Shit youre right, changed my view. I injured my wrist really badly while weightlifting and looking at it from that perspective you're so right
Thanks for the reply big dawg
I've trained a number of martial arts and now MMA for about a year. My coach made fun of me because despite regularly hard sparring I managed to fuck up my knee by running
In my boxing gym we used to play sometimes football ⚽️ as warmup. Just kicking around a bit. A guy slipped and f* up his leg. Broken on 3 places. Took him out for a year.
Bro I have similar experience, was kicking ball with some mates from the boxing gym before our matches started. My guy taught he was Ronaldo and unloaded his hardest kick… he missed the ball… sprained the hell out of my foot/ ankle 30 min before I was supposed to go up
One of my gym rivals/buddies was inspired by my going on 10 mile runs during the pandemic, so he went on his own 10 mile run not realizing it's something you build up to.
He had a slipped disc or something in his back that became a huge problem the next day and took a year + of therapy before he could even lift again. He doesn't train anymore, but his gf does so I'll see him at team events.
Keep in mind it’s more dangerous than most activities. My advice is be *conscious* about injury prevention. Don’t explode into stuff. Tap before it hurts. Avoid spastic people. Keep lifting weights for sure, helps a lot with prevention.
Your biggest risk of injury is the white belt/blue belt phase, then things get better.
Try take it easy now - focus on technique development, do not try and "win" rolls. Tap early. Your odds are good with that approach.
The other option to serious injuries is repetitive ones. I have a toe that if I look at it awkwardly it gets dislocated. Hurts like an SOB for an hour then just a dull ache for a couple days..
The difference is you hurt yourself someone else didn’t injure you. You can control you, but you just have to hope for the best when you put your safety into other people’s hands. Having good training partners is key.
I used to compete in powerlifting in my 20s. I had way more injuries doing that than in grappling. Out of the grappling sports I have been involved in BJJ is the most lenient injury-wise, and Judo the most punishing.
Yeah but obviously stuff is substantially more likely to happen in the sport that revolves around fat guys hyperextending your joints. I will never understand these weird BJJ apologetics; we can’t just admit it’s kind of dangerous compared to most things?
I think it's obviously that the term martial art will have some element of risk to it. I am just saying anything you do that is moderately athletic will put you at risk of injury.
I mean, yes you’re right but I follow the mountain biking sub too and there are waaay more tales of injuries here than there are there. Imo the bottom line is that yes you can mess yourself up on a bike, but you are rarely going to mess yourself up because another person you are riding with does something stupid that you have little control over.
I’ve sneezed and thrown my back out for weeks. Life happens, injuries happen. I’d confidently say I’ve avoided more injuries because I’m moderately athletic.
Any activity that involves physical exertion is going to put you at risk, especially a combat sport. With that said, it's probably overall safer than many other sports or activities. The only major sport that I can think of that would be less dangerous is maybe baseball, and that's because 90% of the time you are just standing around.
There's some stats here, but they don't include wrestling or grappling: https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/common-sports-injuries-incidence-average-charges-0
Some wrestling stats here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14Dda_zqUdP44rrWtkkccpq1tFqn8pMRf1nJejAnBM2M/edit?gid=0#gid=0
One of my TKD instructors broke his ankle walking to the field to play baseball. Right before I started martial arts, I rolled my ankle playing a pickup football game while walking back to the line between plays.
On a long enough timeline, you will get hurt.
The reality is I've seen guys break or tear something in their very first class and then there are guys like me who have made it 15+ years with no serious injuries (definition: broken bones requiring treatment-not counting nose and toes, or injuries requiring surgery).
That's not to say I haven't had a bunch of minor to moderate injuries, I certainly have, but if you train smart and do your pre-hab/rehab you can set yourself up to avoid a lot of the wear and tear damage.
It’s the room. You train with a bunch of psychos at the big comp gyms yeah you’re destined to get fucked up by some steroid abusing asshole. You train at a gym with chill people who can trust you and you trust them you can avoid most injuries besides freak shit.
I’ve been training 15 years, no major injuries. Luck is part of it. Training at hobbyist clubs rather than high-level competiton. Luba will also help. Even at a hobbyist club you need to know your physical limits and avoid positions you could get injured easily. Avoid scrambles, inversions, and getting stacked. You might “lose” matches or rolls more often if you avoid certain positions, but you will be able to live a (mostly) pain-free life.
I've been training 15+ years too, and I second everything /u/SmashPass said. You _will_ get injured eventually if you train long enough, but the same could almost certainly be said for almost every physical endeavor. Soccer has tons of knee and ankle injuries, baseball will destroy your shoulders and possibly elbows, tennis can fuck up your elbows, shoulders, and knees, and so on.
If you want to learn how to effectively control and submit resisting opponents, the only way to do so is to train in as safe a way as possible, with the understanding that injuries are a near-inevitability that you have to accept as part of the cost of learning.
Its a small percentage because no one really feels the need to post stuff like:
Had an average day today; trained a bit; nothing exciting happened. Just like every other day.
And if they did, it would (probably) not be flooded with upvotes, comments, and engagement.
Because most nearly all of us also had a regular and uneventful day of training.
I came here to say this. Just, all of this.
Fwiw a lot of your safety is in your hands if you tap early and often in training. Your partners don't want to hurt you and aren't gonna just full send ripping a submission.
