Last night in class we did fitness testing and I got my
yellow stripe. After class, I was discussing roundhouse kicks with my
classmates and the consensus was that “roundhouse kicks are hard to get right”.
That has been my sentiment from day one and it was nice to see that I wasn’t
alone in thinking that.
One of the things that I took away from last night was
attention to detail. One of the things that Sifu Playter mentioned to me about
my roundhouse was to watch my back foot when coming back to a bow stance after my
kick. I have a tendency to have it facing more sideways than forward. The funny
thing is that, even after being reminded about it, I was still doing it when we
were working on combinations. Even when I thought my foot was facing straight ahead,
I would look down and see that it wasn’t. These details are difficult for me to
work on in class because I need to be able to slow down and watch my feet and
think about what my foot feels like when it’s straight.
The combinations portion of the curriculum didn’t seem as
intimidating last night as it usually does. I still have a lot of practice to
do but I feel like I am improving. It’s all little details that need improving,
like snapping punches, watching my back foot, etc. My plan for the next 10 days
or so is to really focus on my stances and combinations.
I’m at the point where I’m really not sure what to do about
my shoulder. I have continued to train but my pushups have been limited and I’m
already pretty far behind in them. That’s disappointing because going in to the
I Ho Chuan, the pushups were the one thing that felt I would have very little
trouble with. I had been doing 180/day for a couple of weeks going in. It even
feels weird for me to admit to myself that I have an injury. When I think of an
injury I think of professional athletes, not people like me. And my injury is
originally from falling on the ice, which is kind of embarrassing. I wish I
could say I was attacked by a shark or something cool like that, but, no, I
slipped on the ice and landed right on my shoulder. I guess the part that I’m uncertain
about is at what point do I sacrifice training for healing? Last night it felt
pretty good but it’s only certain movements that give me trouble. My plan is to
keep going unless I feel it getting worse or if I feel that it isn’t getting
better at all either.
Definitely chose healing and once your healed up, you can train like crazy. A couple times of joining in with the 1000 push up day will fix your numbers right up. If you don't let your shoulder heal, it could haunt you for years.
ReplyDeleteRemember not to stop training, but to train around your injury.
ReplyDeleteMaybe try modifying your pushups. I lost a lot of strength the past little while and find my shoulders hurt easily so I vary my pushups. I do some off my kitchen counter and tricept pushups which I find easier on the shoulders while I get some strength back. Don' t push it if you have a shoulder injury, it will just get worse. There's plenty of ways to fufill your I Ho Chaun goals without continually just hurting yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get injured, it's a good time to focus on other aspects of training while you heal...like legs. That being said, you might just have to do really small sets or shallower pushups to build it back up. Spreading your arms and legs wide also takes pressure off the shoulder. Or go to the old one armed pushups:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback everyone. Smaller sets is my plan for now and I'll see how that goes.
ReplyDelete