sparring after knee surgery

[wiz cool c]

i had reconstructive knee surgery in china over a year ago,no physical therapy after,just a sheet of paper with some exercises on it to do for recovery,also had to spend three months in a plastic cast. no training 6 months and no contact training for a year,doctors orders.

so now it's been over a year i am getting bored with just forms and am slowly getting back into some light sparring again. now for the last few years i have focused on grappling sparring shuai jiao to be specific. in the shuai jiao i have done[beijing style] there are two forms of sparring.shi zhan throwing sparring ,where the goal is to throw the guy,no ground work,the other is chung shou[may have spelled it wrong] a kind of grip sparring. fighting for a superior grip,with a little pulling involved as well.

what i have been doing recently with a training partner is the grip sparring which is safe for the knee,and work some throws to gain confidence again in taking falls again but haven't done the shi zhan yet cause of fear of injury. any advice for getting back into shi zhan or randori sparring for someone in my situation?

[taai gihk yahn]

I would strongly advise you to get at the very least a rehab consult - it may be possible for u to work up to sparring on ur own, but if it were me i would want at least one person to assess me, both hands on and visually doing whatever activities u want to do, and to f/u once in a while; the ideal would b a structured course of rehab, but if that doesn't work for u, at least get a baseline established

[taai gihk yahn]

that said, assuming that u were cleared for that sort of thing, the main thing u want to do is get ur proprioception around the knee back up to speed, specifically in terms of muscles firing to manage torques and shearing forces at the level of the joint (I don't know what u had done, but assuming at the very least ACL, MCL and medial meniscus were involved in some combination); u need to progressively load the joint, practice lateral movements plyometrically, etc.; the bottom line is that the muscles surrounding the knee need to be able to fire sequentially when subjected to unexpected, multi-angular forces: meaning that things like stance training and open-chain knee flexion / extension weight training while ok as part of the program really aren't going to be the best thing; things like single leg standing on an air-filled disc, lateral hops / leaps, etc., thee r needed - basically a rehab program that u'd see a soccer player doing would b akin to what u want to do;

unfortunately, this all require a great deal of awareness and ongoing fine tuning - and can b hard to do on ur own, unless u really know what u r doing; things like frequency, duration and intensity all have to be modulated carefully to avoid strain and reinjury....

[Frost]

two things
a) get a profesionals advice as to when to start sparring again before you do anything
b) see a