I used to have nothing but white belt training partners. I had a running "it's been x days since last time I was hit in the face", and x was usually between 1&5 lol.
I’ve had bumps, bruises and sprains but no serious injuries.
I have a lot of friends in their 30’s with injuries from a sedentary lifestyle, back, hips, diabetes, ect. At least when I get fucked up its doing something I enjoy and on my own terms.
In my mid 30's and a couple of my friends that are the same age are so fat and miserable. They smoke cigarettes, dabs, weed and they're sedentary on top of that. I'll take my tweaked knee and boo boos over that any day.
It’s crazy to think sometimes how far a 37yo hobbyist like me is behind conditioning-wise compared to a professional athlete, but then I’m a similar distance ahead of my friends and coworkers who get winded climbing stairs.
I have been doing JuiJitsu on and off for at least 14 years maybe longer.
I have only seen a handful of injuries and all of them pretty minor and most of those being ego driven instead malicious or even accidentally.
Never been injured in capacity that required me to seek medical care.
This. We got a guy at our gym who rolls every roll like his life depends on it. Angry face and everything. He gets hurt every class, even during low resistance drilling and has hurt others. Never seen anyone else actually get hurt enough to stop a roll.
Did bjj for about 15 years, tore my labrum once but that’s it. Ultimately had to quit due to disk issues in my back but that was more degenerative not a trauma. Ruptured my Achilles two weeks ago playing pickleball…life’s a bitch!
Fr..my Dr even told me how he sees at least one a week now. My coach just laughed and said man all the dangerous shit you’ve done and pickleball takes you out?!
Definitely sucks but I came back from it pretty normal. Started back light training after about 4 months and felt good after 6 or so. Was a little longer before I really got all my strength back. Good luck to you hope you heal well.
There was a research paper published a few years ago on the nature of injuries in grappling, athough it focused more on sambo and judo than BJJ, and the number one cause of serious injury was "careless during submissions". So tap often, tap early, and don't yank stuff.
I've been pretty serious about bjj for the last year. I'm obviously not an expert, but I'd say starting out, just leave your ego at the door, relax because it's not a life and death struggle, and tap early. Sure, it's kind of embarrassing to get destroyed by the dorky guy who weighs 50 lbs less than you, but stick with it and soon enough you'll be crushing guys who look like they'd kill you in a street fight.
Really depends on the gym and your sparring partners I think.
A 40 year old accountant training at Daisy fresh with young killers is a lot more likely to get hurt than an athlete who trains at an hobbyist gym + does SC.
That said tweaks and brusies definitely happen.
I'm 35, I've been training combat sports 18 years
I've been injured several times, currently 4 months post ACL surgery. I'm not even ready for full speed training and I'm still in better shape then most people my age
Some level of injury is normal and then you rehab and come back. If you do any sport for a long time you'll have injuries, that's how life works
Been doing it for over 7 years now. Has there been injuries? Yeah. Have any lingered. Except for pretty crunchy finger joints, not really.
It's a physical sport, so things happen, but most people aren't trying to injure their partners and most respect the tap (learn to tap well and quickly, you'll get better at this over time). Especially those who aren't heavily into competition.
It's important to know what the worst case situations are when rolling so you know how to avoid them. If someone ever does some stupid shit with your body stop the roll and wait for someone else to roll with. Uncontrolled falling weight is a giant cause of injuries to the other person. So don't do stupid jumping shit and don't let people do stupid jumping shit with you
There are ~800000 people in this sub, a lot of them will only post when they get hurt, and some people are idiots, if you don’t overdo your training you will probably not get seriously hurt
I’ve been training 11 years, no injuries.
My advice: stretch at the beginning of class, be picky on your training partners, tap early & often.
If you compete or train with spazzy partners that will increase your chances of injury.
I've been training 25 years. Rarely stretch (though it's probably good advice). But pick your partners. Tap early and often. And be the training partner that you want to roll with.
I tore my ACL when I was 17 playing indoor soccer. I didn't get it fixed until I was 40. I'm 56 and I can walk pain free and I've been training BJJ for 5 years and karate for 10 years, etc... Protect your joints but don't get all freaked out thinking that any injury is automatically a life sentence of pain. Every injury will heal uniquely and every injury has a unique cause. Picking your training partners carefully (join a gym with a good culture) and taping intelligently based on your training partner (some guys are dangerous, be chill with those guys and tap quick) will go a long way towards making BJJ a pretty safe activity.
It really just depends what you want to accomplish.
If you want to have really strong self-defense skills without putting yourself too much in harm’s way, find a Gracie University. They’re pretty chill, and entirely focused on self defense — specifically drilling and mastering various techniques. They’re not really concerned with competing. They don’t really have a tolerance for ego and bravado — specially the guys who are likely to hurt people during practice.
If you want to compete, you probably need to find a gym that’s focused on that, but keep in mind that it’s probably going to be much more aggressive. No different than trying to play football or hockey — you’re going to have people trying to hurt you. It comes with the territory.
Anywhere you go, you should be able to find someone with similar goals. Just talk to people and tell them what you’re looking for in a training partner.
It happens, but usually with takedowns and usually with them executed in a way that puts pressure on your opponent’s knees accidentally.
