Jan 22
About Me
Hi Friend,
If you’ve made it this far, I’m sure you’re dying to know more about me :).
My name is Dave Kim. I am a passionate practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I work as an IT consultant. I work a lot of spider guard while practicing BJJ and due to the nature of this style of guard, combined with 2-3 classes daily, my fingers began to swell and ache throughout the day. It wasn’t until I boarded a plane to Brazil that I realized how severe my problem was. I fell asleep during the ascent only to wake up mid-flight to severely swollen knuckles because of the change in altitude. It was painful and difficult to completely close my fist. It was not a pleasant surprise and from that day on I decided I needed to take better care of my fingers or face the consequences in my later years when age will not be on my side.
I went to a doctor to get my fingers diagnosed to ensure there wasn’t something else going on. I found the closest doctor to my house using my health insurance’s doctor search function and off I went. Miss doctor turned out to be one of the cutest doctors I’ve ever seen but that’s besides the point. She ran some blood tests on me to make sure it wasn’t some form of arthritis and asked me to take some time off from “wrestling and UFC.”
To be honest, I didn’t take any time off from my BJJ training but I did make a few changes that made all the difference. I began taping my fingers and would let go if I saw people trying to break my grips. I also began working on other styles of guard that relied less on the grips so I could provide some temporary relief on my fingers. My fingers have returned to a perfect state today although it took a couple months to get there. A few adjustments in my every day training combined with the support of tape has allowed me to do this while taking no time off from training.
During this recovery phase, I did a lot of research into the types of medical tape and was frustrated with the fact that no one had designed a medical tape specifically for our fingers. It turns out that it wasn’t just BJJ practitioners who were having trouble with their fingers but also Judo athletes, rock climbers, wrestlers, basketball players, and the list goes on and on.
I decided to create a medical tape that was specifically designed and cut for athletes’ fingers and toes to help people who are coping with finger injuries. All injuries take time to recover from but using the proper equipment to provide support and training smart will allow you to overcome all your injuries and come back stronger. Train smart and train safe but above all, stay hungry and stay motivated, for everything else will come with time.
All injuries can be conquered in time.
Dave
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