JudoNotes

I'm behind on blogging as usual. For now, I'll just quickly mention that I need to get back to basics in my judo. At least, that's how I feel.

Did you ever feel crappy — not sick, not overtrained, not seriously injured, just kind of crappy — and make yourself go to judo practice anyway, and end up feeling great afterwards? I had one of those nights tonight.

Today I was sleep-deprived and had trouble staying awake. I had a nasty pain below my right shoulder blade — maybe I'd pulled the trapezius muscle on Monday? — which made it hard to take a deep breath. I was in the middle of a big pile of work that needed to be done soon. I was making good progress, which made the work a tempting excuse to skip judo.

I went anyway, and I'm glad I did. We had a good crowd tonight, including several folks I hadn't seen in months or in some cases years. There's something about seeing judo friends that's cheering.

I enjoyed getting clobbered as usual in newaza. I really enjoyed my randoris. To my relief, the shoulder felt fine once I warmed up. By the time Sensei told me to do an exercise after class, I'd actually forgotten all about the earlier pain. We'll see how it feels in the morning when the endorphins and the Aleve I took earlier wear off. Regardless: I'm happy I went to practice, and I know I'd have felt even worse if I'd skipped it.

[Update: It's the day after, and the shoulder feels fine. I suspect I didn't really pull a muscle. More likely I pinched a nerve which is now unpinched.]