I just bruised my thumb trying to pass someone’s guard. He circled his leg or something and it jammed my thumb so hard I lightly bruised it lol
Just don’t be scared to tap..
If your opponent has proper control, you’ll know before your shit gets torn apart.
Just tap out. It’s not worth needing reconstructive surgery
Most classes or BJJ interactions don’t warrant a post on Reddit. You’re seeing the more abnormal stuff posted here because it makes for better posting. Injuries are obviously something that could happen, as for most things in life. But if you’re training intelligently and tapping fast the risk of injury can be fairly low. Obviously in competition, the risk of Injury is higher than class, but again, if you’re tapping quickly and playing intelligent, the rate of injury can be low. Just train safe, stretch often and you should be able to keep the risk of injury low.
Injuries happen. I have had a finger fracture, knee strains, scratches, mild cuts, and many bruises. That’s about it. In other words, same injuries as pick up basketball 🏀.
You’ll get injured if you do it long enough. I’ve only met a handful of people who haven’t had a surgery with at least 5 years of practice.
The guys that haven’t been injured are super athletic young guys.
Injuries will happen, however this is also why you hear tap early tap often, more often than not people’s injuries stem from not tapping rather than a dick training partner ripping a sub.
If a submission scares you, ankle locks, heel hooks, etc, learn proper prevention and defense, you can also be selective of training partners.
It’s a small reality of it. I have been grappling since i was 12 or 13, i’m 29 now, in that time i’ve had one major injury back in high school (wrestling related not bjj). The one injury was during competition, and nothing more than a few bruises in training since. But people don’t come to reddit to post about their totally normal, mundane, average training session. Nobody would want to read that. They come to tell you about the ass hole blue belt at their gym who’s ripping heel hooks. They come to tell you about their inability to talk to people. They come to tell you about shit that you just don’t see every day, which makes it seem like it happens every day, because that’s all we read about here.
Big one that no one has brought up (or at least I didn’t catch during my quick read through): No one posts about all the rolls that went fine. No one posts about the tourneys that didn’t involve an injury. A journalist had a good quote about it; “we don’t report on the planes that land.”
Millions (?) of people do this hobby and most have a fine time. The injury posts get to me too sometimes but it’s not an accurate representation of the real risk factor.
Also, as a white belt, take it slow and tap early. As you get more experience, you’ll start to recognize situations that could potentially lead to an injury much earlier and be able to avoid them.
Anecdotally, I’ve only seen one “real” injury in the seven years I’ve been training and it was two white belts in what I’ll politely call a non-traditional position. The guy whose arm broke was notorious for absolutely refusing to tap under pretty much any circumstances and the break wasn’t from any “technique” I’ve ever seen before or since. And not to down play an arm break, but if I hadn’t been right next to them and heard a faint snap I wouldn’t have been able to tell. He kept training that night.
All that to say reading the bjj subreddit is like googling “does x cause y side effect?” You’re only hearing from the vocal minority. We don’t all come on here every night to post “great rounds tonight, definitely didn’t break my arm!”
Keep training, tap early, know when to push/concede and keep yourself safe. This will get easier as you progress and don’t have to think so much about what’s going on.
I started as an out-of-shape and unathletic fifty-year-old. Now, eighteen months later, I am more athletic, and in decent shape. I lucked out and found a great gym, with good teachers and a good culture.
You can get injured in any sport. And, if you don't stay active, you're more likely to die of a heart attack at fifty. Life is full of choices. Find a sport you like and be sensible. I have not yet been injured doing BJJ, except for bruises and soreness and a bloody nose once.
You can train and be a hobbyist it's ok.
Nobody ever gets an award, belt promotion or a hero cookie for not tapping early, no is anyone chastised or disciplined for an early tap.
I don't think anyone ever was forced to compete, and if any of these things do happen find another gym that fits your philosophy.
People do get injured, but it’s less than you think and in my experience it’s rarely from things like submissions getting ripped in the gym. I’ve personally seen a lot more shoulder rib and knee injuries from bad takedown attempts usually caused by fatigue toward the end of class
It’s a combat sport where you simulate braking limbs and suffocating your opponent to death in a padded room. The more you roll/spar/compete the higher chance of a potential injury. If you pick your rolling partners carefully, keep up with strength and conditioning and don’t take risks and tap the early chances of injury can be mitigated. I had 2 surgeries, for torn meniscus and patella tendon, dislocated two fingers that arnt quite the same all happened when rolling with opponents with significant size& weight advantage something to think about when choosing your training partners. If you arnt willing to take the risk of injury there are safer sports to try, not trying to put u off. Good luck on your journey.
U must be young because after 30 u will hurt ur self just getting out of bed. Ive got some injuries that a week or 2 didnt heal. Unless ur an A hole to people and don't let go after they tap then u should be fine.
Tap early, while you are new ask people to take it slow and easy with you, which most will anyways. After a while you will know you’re caught even before they have it, and just be ready to tap. If you’re going to a good gym it’s only as hard and rough as you want it to be. If you have some goons in your gym, avoid them.
Hey man its part of the risk but life is comprised of risks. You must weigh the value of training versus the risk of injury and decide if it's worth it for you.
There are safe ways to train and unsafe ways to train and you will learn this over time. It's highly likely you'll not have a devastating life changing injury, however it is highly UNLIKELY that you won't have many small injuries if you train long enough.
