Quitting Grappling

Yeah so I am seriously thinking about quitting grappling/martial arts all together.

As most of you know I have had a serious shoulder injury for the past two years. I was cleared to train in January by my specialist but unfortunately have re-injured it rolling in BJJ on Monday. IT was not as if I was rolling hard, the damn thing just went without any warning.

This is on top of an ankle injury that I have got and back problems I have since I was a kid. All these injuries have messed me up mentally and I am just finding it hard to get exicited about training any more as I'm expecting to get hurt. It seems every time I train I pick up a serious injury. I don't if it is just a run of bad luck or if my body is just telling me to give up.

The thing is I really enjoy training and when I can't train there was this massive void in my life and I haven't got the foggiest idea of how to fill that void should I decide to quit.

Anyone else gone through something similair? How did you get through it? What factors did you use in making your decision to quit or continue.

I've been there, not in BJJ but the way I handled it was to just easy up a bit. Just train half as much and at lower intensity, work on the technique more and not so much on beating someone. The art is still there even if you aren't destroying guys in the gym or holding your ranking as bad ass. If you can never get back to where you were, then that's just part of life. Injuries happen, sometime guys aren't built for their passion, but it dosen't mean they can't enjoy it on another level, you don't need to quit entirely. Eventually, the injuries might heal up if you take a break or take it easy for a bit training things that won't continue to hurt you.

I've played bball my entire life and have had numerous shoulder injurys. My left shoulder got to the point where it would slip out while I was sleeping.

I get what your saying about it screwing with your head. It got to the point where I had to quit playing college ball (no place your going to see on ESPN) because I was basically scared to use my left arm and would often tuck it against my body.

Flash forward to now. My shoulder feels great you wanna know why? Weight training. I busted my ass making my shoulders as strong as I possibly could using heavy weight.

Anyhow take some time off and heal up. Then start working on the strength training. Don't give up something you love.

Injuries suck. I wouldn't quit, but put it on the backburner and find something else to do in the meantime.

Problem with MMA and grappling is that its ALL TOO EASY to get back into it before you're ready.

But my advice: Find something else in life you enjoy, and start doing that. Fill the void with something else and you'll appreciate grappling when you're back to it.

This is the thing, I had been taking it easy for the past two years trying to get my shoulder healed up. I really wanted to push on this year and try to do more comps. MAybe try for my blue/brown belt in Judo and purple in BJJ. I don't think these are achievable now and I tell you that hurts my ego big time.

I was lifting untill recently but stopped becuase of lack of time. I'll try to get back into since it doesn't look like I'll be rolling for a while and try to get a better balance between lifting and training if I decide to go back.

Dunno I'll have to have long hard think about it.Thanks for the feedback guys.

You could always transition to a different martial art that you can learn without it being heavily into contact. I've always said when I get older I'll head back into Aikido to continue my training there as I'm not much one for getting hit in the face much anymore.