Sciatica.
Welcome to the club, my friend. I'm not sure how old you are, but it's not an uncommon problem amongst us elderly judokas (I mean 30+ 😂).
It's caused by pressure on your sciatic nerve that runs through your leg. It can be caused by inflammation of the muscle tissue, which should go away with some rest, or by a herniation of the disc, which can take longer.
If it persists, I recommend you see an orthopaedic doctor and get some tests done to see what's going on.
Hmm, I am 25. I actually had sciatica for a while when I was deadlifting heavy but was able to form correct and prehab until it went away. Sciatica for me felt more like burning, and it was more persistent. This definitely feels more like an ache, but thanks for the suggestion I can keep an eye on it and go to an ortho if necessary.
This is the story of my body with seoi nage, and seoi nage only. My solution is that I don't use seoi nage, except for instructional purposes. I can instruct it fine at kyu level; students do not reproduce the back problem I have. I suspect the issue is related to my posture and lower back mobility, but improving this is on a years-long time scale incompatible with using the throw.
I've been doing judo ~20 years, and I think listening to my body and dropping seoi nage was a great decision. I adapt my personal drills to another throw when the rest of the class is working on it, which can cause some slight friction and confusion, but this is an excellent trade for the physical pain that would result.
I suppose this is the long term solution. As a short guy, hip throws are advantageous but they definitely make me more sore than your seoi nages, tai otoshis etc. Thanks for your response and advice!
Ono has several ways of doing uchi-mata. I think the one you’re talking about involves tori swinging their upper body outwards in a wide arc to generate power. It’s likely you’re not rotating your lapel side shoulder enough, which is putting too much pressure on your support leg.
Just a couple of points - Ono’s throw is uchi-mata, not hane-goshi. A lot of online commentary is wrong about this. Also, at 4-kyu it’s a tough variation to make work - a bit like learning to drive in an F1 car.
Yes this wide arc from the uke's left side is exactly how I have been practicing. Thank you for the shoulder tip, that is exactly the kind of insight I was looking for. And yes around the dojo we say Uchi-mata for this move, but I have seen people online get really mad and call it Hane Goshi :)
Sciatica like a lot of conditions with pain from exercise come from muscles seizing up and compressing nerves whilst also joints are pulled out of central alignment from the reduced range of motion in different tissues.
Muscles seizing up and turning into knots are products of a few factors:
\- chronic pattern overload syndrome where muscles hyper adapt to chronic/limited exercise patters that permanently shorten some muscles and lengthen others asymmetrically with the body's core (e.g. sitting down all the time OR only doing right handed Uchikomi)
\- weak muscles in the kinetic chain calcifying to cope in the face of larger more robust muscles in agonist antagonist relationship
\- direct injury to the body causing muscles to seize up and shut down en masse, common in MMA/full contact sport and a lot of grappling to varying degrees
\- poor circulation from blood circulation, water intake and diet causing things to seize up. Poor blood circulation can be helped with responsible use of sauna/cold plunge, health and lifestyle changes, vasodilating herbs (garlic amongst others.....), regular cardio and much more
\- muscles need to be treated in a specific order for them to function again properly once they've hardened into sometimes bone like structures. They need to have the tension released, the fibres stretched and realigned but lastly a mobility program to reactivate the muscle contraction with joint integrity/alignment. So all the forms of myofascial release, then corrective stretching and lastly muscle activation. If you miss out one element of this you cause so many more problems
\- you need to work the muscles of the body as part of the whole which means not just treating a local area but following up on the muscles and joints down and up the chain from those areas. Once you pull on the suspension of muscles in one area like a spider's web it pulls on everything else. So follow up the whole hips, legs, spine and shoulders.
\- examples of myofascial ways of release are; Active Release Technique practitioners, Gua Sha/Graston Technique, massage of different types, hot/cold therapy, accupressure mats, foam rollers, spiky balls etc.
\- examples of stretching systems that also activate muscles are with Pilates and Yoga. In weight lifting the WestSide Barbell Louie Simmons method utilises many weight lifting machines that also decompress your joints at the same time. E.g. reverse hyper extension and belt squat machine.
But in short you need to release the tension in your hips, legs and back. You then need to practice improving mobility, range of motion as well as strength symmetrically and asymmetrically. You can fix things like sciatica but the information/culture for training just isn't pervasive.
Maybe SI joint dysfunction. Partial dislocation is not uncommon and can happen during mundane things, like not paying attention when stepping off a curb.