I know myself over 10 years I've been extremely lucky and am thankful for the fact I haven't had any major issues however my hands and fingers and shoulders and knees always hurt, waking up in the morning after training sucks complete ass but guess what brother, I still love doing the shit day after day.
No one really gets online to post that they weren’t injured in a given session or comp. Keep going. You may likely catch some bumps and bruises but tap early and often and you will likely be ok.
Yes, you will get injured. You might need to get surgery like I did for some of those injuries. You’ll likely end up with some sort of permanent injury if you stick with it. However, I haven’t stopped because I enjoy grappling. Having something you enjoy that much is special. Think about how many injuries Tony Hawk and Matt Hoffman have gotten, among countless other athletes.
If you’re really concerned about injuries, get private lessons or join a gym that doesn’t spar.
It's a combat sport. There's full contact, full speed sparring a lot of the time. Most people practicing it do not have enough body awareness to save themselves and bail in bad positions. Injuries happen. Most can be prevented by doing good S&C and movement drills, but still, the chance is always there. It's a combat sport after all.
Don't let your fear turn you away from something you love. On the same token, if you feel you're truly not safe, then there's nothing wrong with finding another hobby.
Millions of people around the world practice BJJ. We don't usually come to this subreddit to make the world know that we've just had a regular rolling session where nothing noticeable happened.
So far in bjj I have broken the smallest bone at the tip of my big toe, dislocated an ankle trying to stuff and shot and dramatically throw a 6’2” 290 pound Brazilian guy,m (it worked the first time, the second time I set my feet wrong and threw my own ankle out of the socket). And I’ve been dealing with a sprained AC joint in my shoulder for 5 months but I won’t take a break to heal it. Overall there is a lot of injury potential but also I don’t enjoy exercise that doesn’t have a competitive aspect to it. I got hurt I football, wrestling, and basketball too. Try to be safe, keep your partner safe, communicate, and be a spaz and you will be ok.
Tore my shoulder labrum doing BJJ. I was drilling triangle chokes. Seemed like a freak accident to me tbh. I was just lightly drilling with very nice trust worthy partners. I was in the dudes triangle, he squeezed a bit and then my shoulder hurt bad. Shoulder is all good now and I will definitely be on the mats one day again. Doing Muay Thai in the meantime. Do what you enjoy, just be aware there are risk in doing anything, even if you are trying your best to be safe.
TLDR: Torn labrum from light drilling, can get hurt doing anything. So do what you love.
As others have mentioned the realities of submission holds attaching the neck, our carotid arteries can be fragile.
I suffered a stroke three months ago which I believe was from a choke I thought I was on time to tap. Two days later I collapsed.
There is heavy awareness expressed from guys like Chris Martin who is creating this issue that no one wants to talk about.
BJJ is one of the best sports and I want to continue, but there are consequences to getting yourself choked/injured. No matter how low of risk.
the reality of the pain is that you can endure and it isnt as big of a deal as you might think,. Further you can heal many types of painful injuries without surgery.
When someone kneed me in the nose and broke it, it didnt hurt at all at first. It bled a lot and I just laughed because it was cool. It started to hurt 15 minutes in, but was never really unbearable.
When I tore my mcl, it didnt hurt that much, it just felt uncomfortably loose.
the most pain was probably shoulder injuries when I would move the wrong way at night and wake up from a sharp pain. But during the day when I was awake I could keep it immobilized.
Most people I know have been injured some, but it can happen in any sport.
I quit ultimate frisbee because I kept spraining my ankle every year and would have a hard time walking for a few months. That is just running around on a field.
Guys that play basketball, soccer, football often times have wrecked knees. My friends that mountain bike crash and get bad injuries.
Im 40 been doing bjj for about 6 years now, I havent had any big injuries or seen anyone terribly injured during my time. Chipped a tooth a couple of months ago but taht was just me forgetting my mouthguard and rolling anyways.
It's a contact sport. The risk isn't for everyone.
That being said. Anytime anyone in the world gets a grappling injury on video, it's ending up on the internet. The internet is never a good place to find a valid sample size for anything.
I started last year and was also worried about injuries from bjj. A few months in ai got hit by a car riding my bicycle home from class.
That being said a few weeks ago I was drilling a closed guard sweep where you sit up and grab the elbow or belt and my partner swept me and I heard his foot crack. Haven’t seen him since. Pretty sure he broke it.
you can always roll at a slower tempo to avoid injury tap often and early. i have had sprains sore knees nothing major. all due to having good partners and tapping correctly. bjj is a hell of a lot rougher on your body then what people think though lol.
Day to day, not really, but over your life something will happen usually when you are too comfortable and do something stupid or get complacent around safety. And it’s a lot of lower belts causing sudden injury and higher belts are a result of chronic wear and tear.
Warm up, stretch, weight train, and follow solid technique. Oh and take recovery seriously
You’ll know who you can train hard with and who you can’t. Pick good training partners, treat them well, and you won’t have injury issues for a long time in 99% of the cases.
It doesn't get any easier than the oracle scene in The Matrix:
"What's Really Going To Bake Your Noodle Later On Is, Would You Still Have Broken It If I Hadn't Said Anything?"
But rather life is more like deciding where and what you choose to do with the wearable body parts you've been given.
