Ouch

[pegkerr]

The good news: I have passed pre-screening for my belt test, which is being held tomorrow. This will be for the red stripe belt, the last intermediate belt. When I pass the next one, the red belt, I'll start taking the advanced belt classes. (Fiona, by the way, is having her second black belt pre-screening tonight).

The bad news: I seem to have mucked up my hamstring. Again. Or is it a pulled muscle? Whatever: I'm feeling definite pain in the left inner thigh when I walk, much less when I kick. Damn. Ice and heat and Ibuprophen. And crossed fingers. I'm afraid it's really going to hamper me tomorrow.

I asked Mr. Dingmann privately for notes after class. He talked to me about holding too much tension, particularly in the shoulders, during both the self-defense sequences and the form. pazlazuli has spoken to me about this, too. (Hey, my senseis are consistent!) I need to learn to relax in the pauses between movements so that the fast twitch, the explosive force, can fly out without being constrained. Come to think of it, this is probably why I was having so much trouble with the kicking last night, too. Perhaps it was the pain in my thigh which was making me tense up, and that made me fall out of practically half my kicks. Which was really, really annoying and embarrassing, which made me tense up even more and kick even worse. I realize that I'm continually holding myself to a higher standard on balancing on my kicks than even my senseis expect at this point. It's the perfectionist in me, I guess. I know this intellectually; I know that I should be concentrating more on the pivot of the supporting leg and the proper knee motion in the round kick than I should be worrying about losing my balance. But I hate, hate, hate falling out of kicks, and it is so difficult not to get mad at myself. Even when I know that doing so just makes things worse. I also desperately wish that I can kick higher. And so I keep over-stretching, which means I hurt my muscles and then I'm stuck only being able to kick lower still.

Trying too hard makes things worse. Counter intuitive, but unfortunately true.

Comments

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

My hip was giving me fits yesterday while practicing side kicks, and I was reacting much the same. It made me more tense which made the hip worse which made my kick worse which made my kick worse...and it spiraled into doom.

I also found it frustrating because I always knew that I needed to relax, but even trying to focus on that fact would sometimes make me more tense. I found that the best way (for me; YMMV) to get to the relaxed state was to start super-slow and gradually build speed. At some point there, the tension from the slow-kicking process drops off, and because I'd been working at the kick so carefully, I wasn't stressing over doing it right. Then it all just snapped into place.

Of course, my sensei yesterday was chiding me for being too tight and not moving my body, so clearly I don't have all (or even most) of the answers. :-)

[swords-and-pens.livejournal.com]

One thing I have to tell my rapier students over and over and over is that it is better to do it properly and slowly than to muscle through to achieve immediate (but sloppy) success. It's a slightly different case with EMA, but the idea is still sound: get there slowly. If you learn the technique from the right place (relaxed, focused - but not overly so), speed and fluidity will follow. The same with kick height and balance, in your case. Don't rush it, as you so wisely point out.

It's hard to be relaxed when you are trying to learn a precise physical action. The natural tendency for most of us is tense up when we concentrate, which then makes the learning harder because we are a compressed spring, ready to jerk out in any number of ways when we instead need to flow. Try to learn to feel and recognize the tension at keys points in your body - the places you tend to tighten up when doing your techniques. Tighten and loosen them outside the dojo, so that you can consciously (and later unconsciously) feel the tension. Then learn to relax it on cue. This won't solve all of you tension issues, but it will make it easier for you to self-diagnose your tension and be able to will it down while you are on the mat.

As for over-thinking: when you figure out how to manage that one out, let me know so I can pass it on to my wife and some of my students. :)

And good luck on your belt test!

[magicwoman.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the test!

Susan

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

That sounds a lot like what I did to my leg, which ended up getting reinjured a few times and requiring a couple of physical therapy sessions and special stretches/exercises to sort out (*fingers crossed* I think it's sorted out pretty much now). This post has some more details.

If you like I can give you descriptions of the exercises/stretches, though most require a stretch band.

For now (testing aside), don't try and stretch it, try not to do explosive kicks on your right side, and axe kicks on your left side are a terrible idea! Also, left-side cartwheels may be hazardous to your health. And ice is your friend.

Basically, don't do any stretching until the pain is entirely gone, and then be very careful for a while.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Huh. It does seem counterintuitive to avoid stretches. (And how the heck do you both stretch and avoid stretches to treat it?

Can you tell me more about the exercises/stretches recommended?

(I'm icing it right now.)

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Trying too hard makes things worse. Counter intuitive, but unfortunately true.

Does not, from my experience playing sports, seem particularly counter-intuitive. This is why, if you read the sports pages, you'll frequently see references to how an athlete needs to stop thinking about what they're doing, and just do it.

On the other hand, concentrating on what you're doing, especially if you're concentrating on getting the form of what you're trying to do correct, tends to make things better.

I'm not sure that I'm clear on the distinction being trying hard and concentrating - at one level, they're much the same, and at another level, there's no similarity whatsoever.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

I've made a post here describing the stretches, etc. Although most of them require some resistance tubing, there are a few that do not.

Good luck getting healthy! *fingers crossed*

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for writing these out for me.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Okay, I bought some Pilates stretchy resistance bands and tried these exercises today. One question: did they tell you to do the one leg exercises on both the injured and the uninjured side, to balance out the muscles? Or did you only work the injured leg?

Thanks again for the write up.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

And also: on the wall sits without the wall, how far apart do you tie the ankles? Hip width or narrower? (As long as you don't let the knees splay out?)

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

The neural glide stretching was only on the injured leg--but actually, I'd recommend doing it on both sides, as I notice I am now less flexible on the other side!

The exercises were on both sides.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Hip width.