Hi all,
I started training BJJ senior year of high school. About 5-6 months in I started doing the kickboxing classes and I just kept falling in love with training faster and faster. I soon was invited to the MMA class which has harder sparring and more experience needed. It's competitive too. There have been numerous pro fighters at my gym including two who were on the ultimate fighter. I graduated high school and took a year off before college. The only commitment I had was a 30 hour grocery store cashier job. I would train 3 hours on Wednesday and 4 hours on Friday every week. I was absolutely obsessed. I would spar hard very regularly. It was only a matter of time before I got a concussion. One day I woke up the night after with slurred speech short term memory and other obvious symptoms. Because I had some stupid idea that these symptoms were just minor and that I should just deal with them as a fighter, I kept training with little rest and would more often than not train through them. For 6 months I would rest just too little and come back and have symptoms reappear and take longer and longer to heal. There was a point where I got a new job and was taking 2 college classes. The day before my new job I had the worst symptoms yet. Still because of my youth (I'm still young honestly and still stupid lol) and stupidity I thought these were minor and didn't call a doctor or anything. I hoped they would go away but I was so out of it that I could barely finish my sentences most of the time. After 3 weeks at my new job they stopped scheduling me and I knew damn why, if they hired a goldfish it would have had a better attention span than I did. I realized these symptoms were moderately serious and I needed a break. I had to quit the job and just rested and did homework till I felt better. At the time I thought that my MMA career was over and that due to training through concussions I was permanantly brain damaged. Well, things healed slowly but surely and unfortunately can thank that to my torn meniscus that I got 6 months ago so I couldn't have contact sports at all. I did do one day of light sparring coming back from injury with no kicks and to my surprise symptoms came back minorly for 3 weeks. It made my now full course load of college really frustrating and stressful. My head needs more of a rest is the conclusion I came too. Probably something like a year or two. I have been doing just the BJJ grappling classes full power except leg locks full time for about 2 weeks now since returning from knee injury. My chin seemed to start to repair itself and be less sensitive. Unfortunately this week playing bball I got headbutted so hard I almost broke my nose and because of the current state of my chin had light symptoms on and off for just a couple days including today. I need a long ass rest before I invite people to hit me in the face again. All of that nonsense I dealt with those concussions were tough to deal with even though I had very little shit to get done. When I estimate my head will be ready I will be a full time college student as I am now. If I had gone through those minor concussions during school I woulda flunked out in a heart beat. I can't imagine a 40 hour desk job when I graduate is gonna make things any easier. When I got concusssed for the first time it didn't seem like I was training much harder than anyone else though looking back I probably pushed the pace during light sparring too much. My question is...as either a full time college student or as a full time worker, is there any way I can maturely and safely set up my own personal protocol so I don't get concussed so much? Obviously people seem to train at least casually without getting long term symptoms every day. It seemed really easy to get symptoms which I might attribute it to recklessness and dumb 18 year old judgement but still felt like it was inevitable yet all my training partners showed no signs of change in attendance like I was when resting my head. Does anybody else on this forum have experience training MMA as a college student or holding a job that will require the same focus as a full time college student?
I started training BJJ senior year of high school. About 5-6 months in I started doing the kickboxing classes and I just kept falling in love with training faster and faster. I soon was invited to the MMA class which has harder sparring and more experience needed. It's competitive too. There have been numerous pro fighters at my gym including two who were on the ultimate fighter. I graduated high school and took a year off before college. The only commitment I had was a 30 hour grocery store cashier job. I would train 3 hours on Wednesday and 4 hours on Friday every week. I was absolutely obsessed. I would spar hard very regularly. It was only a matter of time before I got a concussion. One day I woke up the night after with slurred speech short term memory and other obvious symptoms. Because I had some stupid idea that these symptoms were just minor and that I should just deal with them as a fighter, I kept training with little rest and would more often than not train through them. For 6 months I would rest just too little and come back and have symptoms reappear and take longer and longer to heal. There was a point where I got a new job and was taking 2 college classes. The day before my new job I had the worst symptoms yet. Still because of my youth (I'm still young honestly and still stupid lol) and stupidity I thought these were minor and didn't call a doctor or anything. I hoped they would go away but I was so out of it that I could barely finish my sentences most of the time. After 3 weeks at my new job they stopped scheduling me and I knew damn why, if they hired a goldfish it would have had a better attention span than I did. I realized these symptoms were moderately serious and I needed a break. I had to quit the job and just rested and did homework till I felt better. At the time I thought that my MMA career was over and that due to training through concussions I was permanantly brain damaged. Well, things healed slowly but surely and unfortunately can thank that to my torn meniscus that I got 6 months ago so I couldn't have contact sports at all. I did do one day of light sparring coming back from injury with no kicks and to my surprise symptoms came back minorly for 3 weeks. It made my now full course load of college really frustrating and stressful. My head needs more of a rest is the conclusion I came too. Probably something like a year or two. I have been doing just the BJJ grappling classes full power except leg locks full time for about 2 weeks now since returning from knee injury. My chin seemed to start to repair itself and be less sensitive. Unfortunately this week playing bball I got headbutted so hard I almost broke my nose and because of the current state of my chin had light symptoms on and off for just a couple days including today. I need a long ass rest before I invite people to hit me in the face again. All of that nonsense I dealt with those concussions were tough to deal with even though I had very little shit to get done. When I estimate my head will be ready I will be a full time college student as I am now. If I had gone through those minor concussions during school I woulda flunked out in a heart beat. I can't imagine a 40 hour desk job when I graduate is gonna make things any easier. When I got concusssed for the first time it didn't seem like I was training much harder than anyone else though looking back I probably pushed the pace during light sparring too much. My question is...as either a full time college student or as a full time worker, is there any way I can maturely and safely set up my own personal protocol so I don't get concussed so much? Obviously people seem to train at least casually without getting long term symptoms every day. It seemed really easy to get symptoms which I might attribute it to recklessness and dumb 18 year old judgement but still felt like it was inevitable yet all my training partners showed no signs of change in attendance like I was when resting my head. Does anybody else on this forum have experience training MMA as a college student or holding a job that will require the same focus as a full time college student?