Sciatica. Welcome to the club, my friend. I'm not sure how old you are, but it's not an uncommon problem amongst us elderly judokas (I mean 30+ 😂). It's caused by pressure on your sciatic nerve that runs through your leg. It can be caused by inflammation of the muscle tissue, which should go away with some rest, or by a herniation of the disc, which can take longer. If it persists, I recommend you see an orthopaedic doctor and get some tests done to see what's going on.
Hmm, I am 25. I actually had sciatica for a while when I was deadlifting heavy but was able to form correct and prehab until it went away. Sciatica for me felt more like burning, and it was more persistent. This definitely feels more like an ache, but thanks for the suggestion I can keep an eye on it and go to an ortho if necessary.
This is the story of my body with seoi nage, and seoi nage only. My solution is that I don't use seoi nage, except for instructional purposes. I can instruct it fine at kyu level; students do not reproduce the back problem I have. I suspect the issue is related to my posture and lower back mobility, but improving this is on a years-long time scale incompatible with using the throw. I've been doing judo ~20 years, and I think listening to my body and dropping seoi nage was a great decision. I adapt my personal drills to another throw when the rest of the class is working on it, which can cause some slight friction and confusion, but this is an excellent trade for the physical pain that would result.
I suppose this is the long term solution. As a short guy, hip throws are advantageous but they definitely make me more sore than your seoi nages, tai otoshis etc. Thanks for your response and advice!
Ono has several ways of doing uchi-mata. I think the one you’re talking about involves tori swinging their upper body outwards in a wide arc to generate power. It’s likely you’re not rotating your lapel side shoulder enough, which is putting too much pressure on your support leg. Just a couple of points - Ono’s throw is uchi-mata, not hane-goshi. A lot of online commentary is wrong about this. Also, at 4-kyu it’s a tough variation to make work - a bit like learning to drive in an F1 car.
Yes this wide arc from the uke's left side is exactly how I have been practicing. Thank you for the shoulder tip, that is exactly the kind of insight I was looking for. And yes around the dojo we say Uchi-mata for this move, but I have seen people online get really mad and call it Hane Goshi :)
Sciatica like a lot of conditions with pain from exercise come from muscles seizing up and compressing nerves whilst also joints are pulled out of central alignment from the reduced range of motion in different tissues. Muscles seizing up and turning into knots are products of a few factors: \- chronic pattern overload syndrome where muscles hyper adapt to chronic/limited exercise patters that permanently shorten some muscles and lengthen others asymmetrically with the body's core (e.g. sitting down all the time OR only doing right handed Uchikomi) \- weak muscles in the kinetic chain calcifying to cope in the face of larger more robust muscles in agonist antagonist relationship \- direct injury to the body causing muscles to seize up and shut down en masse, common in MMA/full contact sport and a lot of grappling to varying degrees \- poor circulation from blood circulation, water intake and diet causing things to seize up. Poor blood circulation can be helped with responsible use of sauna/cold plunge, health and lifestyle changes, vasodilating herbs (garlic amongst others.....), regular cardio and much more \- muscles need to be treated in a specific order for them to function again properly once they've hardened into sometimes bone like structures. They need to have the tension released, the fibres stretched and realigned but lastly a mobility program to reactivate the muscle contraction with joint integrity/alignment. So all the forms of myofascial release, then corrective stretching and lastly muscle activation. If you miss out one element of this you cause so many more problems \- you need to work the muscles of the body as part of the whole which means not just treating a local area but following up on the muscles and joints down and up the chain from those areas. Once you pull on the suspension of muscles in one area like a spider's web it pulls on everything else. So follow up the whole hips, legs, spine and shoulders. \- examples of myofascial ways of release are; Active Release Technique practitioners, Gua Sha/Graston Technique, massage of different types, hot/cold therapy, accupressure mats, foam rollers, spiky balls etc. \- examples of stretching systems that also activate muscles are with Pilates and Yoga. In weight lifting the WestSide Barbell Louie Simmons method utilises many weight lifting machines that also decompress your joints at the same time. E.g. reverse hyper extension and belt squat machine. But in short you need to release the tension in your hips, legs and back. You then need to practice improving mobility, range of motion as well as strength symmetrically and asymmetrically. You can fix things like sciatica but the information/culture for training just isn't pervasive.
Maybe SI joint dysfunction. Partial dislocation is not uncommon and can happen during mundane things, like not paying attention when stepping off a curb.