13 years ago I tore my shoulder right off the arm. It was hanging for days until I went in for surgery.

They put it back together but gave me back my cartilage in pieces in a container. Its the thick, milky layer of tissue that covers your joints from eachother. The pieces together was about the size of a 50c piece. There I was in a hospital bed, shoulder in an immobilizer, and cartilage in my hand.

I didnt know what I was in for at that point. Slowly but surely I worked it out.

Arthritis is something I thought was just reserved for oldies after too many years on earth. My grandfather would always complain about it in his hands, after working with jackhammers his whole life. It wasnt something i was remotely worried about at the age of 25.
Now, it was my condition, and I was barely getting started in the art of jiu jitsu, and in life.

I’ve been a Rocky fan my whole life, I was a self professed ‘Go Getter’ and I wouldn’t let anything get in my way of getting what I wanted. So I said ‘ Fuck arthritis’ let’s train.

The reality was something very different.

Turns out arthritis isn’t something you wish away. No amount of willpower can take the pain away. If you don’t respect arthritis and push through what you ought not, the pain becomes intrusive, and unbearable and drops you to your knees like a bitch, and infiltrate your whole life. Suddenly, after a hard weights, it was an effort for me to wash my hair in the shower with my dominant arm. Stacking the top shelf with dishes on my right side isn’t a thing anymore. And when I’ve been silly and not respected my limits at jits, wiping my own ass in the morning becomes a challenge.

Yep. I’ve learned lots in the last 13 years about the impact of arthritis.

And it’s made me realise a few things. As youngins our carefree attitude represents freedom and it allows us to conquer new heights, and get things done.

But you know when oldies look at you doing silly stuff, and shake their heads – ‘be careful’ / ‘look after yourself’ / ‘you’ll regret it in the future’. I’d also heard all of these warnings as a kid and respectfully disregarded them. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, I’d think.

Now, I’m here. I’m 37 years old, I can hardly lift my elbow from my body, and not being able to grapple is the least of my problems when I find discomfort sleeping at night. Heavy weights are laughable when even holding a steering wheel to drive a car becomes a challenge sometimes.

I have no regrets. I fucked up, and it was a very unfortunate incident that led to this.

But now that I am here, I feel like the wise old man telling youngins to ‘be careful!’ On the mats and off the mats, I wish jiu jitsu practitioners can listen to me on a few things:

1. Look after your joints!! And/ or Tap Early

Muscles recover. Tendons repair. The issue with cartilage injuries is that blood doesn’t travel there so there is never any repair. This is why you must must must look after your joints!! Arthritis is a death grip and you can’t get away unless you replace them. Replacement surgeries are super invasive and take years to come back from. And in the case of shoulders they last a few years before you need to do them again. And doing them again never turns out the way they’re supposed to.

Ensure you use the right mechanics to make moves work. Ensure you’re in alignment before putting force through something. Make sure you tap early when you get caught in a position. Our martial art is learning how to destroy one’s joints. Your job is to learn how to do them, without yours being destroyed!!! That’s why the TAP Is the most underutilised tool to keep yourself safe on the mats. You can train and learn and have the best time. And when someone does something good and puts you in danger, you TAP and they let go. It’s like magic. Tap quicker.

2. Avoid injury / Think Finesse

This martial art is the best thing since sliced bread. I’ve devoted almost 20 years to learning it. It’s consumed every part of my life. And if you disrespect it it comes back and bites you in the ass. Think about HOW you are training it in order to train it better.
Evaluate the techniques you are using day to day. Are these moves you’ll be able to utilise when you are older and inevitably less mobile and flexible? Some moves look and sound cool, but when practiced day to day can put you in compromised positions which increase your risk of injury. Are they worth it?

Master Sauer always talks about the idea of finesse. To move skilfully, gracefully, and to flow with the go. To find the right move at the right time so as to not force things to work, but to allow the magic of jiu jitsu to shine through every move and every mechanic.
The beauty of jiu jitsu is in doing difficult things easy. Work on your timiing and your strategy so as to make hard things easy. This is opposed to forcing hard things, and utilising willpower and force at the wrong times which is a perfect recipe for hurting yourself and others.

3. Train your Weaknesses

It’s fun to focus on what comes easy to you. I always had a strong squat. My bench press was OK, but I’d always end up with shoulder pain afterwards. I didn’t know why, but I also didnt really care and pushed through anyway. If I had my time again Id put a little more effort into working where I wasn’t strong. That for me was shoulder mobility. Low and behold, apparently that was the reason for my catastrophic dislocation.

You’re not there yet (hopefully). You are still in solid shape and you have the opportunity to keep bulletproofing yourself and your joints to avoid injury in the future. It isn’t a waste of time. Get these things done as a matter of habit so that you can practice jiu jitsu and enjoy life to the fullest for as long as you can.

Arthritis is a dirty word usually reserved for older people. Let’s keep it this way so that we can enjoy the fruits of movement, and jiu jitsu, and life now and in the future.

If I can impact on someone’s training for them to avoid injuries, then my injury and my journey hasn’t been for nothing.