I haven’t written about my jiu-jitsu experiences for awhile, because I haven’t had too many. On August 29th I fractured my foot while playing basketball. I talked to Jon, who encouraged me to keep coming, just to watch and chat with people. There were days where it was really great getting back to the gym to talk and see people I had gotten to know over the last two months. There were also days where it sucked and it was just a reminder of just how physically limited I was. At the start of November, I started getting bummed out, my foot wasn’t really healing. I stopped going to classes and wondered if jiu-jitsu was just an interest that quickly flamed out.
It wasn’t. A few weeks later I was in physical therapy and then cleared to roll. I’ve been bad at a lot of things in my life, but it’s difficult to describe the excitement I felt driving to my first noon class since my injury. It’s often an overused cliche, but I really did feel like a kid on Christmas. I couldn’t wait to get back and have strangers start trying to choke me or bend my arm at a weird angle.
Given that I had been out just over three months, I was a little nervous. While I was given the greenlight to return to jiu-jitsu, I am not yet 100 percent. But that’s what I love about training at Neutral Ground. Jon personally talked to everyone I rolled with and let them know I was coming back from injury and to take it slow. And they did.
Dealing with injuries really suck. While I had only been a member at Neutral Ground for two months, Jon and a handful of others regularly sent me messages of encouragement and checked in on me if they hadn’t seen me in awhile. It really is like a family.
I’m super excited to be back and continuing my jiu-jitsu journey.
