Training day 62: Injured?!?!?

I took the much needed break from training to heal from all of the small bumps and bruises associated with full time Muay Thai training. My feet and shins were sore from impact, my knuckles were raw from the bag work, and my face had various aches and pains for obvious reasons but I never sustained an injury that forced me to take some time off—until now.

My first day back fell on a Tuesday, the day we work on our clinch. This is the position where the fighters lock together. In classical boxing, the referee breaks up the clinch but in Muay Thai, this is a time to throw elbows, inside knees and attempts to throw the opponent are made. Knowing how to clinch properly is critical to having a successful fight—or at least critical to avoid eating an unforgiving elbow.

I am more comfortable in the clinch position than I am in mid-range. My long frame and wrestling background have provided me with a fairly strong understanding of leverage, balance and positioning.

The drill was simple. There are four fighters. One fighter gets into the center of the ring and clinches with a second fighter for one three minute round. After the three-minute round, the second fighter leaves and a third fighter begins to grapple with the first fighter. Once a fighter has been through all three opponents, the circuit is complete and the next fighter has to work through the clinch gauntlet.

Though all of the other fighters were proficient at Muay Thai, they had little clinch experience and I was able to throw them around. It felt good to be back at the camp and having some validation that the training paid off.

Since the head trainer, Moo, knew me, he selected me first to clinch in the ring. He chose a second vet and directed him to begin clinching with me. Entering the clinch inorganically is always awkward. The usual preceding feeling-out-process during the first and second round enables both opponents to judge the other’s ability—to test the water.

I lapsed back into my wrestling and threw my right hand over the back of my opponent’s neck and grabbed his right elbow with my left hand. We worked our inside hooks, trying to gain a dominant position. We traded knees to the ribs, stomach and thighs. Soon I noticed that my opponent was on the tips of his toes trying to reach for my neck. His hips weren’t in line and his feet were nearly touching. I dropped my hands to the middle of his back, lowered my hips and exploded upwards with a twist to his weaker leg and threw him like a doll.

The other training partners, of various weights (all heaver than me) had the exact same weakness, so I continued to exploit it. The moment my training partner’s balance was off, I took them off their feet. I ignored their knees entirely.

In the last round, I tried the same maneuver, lower the hands, drop the hips and explode upwards with a twist. Only this time something in my side popped. The pain was excruciating and I dropped to the canvas to catch my breath.

I tried to become analytical and pinpoint the pain. Moo ran over to me and picked me up and started to rub my ribcage with his thumb. He was rubbing too high, the pain was lower, in my floating ribs; although I didn’t correct him because I didn’t want him pressing on my injury.

I tried to analyze gain. I hurt my ribs before, I broke three of them several years ago and it took almost 6 months for me to not know they were there at every moment. But that was break and left me bedridden for 3 days gasping for air. This was not a break. The resistance was akin to accidentally uprooting a vine with your foot while walking through the woods. Except for the pain, it would have been an almost peaceful feeling.

I left the ring and stretched.

* * * *

The most frustrating part of the injury is that I don’t feel injured. I feel swollen with muscle. My cardio is through the roof. Nothing aches. And my will is back! But every time I turn something in my rib clicks and I drop to the ground in pain.

I’ll give it a few days.