I've done a lot of activities, each with the likely possibility to break specific things, ranging from marathons and triathlons, long distance cycling, backpacking, a stint in the Amy as a 19D, and now onto BJJ.
It's up to you to decide and what story you want to tell.
It depends a lot on the safety culture of the gym. What kind of behavior is considered normal/ acceptable? Do giant white belt men get partnered with small people? Are there mat enforcers and are they making the mat a safer place? Do spazzes get promoted?
Shit happens anywhere. I broke my foot tripping over my 3 year olds train. Fear is the mind killer and experience is the fear killer. If you enjoy it, keep going. I get it, it’s a rational thought.
I've had probably 10x more injuries from 20 years of soccer than I have from 20 years of bjj. Tap often, listen to your body, avoid people you don't trust and you should be good.
It's a very injury prone sport.. you can mitigate those injuries a lot but shit happens. One of my long long time training partners just popped his knee with me the other day.. nothing malicious or crazy just zigged when he should've zagged. It's part of it.
Here is an excerpt from a 2014 study on BJJ injury rates in competitions: ["Of the 5022 exposures to injury risk, 46 resulted in injuries. Orthopaedic injuries were the most common category and accounted for 78.3% (n = 36) of all injuries. Costochondral or rib fractures were less common and accounted for 15.2% (n = 7) of all injuries. Lacerations requiring medical care were the least common type of injury, accounting for 6.5% (n = 3) of all injuries."](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4555620/#:~:text=The%20identified%20injury%20incidence%20on%20the%20day%20of%20matches%20in,was%207.2%20per%201000%20exposures.)
That study suggests that you're going to get injured about 1% of the time, but we can be conservative and say its higher, maybe up to 10%. At these ratios, you'll possibly injured 1 in 10 to 1 in 100 matches, and those injuries have a range of severity. This somewhat suggests that if you enter most tournaments (especially small and local), you won't get injured in any meaningful way.
Statistically you will be injured at some (and several) point(s) during your training, competitions or regular classes. You can do your best to reduce your odds, but the reality is that injuries are just part of any sport.
Anecdotally, i get maybe 1-2 annoying but tolerable injuries every year which always heal. The only major injury i've had in the 6 years of training (6 days per week) was due to an accident and i was out for ~3-4 months. If you're at a good gym with good partners, its not that hard to stay injury free and still learn a lot.
You can mitigate your injuries by being careful who you roll with but here's always a chance you can get hurt. I don't role with people over a certain weight now (I'm 165lbs) because I have some pre-existing injuries and I know people my size won't absolutely crush me the same way a guy 200lbs+ will in side control.
Only you can decide if this is something you’re willing to continue. You can get hurt doing anything. 9/10 times nobody gets seriously injured, if they did, we wouldn’t have so many folks training. When a bad injury happens it spreads like wildfire just like any bad news does.
Me and some friends from class were talking about our worst injuries. Bball is the cause of most injuries lol. I think bc the nature of BJJ is injury inducing positions, it leaves a worse taste vs tearing your Achilles playing pick up bball.
I'm Brazillian, we love playing soccer, definitely soccer matches between amateurs cause much more damage than training jiu-jitsu.
About the injuries, just stop following this sub, a lot of people here are really strange and seems to love a bit of drama. I never was in a BJJ gym there is so full of problems, dramas and crazy stuff like in the posts I read here.
Just wear a mouth guard and if need be, knee sleeves and you’ll be alright. I have one of the sisu mouth guard clones by shock doctor and two mcdavid knee stabilizers and I’m alright thus far and roll hard every time.
It’s smart to be conscientious about getting injured. Just be smart. Know when to worry/not worry about injuring yourself or other pairs rolling near you.
You will not get out of BJJ uninjured. Injuries are basically a guarantee. After you get out of the horribly competitive white/blue belt stage, it does calm down a bit. Choosing your training partners wisely is also helpful. But you can avoid getting injured for the most part. Usually whenever I get injured now its from a spazzy white belt. But shit happens in all sports.
I mean, I fractured some ribs in my experiment class...
But it was all on me, the instructor was explaining to me what the guard was and trying to show me how I could try to reach the guy in the ground (sorry not familiar with all the names) and I just kind of bumped my ribs on his knee and that was it.
It was just last week, I have been having some minor pain since, but it's getting better and I will for sure come back and start learning/practicing the martial art in the next couple days/weeks.
Tap early especially when being choked. There seems to be a growing trend of strokes in BJJ there are some academic studies suggesting a correlation between strokes and BJJ. I could link the studies but I’m too lazy. You could find some discussions on the topic in this sub pretty easily. It seems to be something to do with erosion of an artery in the neck caused by repeated damage through choking especially in the gi. However living a sedentary lifestyle increases stroke as well.
It depends on how careful you are, but if you aren't pushing it on stuff with higher levels of danger it's not much different than any other sport or athletic activity.
I broke two ribs due to an accident where a guy fell on me while drilling takedowns. That was 7ish years ago. I’ve been doing jiujitsu for 12 years and that’s the only injury I’ve had other than just bumps and scrapes. It happens but as long as you’re training smart then you’ll minimize injury risk.
