Big knee injury...how to stay in touch with kendo.

by Juan Pablo
(Barcelona)

Imafuji Sensei,

After a few weeks of denial, today I came to the confirmation that I broke the anterior cross ligament of my right knee.

I'm still shocked about the news, and probably I'll miss serious training for the next 8-10 months (just writing it makes me want to shut down the computer and go to sleep...).

In any case, "fall down seven times, get up eight", so I wanted to ask you if you ever met anybody in this situation. I don't want to lose all contact with kendo during this process so maybe you can recommend some exercises I can practice without asking too much from my right knee.

Also, knowing you have suffered a lot from your back, I'd like to ask you advice on how to deal with this from the mental side.

As always, thanks a lot for your work.

Regards,

Juan

Answer: Thank you for sharing your situation with me and others. You are at the right place to ask :) I tore ACL and MCL of the left knee. And I refused to replace with dead person's ligaments so my doctor used my ligaments to replace with the torn ACL. Or something like that. I don't remember the detail anymore. My left knee still gives out at certain moment.

As you mentioned, I have my back issue and also my right shoulder is now doing some funny thing. After overworked the right shoulder due to my left shoulder injury, the right one finally tells me that it hits its limitation. The left shoulder is fine after its surgery in 2010.

Why am I still doing kendo? I just like to. Living without kendo is no option for me. So that is the only reason. I am still working on getting my health back to a normal 44 years old man. It is a long term plan especially after having 2 months off from kendo due to some asthma attacks.

I still want to be stronger than I currently am. I still want to improve my kendo. I still want to challenge myself so I can see something only those achievers can see. I might not be able to physically improve but want to improve my mental side. That is why I am still doing kendo.

Simply I want to keep going and see how far I can go in kendo. I will do anything so I can simply take me somewhere. Without doing anything, I never learn right ways or wrong ways to my goals.

I know you are devastated now. You need to look up and stay strong because you are devastated. When you need to take a rest, do rest. Nothing wrong with that. You need a lot of rests to achieve your goals because kendo is life time training. Juan, don't worry. You will overcome your situation! Don't lose your goals. Don't lose your hope. When you need someone to whip your butt, come back here :)

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