For me it was a standard Wednesday night, the air was cool, but the gym was warm from the body heat of all my fellow grapplers around me. I was dripping in sweat, bleeding from somewhere I didn’t even know, my fingers swollen and sore as the clock kept buzzing and the rounds piled up. It was a standard weekday night, the thing I look forward to every day, some evening jiu jitsu. What better way to shed off the comfort of my desk at work and the mental war the day was, than to come here and grapple and socialize with the crew.

Suddenly, one round my knee went loose. I don’t know what caused it, I tried to stand, and my left leg wouldn’t straighten. I popped it back into place and the session was ending, everyone shook hands, and we all went home. I have always trained with extreme intensity, I pride myself on having a deep gas tank, it is the main compliment I get from my training partners. My ability to go all out for as long as needed, I was always a bit obsessive with cardio and martial arts since I was a kid running every cross-country race possible in school. However, the fear of injury looms over me since my 20s began. It is the reason I quit playing indoor soccer with my friends. But I didn’t think my first major injury would hit me so subtly. It was underwhelming, I returned to training a day later and my body just kept failing me. I tried taking time off and returning after scans said the damage was minimal, but my body failed me again.

After all these years going hard day in day out, the doctor sat me down and said, no more jiu jitsu. I found out finally I’ve torn my meniscus, badly that it needs surgery. I can’t lie, I speak about detachment a lot, but letting go of grappling was depressing, it took a while to swallow. But it’s a perspective shift, I have directed my focus into other sports for now, mainly cycling, calisthenics and weights. It’s a new world but I see this set back as a lesson, to change my game and to use this tough period in my life as a buffer.

Gods plan has never let me down, patience is key in these times, and I am glad I still get to do some form of exercise. Thankfully I have suffered the least major and most common jiu jitsu knee injury there is. As a result, I am more aware now of my body’s limitations, and have began developing a better understanding of the strength and mobility side of things. I am still young, I am not 20 anymore so I need to listen to my body more, but in the grand scheme of things I have years of jiu jitsu ahead of me. It is bittersweet, but life is funny like that sometimes, it pushes you back to propel you forward. Now I just need to refocus my energy into my work, learning and reading more, and other sports for the time being. I am grateful I am breathing and walking and able, the mats will be there when I get back, for now I need to focus on rebuilding.

I know I keep mentioning how I got my current job, but it was a significant milestone in my normie life. I really had to dig deep, I studied so hard and graduated. And for so many years, I shook so many hands and entered so many places for the first and last time. I underwent so many evolutions as a man, worked in different sectors, worked whole days and weekends, all in an effort to propel myself into the industry I wanted to be in. And when I got there, I realised looking back how fun the journey actually was. So now I embark on another journey, even a much shorter one, and I have never been more prepared. This journey is different, but it was inevitable, and it won’t be the last.

All the Best

H