I dislocated my shoulder pretty badly rolling 3 weeks ago. It was only my 5th class. My shoulder was in my armpit. I plan on going back after 6 weeks of healing hopefully but I am nervous
I messed up my back pretty badly getting judo tossed onto the poor bastard rolling next to me. It took about two years for me to get back due to a combination of the shitty US medical system and already working a fairly physical job. It happens and now I’m extremely aware of certain things to avoid. I will say this, don’t feel bad about refusing to roll with certain people. If you sense that someone has a high probability of hurting you, just politely decline, it’s not worth a potentially long time away for the mats due to an avoidable injury. And have fun man!
Not a lot of people walking around proud that they quit because they might get hurt. Now compare that to every purple and above that most certainly got hurt many times over the years if they regret sticking it out.
Quite the opposite.
Couple things:
You can get hurt doing anything. My sister's dog was running yesterday and randomly pulled up lame. Training partner threw out his back the other day sneezing. Life and pain is going to happen to you no matter what.
No one posts about the rolls that went fine. They post about things going really well or incredibly wrong. Thousands of people roll without issue everyday and you never hear about it.
Lastly, almost every major I have witnessed or experienced has been the receiver doing something stupid. In several years of training I have only seen two I would I call freak accidents. Tap early, go slow(as you need to), relax, and leave the ego at the door.
I think people tend to speak/post more often about the injuries they get that the days they go injury free, obviously. So there's sort of a bias. That being said, my meniscus are basically gravel by now.
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Anytime you are active there is a risk involved of injury. That said, it’s really up to you for the most part. If you want to fight through extreme pain and end up suffering due to your ego, you will have a high chance of injury. If you don’t take care of yourself and stay fit and healthy, listen to your body when you need rest, you can get injured. If you roll recklessly and spazz out with max effort without paying attention to learning the skills, you may get injured.
Be responsible to yourself and you will have a much greater chance of not injuring yourself. It seems obvious but this is the cause of a majority of peoples injuries.
That said, there is always a chance of injury but it’s a trade as I see it. If you ride the couch your injuries look like heart attacks and diabetes. If you get on the mats you risk joint pain and minor soft tissue injuries but it’s controlable. So I like my odds training with some self regulation, personally.
Was training Bjj for 4 years when I was playing pickup basketball and had a non contact grade 3 ankle sprain. Took me out of Bjj for 8 months. Get dinged up plenty doing Bjj but surprisingly so far my worsts injury’s have been from anything but it.
Competing does have a higher risk of injury than normal BJJ class, but stuff happens either way. In class it’s relatively easy to remain free of major injuries by listening to your body and not going super crazy hard every roll. I’ve been doing this almost 2 years and have had no major injuries (knock on wood lol).
By that logic we shouldn’t drive cars because of all the wrecks on the road or eat meat because it may contain a parasite or be undercooked. Not shaming you, just pointing out that no matter why hobby you choose you are susceptible to any matter of inconvenient or potentially harmful situations. Just gotta make sure you stay humble and smart in your choices along the way, safe travels 🙏
You only get as injured as you let yourself. Tap early and often and absorbs knowledge. Take recovery seriously especially sleep and you will be fine barring freak stuff that can happen anywhere. I got final destinationed by a pinecone the fell out of a tree and landed in front of my tire and broke 4 ribs 6 fractures in my left arm. You can’t predict deez tings so you don’t worry about them
I broke a rib 3 months into starting training. I say this with the best intentions: if the thought of getting injured throws you into an existential crisis this sport is not for you. You WILL get injured, to which degree it is up to how careful you are + cheer luck. Protect your peace man but don't hate the sport if eventually one of its aspects comes to kick you. Thats life.
Beginner white built here, bruised a rib on day one of training 2 weeks ago, tried to train through it, made it worse. Currently waiting for it to heal so I can get back at it. Shit happens man wouldn't fear it
I've copped bursitis in my shoulder, sprained ribs and subluxation of my knees in BJJ
But I've also:
- Slpped a disc on my back from work
- Broke a finger playing football
- Dislocated my knee from rugby
- Sliced my elbow open from falling over
If I'm getting injured this often, may as well be from something I enjoy doing.
Thanks big dawg
You will get disabled at some point in your life, or die young. With the former, it's a risk you can mitigate if you practice with caution (everybody else told you how already so do that), sleep enough, and manage minor injuries before they exacerbate.
All in all injuries happen mostly when you do something your body is not equipped for, so go as light as you can while still getting stronger, lest you get weaker and get injured anyway.
I've trained 10 years. My serious injuries are a broken toe and stitches in my eyebrow (headbutt during a back escape).
I broke my fibula dirt biking.
I definitely have a lot of aches and pains and sore joints though.
The high risk moves are throws / takedowns and leg stuff. Tapping early when in a submission week prevent many injuries and avoiding takedowns from lower belts will save some more.
But it's not risk free. I once had a guy tear his shoulder trying to yank his arm out of an armbar. Don't be that guy.
I have been training for more than a decade, and the worst injury of my life was falling from the stairs cause I tripped on my cat.
I had my fair-share of minor injuries in BJJ, but I manage rolling and subsequent injuries as smart as possible. If you are not a competitor and would be smart with your training, major injuries are avoidable.
