A Bit Of Jiu-Jitsu Pain

I started feeling a pinch in my back last night. Nothing major, just a reminder of my age. I suppose being thrown around the mat in my late thirties might not be such a good idea.

Chris is training for the next New England Submission Challenge and for the latter part of last night, I volunteered to be his practice dummy. Now, just to let you know, Chris is a strong guy. I’ve recently weighed myself and discovered I’m a mid-weight at 180 pounds. I’d venture to guess he’s 220. And he’s strong. Even at 180, he’d still most likely have something on me. Some guys are just built like that.

I think his goal was to practice a few take-downs and get a general sense of what he’s going to do when he and his partner hit the ground. He’s working on a pretty sweet hip throw and then some sort of a headlock into an armbar combo. I’d say it works well because after I found myself tapping, I found myself struggling to get up. I’m not trying to be melodramatic here, I guess I’m simply saying that some parts of my body are starting to creak. But in a weird way, I find that I’m increasingly falling in love with the challenge.

Believe it or not, I gave this go-round of the submission challenge some serious consideration. After browsing through the videos of the prior challenge, I thought I might fit right in. I know many of the competitors, and the guys who are running the show pair up who fights who very accurately. The only problem was, the house we currently occupy is on the market and starting about two weeks ago, showings picked up dramatically. I couldn’t be sure that a showing wouldn’t coincide with my time on the mat. And I’m sure Laura and the two cats wouldn’t enjoy sitting in the car for hours waiting for me to finish up. This, of course, is assuming I made it past the first round. I have the feeling I somehow would have.

But there’s a problem here – we’ve hit a lull in showings due to some positive activity and I have yet to throw my hat in the ring. As I sit here and write, I can’t shake the feeling that I used the house as an excuse to avoid the competition. And I have no idea why I wouldn’t want to compete – I love competing. I’ve said jokingly in the past that I’m flat out scared, nervous and I fear the peril. I mean, these guys are there to win. The only experience I have on the mat are with guys who want to win, but who are also really cool about losing. I don’t know – one day I’ll do it. Perhaps after this pinch in my back is gone.

Below are some pictures of Chris and me during one of last year’s sparring matches. I’ll also post a video below of us having some fun. I already posted the video on one of my other blogs, but since I’m committing this one to Jiu-Jitsu only, I figured it would be more appropriate over here.

Jiu Jitsu Fist Bump