Victory favors those that take pain........

Tami Carswell"s Tapout house latest blog

Victory favors those that take pain: We started out strong going into the gym. Everyone energized from a chill weekend. First we had some great stand up drills lead by Greg and then we switched to take downs. When it was my turn I entered with the intention of defending anything that came my way. Staying low I was ready when my opposition shoot in on me sprawling out I defended the shoot. What happened next I did not anticipate. My sparring partner grabbed my torso on the ground, picked me up, and slammed me down right on my shoulder. When I got up I knew something was different. There was a big bump on the top of my shoulder. I went to Greg and said I thought something was up with it. "Yeah you need to see a doctor" was Greg's response. Great! The other guys took the take downs to kickboxing with take downs urged onward by Cowboy. Cowboy is training for his upcoming fight and everyone knew what that meant. It was going to be rough day. I stood around after I got my stuff together watching the guys come out of the cage bruised and tired. While I was waiting to go get checked out Frosty came in who happened to be an orthopedic doctor. Frosty told me I had my clavicle separated from my ac joint in my shoulder and I tore a band of ligaments that was holding it down originally. I thought the logical next step would be to push it back in somehow. He explained that that would not work and it would heal back on top of the shoulder bone. I got the lowdown in regards to healing times and training with the injury. He suggested that I reschedule my fight for March to give me a little longer with my training. I was lucky to have a medical expert who works with fighters to help advise on this fight specific injury. On the way home I found out that about five of the other guys had gone through the same injury including Cowboy. Cowboy gave me some opinions on pain control and said "welcome to the life". What to do now? The plan is to wear a sling for awhile take ibuprofen for the pain and to start light training for awhile until I am ready to go full force. Leonard told me that he had that same injury happen to him right before a fight and he had to train right through it. He said that it would be best for me to spar with the sling on to remind myself I was not ready to throw any right punches. The good news was I have to start relyng on my right kicks more! He told me that when he started back to throwing rights again he would sometimes see white spots when they landed because the pain was so intense. So much to look forward to! I remember not too long ago using an injury to help me improve my game. I broke my toe and used it as an excuse to concentrate on my jui jitsu. I rolled and drilled with the boot on and then graduated to just rolling with one boxing shoe on to remind myself to take care of that side. I decided that I would even enter NAGA to have a competition to look forward to. Everything happens for a reason. I am choosing to work the hell out of my right kicks in lieu of this situation. I plan to use the inevitable pain of it all to make my mind even stronger. The more obstacles the greater the glory! It was great to be able to do light training twice today. The shoulder is feeling better everyday. It was also cool to watch Cowboy spar with Leonard. Two excellent fighters focused and always in motion. When we got home we watched the WEC preview for Cowboy's upcoming fight with Ratcliff. Watching Ratcliff's fight highlights I knew Cowboy was definitely going to cause that boy some pain! Tonight Leonard came home with a tattoo artist who is working on the tattoo he started last week. His tattoo is of a Mexican samurai. Leonard explained that he wanted the samurai and his Mexican heritage together because they are similar in spirit. The samurai warrior is technical and effective in its attacking methods. The way the Mexican people fought was in the same way. They had to fight hard to keep their independence. They are very prideful and hard working. Leonard is proud of his heritage and is adding this tattoo to his canvas to display that. Cowboy and Eric brought out the blow dart gun and some of the other guns today. Cowboy was exceptionally impressive with his shots at clay pigeon targets. Watch out Ratcliff he hits what he aims at. In addition to the gun target practice everyone started playing with the blow dart gun taking shoots at balloons, bulls eye targets, and other random targets. The guys shot at Goyo with the plastic darts and then Matt offered to take one in his uncovered leg. Kyle jumped in and said he would take a dart with a needle in his arm. No one took him up on it until later when the video cameras were out and Kyle smiled at the thought. Eric shoot out two into Kyle's arm as the rest of us were in awe of the sight of a large needle sticking ot of Kyle's arm. The second one went in two inches and when it was pulled out a stream of blood followed it. Kyle recently got a tattoo that says "Victory favors those who take pain" in Latin. All of us here can relate. Part of fighting includes being intimate with pain. Like Cowboy said " welcome to the life".