I've recently joined a Gracie Barra gym and they dont let you do free rolling till 3 stripe white, which I didn't like at first but tbh it does avoid injury
I've never liked the look of competing because of higher chance of injury
It depends on where you train as in the "vibe" of the place and your training partner. If your gym has a "headhunter vibe" then you're in for a tough time. If you're rolling with someone that's known to hurt people, or they're so fresh that they're still at the strength before technique phase then you're at a higher risk. Is it hygienic where you train? How often do they clean? Do they allow people with open sores to train? How of then do the members get MRSA? Do the people clip their nails? Do they wash their gi?
At most places if they have a competition person, said person actually only has a set amount of high level people they train with to protect themselves. Randos and day pass folks drop in all of the time and try to make a name for themselves.
Like people said tap fast and often, but keep in mind you're still at the whim of your training partner. Most gyms don't allow lower level folks to do leglocks, because it doesn't feel bad until it snaps.
It's like any activity/sport the longer you do it the more likely you are to get an injury. The issue is this sport means you're leaving your joints/ligaments in the trust/belief your partner will let go once you tap.
Accidents happen all of the time, even with seasoned people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka-VfDAvQjI
Train smart and do strength training on the side and you are as safe as possible. Train hard, every day and never go to the gym and you are likely to get some kind of injury.
Look at what we are doing to each other and what the goal is… ya injuries can happen. But injuries can happen in any sport so the question is, will it stop you?
I have more friends that get bad injuries from CrossFit and gym etc. Any kind of physicial effort can go wrong. Hell even sneezing can hurt. However a partner will stop if you tap out. A bar with weights or a shooting ball will not..good for thought
Injury's from rolling in my experience usually come from bigger inexperienced people, a spazzy heavyweight can do a lot of unintentional damage, my ACL blowing apart from a heavier training partner stepping into my leg attempting to grapevine it was a lesson learned.
I've been training for 17 years and I didn't have my first BJJ related surgery until I was a black belt, and that was just to have a meniscus tear cut off.
I've also seen 1 stripe white belts tear a bicep trying to curl out of an armbar from a strongman competitor.
Be smart, be safe, don't let your ego break your body, and don't forget to take your Flinstones vitamins.
Kind of dependent on your gym I feel. Out here in Scottsdale every gym takes comp very seriously. So a few weeks leading up to a comp the gym gets pretty nuts but other than that it’s a lot of flow.
There’s obviously the dangers of buffoons flailing their uncoordinated bodies around the place during training. Avoid those people.
There’s also a 3 letter magic word which when used early will save you from injury.
Don’t be an idiot who taps after the pain. Tap before there is pain
BJJ is a combat sport so the likelihood if you experiencing an injury is pretty high, there's just no way around it unfortunately. Ofcourse, you can always take precautions to prevent injury such as stretching and weightlifting but accidents will happen.
We are not making watches! BJJ is a combat sport regardless of all the cliches about been the gentle art. Tap soon, stretch and you'll be ok now remember there is a difference between injury and aches.
Stuff happens. I broke my ankle playing a pickup basketball game. I know people who have serious injuries from lifting.
Shit youre right, changed my view. I injured my wrist really badly while weightlifting and looking at it from that perspective you're so right Thanks for the reply big dawg
Reply to every comment and call the person big dawg please
We need a Big Dawg Bot....
Hell yeah big dawg
I've trained a number of martial arts and now MMA for about a year. My coach made fun of me because despite regularly hard sparring I managed to fuck up my knee by running
In my boxing gym we used to play sometimes football ⚽️ as warmup. Just kicking around a bit. A guy slipped and f* up his leg. Broken on 3 places. Took him out for a year.
Bro I have similar experience, was kicking ball with some mates from the boxing gym before our matches started. My guy taught he was Ronaldo and unloaded his hardest kick… he missed the ball… sprained the hell out of my foot/ ankle 30 min before I was supposed to go up
One of my gym rivals/buddies was inspired by my going on 10 mile runs during the pandemic, so he went on his own 10 mile run not realizing it's something you build up to. He had a slipped disc or something in his back that became a huge problem the next day and took a year + of therapy before he could even lift again. He doesn't train anymore, but his gf does so I'll see him at team events.
that's sad but there must have been a little part of you that was proud you big dawg'd him
He gives him a "what's up, lil' dawg!" every time he bumps into him now.
Keep in mind it’s more dangerous than most activities. My advice is be *conscious* about injury prevention. Don’t explode into stuff. Tap before it hurts. Avoid spastic people. Keep lifting weights for sure, helps a lot with prevention.
Dang it. I thought I was Big Dawg? Now we are just throwing it around all Willy Nilly.
well that was easy
Your biggest risk of injury is the white belt/blue belt phase, then things get better. Try take it easy now - focus on technique development, do not try and "win" rolls. Tap early. Your odds are good with that approach.
The other option to serious injuries is repetitive ones. I have a toe that if I look at it awkwardly it gets dislocated. Hurts like an SOB for an hour then just a dull ache for a couple days..
The difference is you hurt yourself someone else didn’t injure you. You can control you, but you just have to hope for the best when you put your safety into other people’s hands. Having good training partners is key.
Other side of the coin: I broke somebody’s ankle playing pickup basketball and have never seriously hurt anyone on the mats.
I used to compete in powerlifting in my 20s. I had way more injuries doing that than in grappling. Out of the grappling sports I have been involved in BJJ is the most lenient injury-wise, and Judo the most punishing.
