No Judo Practices after this month (because I am not an idiot)

Since several people have asked me why I said I would not be at judo for quite some time except for the two visits I already promised on June 2 and June 23, I thought I'd explain here. No, I'm not dying of cancer or anything. It's far more mundane than that.

In short, I hurt my elbow from spending 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for thirty years working on a computer.

I co-founded a company with two partners, 7 Generation Games, that is producing computer games. On top of that, I already have a consulting company that occupies much of my time. And ... I teach judo a couple of times a week.

The doctor pointed out that most people, even if they spend five days a week doing some repetitive motion, take off on the weekends, but  I don't.  When I told her that I had done judo my whole life - well, four-fifths of it - she said that yes, but if you have an injury to your elbow you should not be doing push-ups and pulling people around.

I've tried taking a couple of days off to go wine-tasting in Ojai and it was nice. I even discovered guerilla knitting (I am not making this up.) I should be doing something like it again, and not blogging.

So, I have some pills that I'm supposed to take to reduce the swelling in my tendons and I am simultaneously doing activities that make it worse. Not too bright, huh? It's not just that it hurts, but much more annoying to me is that I can't DO some things I used to do, like carrying around my granddaughter, after a few minutes carrying her on the right, I have to switch her to my left side. I can't carry anything really heavy with my right arm.

Several people have told me that they would ignore the doctor and do it anyway.

Well, as my friend Dr. Jake Flores often says, it's amazing what you learn when you stay awake in medical school.

And for those of you who say (and I believe you) that you would blow the doctor off and keep doing judo anyway, I wonder why. I'm not training for a world championships. She didn't say to never do judo again or to quit working. She said to try not using the computer on the weekends, to take several weeks off of judo and see an occupational therapist about changing around my work area.

Sigh. Yes, obviously since it is Saturday and I'm writing this blog I'm ignoring the not using the computer on the weekends part. I AM going to try do cut back. Tomorrow when I'm at Gracie Barra Corona I'm hoping to get someone to video so I can do some video blogs.

If you're at practice, please remind me that I wanted to show three ways of doing ko uchi makikomi - my way, Ronda's way and a third way I don't recommend, which I am showing because I want to discuss why I don't recommend it.