. I tried to calculate what my pace was but my brain wasn't functioning like that at the time. It was too busy keeping my legs moving. But I figured I was in range to finish under 50 minutes...I didn't know this, I just figured it because it made me feel better. And I kept on running.
My legs were heating up, my breath was speeding up, and I was running back onto the bridge heading toward the finish line. One mile left. The bridge is like a camel hump. Steady incline to a steady decline. But heading back in this direction onto the main island leads to another incline before rounding to the finish line. The last mile was tough. Once across the bridge and over the last incline the finish line was in sight. About a quarter mile left. I opened my stride and pushed to the finish. In the final stretch I let loose into a sprint...or at least as fast as I could go at the time, I don't know if you would call it a sprint. The best part was I was gaining on the guy in front of me and just as I was about to pass him he stopped to strike a pose for a camera. I nearly plowed into the guy and had to juke and stumble around him. Threw off my sprint but I bet that picture looks great.
I crossed the finish sometime after 46 minutes. I don't know my official time yet but I made the goal for sure. If I finished under 45 minutes I'll be stoked. I'll admit, parts of that run was brutal and tested my will to keep pushing, but I'm happy I made it and I'm really happy with my performance. My friends finished the race a few minutes later. They made it the whole way non-stop and did really well.
After the run I had to go into work (overtime). I felt pretty good for the first hour or so but after that the pain started to kick in. My legs ached and felt like they'd cramp up if I moved the wrong way. Then my stomach felt queasy. Hadn't pushed that hard in a run for a while. But it's all good. The stomach will settle and the legs will recover.
No idea what the next event will be. I heard about the Xterra run, or something like that, it's a trail run through the hills. That sounds like it could be fun. No idea when it is but I'll keep that one in mind.
I woke up way early and even though I went to sleep early the night before it still took half an hour to peel myself out of bed. First thing, I did some stretches to get the blood flowing and wake up. Then a shower and something to eat. Some people may ask, "why take a shower when you're going running and get all sweaty and dirty?" A couple reasons. First it helps me wake up. Second, and more importantly it makes me feel better and ready to go. One of my soccer coaches in high school used to have us wash our uniforms and clean our shoes before every game. His reasoning was simple. You wash and get polished to look good, when you look good you feel good, and when you feel good you perform better. I've carried that with me ever since, so I shower before every event.
Ok, went on a tangent there. Anyway, I headed toward Aloha stadium to find the parking area and, of course, not knowing exactly where it is I went to the wrong place. Instead of going into the overflow parking lot I ended up circling around Aloha Stadium. So with that little detour out of the way I got to right place and met up with my friends. It was pre-dawn. The sky was dim but the eastern horizon was glowing with the approaching sun. We made our way to the staging area and I got massacred by mosquitos. We walked less than 50 feet and I already got bit 6 times by those wretched insects.
Race time approached and I got warmed up, stretched out and made my way to the start line. The goal was to finish under 50 minutes. Like the Great Aloha Run, I'd be doing this race on my own (my friends weren't running for time) so I'd have to pace myself, which is kind of hard to do without a watch. I figure if I could run each mile at 8 minutes I'd make my time goal. I know what an 8 minute mile feels like so I felt I'd be okay without a watch. People were cluttered at the starting line, they were looking eager to go, and a woman came by dressed like Wonder Woman. It was going to be a good run. The gun fired to start the race and we didn't move at all. The road was a bit narrow for the crowd of people (over 3000 runners) so it took a couple minutes to thin out and get moving.
I spent the first mile weaving through the crowd searching for running lanes and taking in the view. The Arizona Memorial was off to the left, some military ships were docked in Pearl Harbor. Nice stuff. I got across the bridge and passed the first mile marker...damn that's a long bridge. I wasn't paying much attention to my form and I noticed my ankles were sore. I settled into a steady stride and soon my legs loosened up and the sore ankles went away.
Usually I'm really good and feeling what pace I'm running at but this morning it was a bit difficult. I felt sluggish and my legs felt heavy. It wasn't even two miles yet. I just told myself to keep going and stay with the people around me. They were military and looked like they held a good pace. Hey, if you're gonna pace with anybody might as well go with military. Those guys are fit and they don't quit.
A little after 3 miles I heard the time was somewhere around 26 minutes. I tried to calculate what my pace was but my brain wasn't functioning like that at the time. It was too busy keeping my legs moving. But I figured I was in range to finish under 50 minutes...I didn't know this, I just figured it because it made me feel better. And I kept on running.
My legs were heating up, my breath was speeding up, and I was running back onto the bridge heading toward the finish line. One mile left. The bridge is like a camel hump. Steady incline to a steady decline. But heading back in this direction onto the main island leads to another incline before rounding to the finish line. The last mile was tough. Once across the bridge and over the last incline the finish line was in sight. About a quarter mile left. I opened my stride and pushed to the finish. In the final stretch I let loose into a sprint...or at least as fast as I could go at the time, I don't know if you would call it a sprint. The best part was I was gaining on the guy in front of me and just as I was about to pass him he stopped to strike a pose for a camera. I nearly plowed into the guy and had to juke and stumble around him. Threw off my sprint but I bet that picture looks great.
I crossed the finish sometime after 46 minutes. I don't know my official time yet but I made the goal for sure. If I finished under 45 minutes I'll be stoked. I'll admit, parts of that run was brutal and tested my will to keep pushing, but I'm happy I made it and I'm really happy with my performance. My friends finished the race a few minutes later. They made it the whole way non-stop and did really well.
After the run I had to go into work (overtime). I felt pretty good for the first hour or so but after that the pain started to kick in. My legs ached and felt like they'd cramp up if I moved the wrong way. Then my stomach felt queasy. Hadn't pushed that hard in a run for a while. But it's all good. The stomach will settle and the legs will recover.
No idea what the next event will be. I heard about the Xterra run, or something like that, it's a trail run through the hills. That sounds like it could be fun. No idea when it is but I'll keep that one in mind.
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