As sure as you are reading this article, I can guarantee you one thing: Either you have been injured or you know someone who has. When it comes to the sport of grappling and MMA, being tough is not an option - it is a prerequisite! You are not going to step on the mat, in the ring or in the Octagon if your heart pumps red pudding instead of blood.
Sometimes, however, this toughness overrides good sense and causes us to go further than we should when we are hurt and injured. And conversely, this toughness is what allows us to do things that take us out of the realm of average and into that of extraordinary.
After the 2005 U.S. Judo Open, there was a training camp in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and there were players from many countries there. With all the high-intensity banging going on, someone getting injured was not a chance - it was a guarantee. We all knew it, but just like any other practice, we went and hoped that our "number" wasn't the one that would get pulled on that particular day.
Well, on the last day of the camp, we heard it. That sound that comes from a place inside of a person's body that doesn't have a name. it's the type of yell that stops practice and makes people peel their gi (uniform) off and walk off the mat. It was followed by a clutch of the knee and subsequent yell from a bystander of, "Trainer!!!! We need a Trainer!!"
After everybody cleared out, this young lady was still on the mat. I helped her to a chair and then carried her to her room with the help if another. be because I've been hurt numerous times, I felt that it was incumbent upon me to give her the "it's going to be alright" speech, but I didn't. I told her the truth.
The Pain of Regret
I told her that coming back from an injury is one of the most challenging things that she can do as an athlete. It will test her resolve, her mettle and provide her with a measuring rod of who she is and of what she is made. I told her that surgery will hurt and that she will feel some of the most excruciating pain in her life, bit it will ale in comparison to the pain of regret if she doesn't give 110 percent in the rehabilitation process.
I told her that the injury provided her an opportunity to strengthen some of her weak areas and that her strongest asset is not her muscles but her mind. I looked her in the eyes and told her what it was like to tear my lateral collateral ligament nine months before the Olympic Trials and then come back from the injury in 5-½ months and compete in a tournament, only to tear my quadriceps completely off the bone. I returned to practice because I couldn't afford to take anymore days off and then I fought in the Olympic Trials and pulled my groin muscle because I was overcompensating for a nonexistent quadriceps muscle.
I also told her how exhilarating it was to win the Olympic Trials and overcome the adversity, only to be greeted by a shoulder that kept constantly clicking because I had torn my labrum. I had to prepare for the Olympic Games with a torn labrum and take cortisone. I explained that I pulled my groin again at the Olympics and came home only to see the same doctor exactly one year later for shoulder surgery.
I told her that it was difficult and hard, but it was all worth it. The price that you have to pay is worth the reward. So I told her to reach down deep in her mental pocket and get ready to pay. I later received an email from her:
"Hey Rhadi,
Thank you for helping me with my knee and carrying me this last week in Florida. I really do appreciate that someone cared enough to be there. I went to the doctor on Friday, and he said that I tore the meniscus, ACL and PCL. I am going to get surgery, but I have to wait until the swelling goes away. Again, thanks for your help."
I wrote back: "You have a wonderful opportunity to do something great! A setback is only a setup for a comeback!"
In the Nuthouse
People tell me all the time, "I'd live to have had your experiences and go to the Olympics." I really want to tell them that my experiences would have put an ordinary person in the nuthouse! They want the Olympic apparel without the limp, the National medals without the crooked fingers and the International medals without the wrecked shoulders. They want the top of the medal stand without the 5:30 a.m. practices. In terms of "my experiences," those things go hand in hand. Just like injuries and nicks and bruises go along with our sport.
While you should try to reduce injuries through proper training, you also have to realize that some injuries are just unavoidable. So, the key is not trying to avoid an injury. The key is knowing how to handle them.
Right after my knee surgery I told myself, "This is a great opportunity!" and it was. After the Olympics I didn't leave with a gold medal, but I do have something that is more important. I have a gold mettle.
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