Judo is a full contact sport. When we spar, we go all out, within the confines of the judo rules, to defeat our opponents. They, in turn, do the same with us.
As such, it is not unusual for people to get aches and pains and sometimes even a bit of injury (because of the safety measures in place that prohibit dangerous movements, major injuries are rare). It's important to know the difference between pain and injury.
When we first started our club, we had a junior player (around the age of 11 or 12) who really liked judo and trained hard. Initially he would alarm us when he would say things like "I've injured my hip" or "my leg is injured" or "my arm is injured". We soon found out that to him "pain" = "injury". Whenever he got thrown, if he felt pain somewhere, he would say that he was injured.
But it's not only kids who sometimes find it hard to differentiate between pain and injury. If someone foot-sweeps you very hard on the shin, it will cause pain but it's likely not to cause an injury. If you get slammed flat on your back, you will get the wind knocked out of you, but probably no injury. In both cases, it hurts but there's no injury involved. Just catch your breath, have a drink, recover and get back to training.
An injury is when your ankle is sprained or you pull muscle, etc. In such cases there are actual injuries and you need to give it the proper attention (usually, ice, compress and elevate) and if the injury is serious enough, go see a doctor.
A lot of the time though, what beginners assume are injuries is just pain. Pain is okay, injuries are not. It's important to know the difference.
As such, it is not unusual for people to get aches and pains and sometimes even a bit of injury (because of the safety measures in place that prohibit dangerous movements, major injuries are rare). It's important to know the difference between pain and injury.
When we first started our club, we had a junior player (around the age of 11 or 12) who really liked judo and trained hard. Initially he would alarm us when he would say things like "I've injured my hip" or "my leg is injured" or "my arm is injured". We soon found out that to him "pain" = "injury". Whenever he got thrown, if he felt pain somewhere, he would say that he was injured.
But it's not only kids who sometimes find it hard to differentiate between pain and injury. If someone foot-sweeps you very hard on the shin, it will cause pain but it's likely not to cause an injury. If you get slammed flat on your back, you will get the wind knocked out of you, but probably no injury. In both cases, it hurts but there's no injury involved. Just catch your breath, have a drink, recover and get back to training.
An injury is when your ankle is sprained or you pull muscle, etc. In such cases there are actual injuries and you need to give it the proper attention (usually, ice, compress and elevate) and if the injury is serious enough, go see a doctor.
A lot of the time though, what beginners assume are injuries is just pain. Pain is okay, injuries are not. It's important to know the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment