I know, I know. I haven't been writing much here for a loooong time. This blog is one of my longest running projects and I have no plans on closing it down anytime soon though, so here is a little update.
I'm giving up on trying to catch up here on all the stuff that has happened since my last blog posts, but briefly I've been doing a few camps, traveled a loooooot, rehabbed more injuries than you can imagine, gained weight to 90+ kg then dropped 10 kg again, competed once in NAGA Germany, busting up my hand from an opponent grabbing it with gorilla strength and haven't had a haircut all year.
Since April 2010, I have basically been constantly out with injuries. It's about 2.5 years now where I've not been able to train properly. I've been teaching a lot, but rolling has been extremely limited. Usually I've managed to do a week or two before I had to take a long break again, and when I finally did roll, I was very limited in what I felt I could do with my body. I did do a few competitions, but it was never with more than a few weeks preparation and always with a long break after.
BUT! It seems like there was light at the end of the tunnel, as my body finally starts to feel ok again with my shoulder, lower back and knees healing up well. It's hard to believe, but I've been training at a pretty decent intensity for one and a half month now, consistently doing hard sparring four days of every week.
As always, coming back to Jiu Jitsu is one of the hardest things to do. My cardio sucks, my grip strength is gone and everyone in my class seams to have gotten so much better while I have just been sitting and watching them for years. I don't have any easy rolls in my classes anymore, there are so many guys who pushes me to the limits of my game, which has given me a new found inspiration for training.
Today I did a 60-minute, non stop sparring round. Having been out of the game for so long, it is hard to believe that this is really it; that I am back. But I consider today a nice milestone on my journey, and I am a very happy, tired grappler :)