Tag Archives: experience

Those Who Can’t Do, Write Blogs About It

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The title of this post is a variation on a common adage “Those who can’t do, teach”. I always disliked this statement as it disrespected one of the most valuable (in my view) professions in our society.

I don’t agree with the “those who can’t do, write blogs about it” either, obviously, since I’m a “blogger”. But I have made an observation that athletes, especially at the top of their game, seem to not have much of a presence on the social networks, especially in terms of writing blogs about their training and competition experience. There are a lot of exceptions of course, but in general it seems that these guys and girls are focused on one goal and don’t let much get in the way of that. It’s certainly true that blogging, facebook, twitter, etc can be a time sink.

So… I write this blog post in defense of why I do write blogs. I’m trying to answer the question: “You say you’re so busy. Wouldn’t you get more out of your time if instead of finished up your work and went to bed earlier? Or better yet, go and train on the mat some more?”

After some introspection throughout the day today (limping around on an injured leg), I came to the conclusion that if the devil came to me and said: “I’ll give you double gold at Worlds (at blue belt) this year but you can’t write blogs (or anything else) about judo or jiu jitsu for a year”, I wouldn’t take that. It surprised me to think this, but it’s true. I want to win badly, but what I value even more is the experience of wanting to win and fighting to win. And for me, the experience is greatly heightened through writing about it, even if just in a notebook for myself.

Back to hard training tomorrow, but in the mean time I have many hours of work to do today, and so do you, so stop reading this crap and get to it.

Muay Thai Injuries

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Muay Thai kick in competitionI got hit in the arm in muay thai from a hard kick that missed the pads. The downside of training as much as I do is that injuries are that much more difficult to deal with mentally.

Most minor and major injuries provide me with time and motivation (born out of frustration) to rethink where I stand, where I’m going, from high level goals down to the details of day-to-day training.

So, I started reading about injuries in Muay Thai (example) and realized that they happen a lot, more than with judo or grappling. In fact, that’s the fundamental problem with striking arts. If you want to execute the techniques at anywhere close to 100% intensity, you are going to deliver damage to yourself and/or your opponent. There is just no way around that. That’s partially why jiu jitsu and submission grappling is so effective at building great fighters. More than other disciplines, it allows you to train at 100% intensity with a minimal risk of injury, so you can train more often, for longer, and at full intensity.

Of course, when I talk about “risk of injury” I’m assuming both people have extensive experience in the sport and thus have clean, polished technique. For me, in Muay Thai, this is not the case. Arguably, the reason I got injured is that I don’t have extensive experience in holding the pads, and that in itself is an art. The cost of being a beginner in a contact sport is that you are going to have to accept injuries as you learn how to avoid them while amping up the intensity of regular training.

The key is to not let injuries deter you from confident full emergence into the dynamics of the sport. In Muay Thai, too many people seem to get injured, and then start flinching or hesitating every time they hold the pads or in sparring. I guess it boils down to being a tough, crazy, even stupid s.o.b. It’s the wrestling mindset of going harder whenever every reasonable part of your brain is telling you to quit, stop, go home and sit behind a desk reading a book of Convex Optimization or some such other mathy crap. I know I’m not that tough yet, but I’m learning it, and unlike many people that talk about this subject, I believe that it is something that can be learned. Of course, those people usually know a lot more than me, so my belief is on shaky ground, but that’s why life is a bitch.