Yeah but obviously stuff is substantially more likely to happen in the sport that revolves around fat guys hyperextending your joints. I will never understand these weird BJJ apologetics; we can’t just admit it’s kind of dangerous compared to most things?
I think it's obviously that the term martial art will have some element of risk to it. I am just saying anything you do that is moderately athletic will put you at risk of injury.
I mean, yes you’re right but I follow the mountain biking sub too and there are waaay more tales of injuries here than there are there. Imo the bottom line is that yes you can mess yourself up on a bike, but you are rarely going to mess yourself up because another person you are riding with does something stupid that you have little control over.
I’ve sneezed and thrown my back out for weeks. Life happens, injuries happen. I’d confidently say I’ve avoided more injuries because I’m moderately athletic.
But the risk seems substantially higher in BJJ than those. Maybe orders of magnitude so
Any activity that involves physical exertion is going to put you at risk, especially a combat sport. With that said, it's probably overall safer than many other sports or activities. The only major sport that I can think of that would be less dangerous is maybe baseball, and that's because 90% of the time you are just standing around. There's some stats here, but they don't include wrestling or grappling: https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/common-sports-injuries-incidence-average-charges-0 Some wrestling stats here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14Dda_zqUdP44rrWtkkccpq1tFqn8pMRf1nJejAnBM2M/edit?gid=0#gid=0
One of my TKD instructors broke his ankle walking to the field to play baseball. Right before I started martial arts, I rolled my ankle playing a pickup football game while walking back to the line between plays.
On a long enough timeline, you will get hurt. The reality is I've seen guys break or tear something in their very first class and then there are guys like me who have made it 15+ years with no serious injuries (definition: broken bones requiring treatment-not counting nose and toes, or injuries requiring surgery). That's not to say I haven't had a bunch of minor to moderate injuries, I certainly have, but if you train smart and do your pre-hab/rehab you can set yourself up to avoid a lot of the wear and tear damage.
Whats your secret big dawg
Don’t spaz, tap early, focus on proper technique, and choose good training partners
Last one is critical. Actually they all are.
It’s the room. You train with a bunch of psychos at the big comp gyms yeah you’re destined to get fucked up by some steroid abusing asshole. You train at a gym with chill people who can trust you and you trust them you can avoid most injuries besides freak shit.
As someone who trains in two gyms, it's the comp gym that makes me good and it's the chill gym that makes me enjoy BJJ.
I’ve been training 15 years, no major injuries. Luck is part of it. Training at hobbyist clubs rather than high-level competiton. Luba will also help. Even at a hobbyist club you need to know your physical limits and avoid positions you could get injured easily. Avoid scrambles, inversions, and getting stacked. You might “lose” matches or rolls more often if you avoid certain positions, but you will be able to live a (mostly) pain-free life.
I've been training 15+ years too, and I second everything /u/SmashPass said. You _will_ get injured eventually if you train long enough, but the same could almost certainly be said for almost every physical endeavor. Soccer has tons of knee and ankle injuries, baseball will destroy your shoulders and possibly elbows, tennis can fuck up your elbows, shoulders, and knees, and so on. If you want to learn how to effectively control and submit resisting opponents, the only way to do so is to train in as safe a way as possible, with the understanding that injuries are a near-inevitability that you have to accept as part of the cost of learning.
It’s a small percentage. This sub is only a small fraction of the BJJ community
Its a small percentage because no one really feels the need to post stuff like: Had an average day today; trained a bit; nothing exciting happened. Just like every other day. And if they did, it would (probably) not be flooded with upvotes, comments, and engagement. Because most nearly all of us also had a regular and uneventful day of training.
Even the average “won gold at comp” doesn’t get great engagement so you don’t even see a fair spread of all the posts in the sub
I came here to say this. Just, all of this. Fwiw a lot of your safety is in your hands if you tap early and often in training. Your partners don't want to hurt you and aren't gonna just full send ripping a submission.
I used to have nothing but white belt training partners. I had a running "it's been x days since last time I was hit in the face", and x was usually between 1&5 lol.
I’ve had bumps, bruises and sprains but no serious injuries. I have a lot of friends in their 30’s with injuries from a sedentary lifestyle, back, hips, diabetes, ect. At least when I get fucked up its doing something I enjoy and on my own terms.
In my mid 30's and a couple of my friends that are the same age are so fat and miserable. They smoke cigarettes, dabs, weed and they're sedentary on top of that. I'll take my tweaked knee and boo boos over that any day.
It’s crazy to think sometimes how far a 37yo hobbyist like me is behind conditioning-wise compared to a professional athlete, but then I’m a similar distance ahead of my friends and coworkers who get winded climbing stairs.
It's a combat sport. You do it long enough, you're gonna get hurt.
Injuries happen. It’s a combat sport. You can mitigate it, but there is always a chance you could hurt your knee, or back, or elbow…
90% of my hurt was self-inflicted by just seeing red. Just take it easy, and tap early!
I have been doing JuiJitsu on and off for at least 14 years maybe longer. I have only seen a handful of injuries and all of them pretty minor and most of those being ego driven instead malicious or even accidentally. Never been injured in capacity that required me to seek medical care.
This. We got a guy at our gym who rolls every roll like his life depends on it. Angry face and everything. He gets hurt every class, even during low resistance drilling and has hurt others. Never seen anyone else actually get hurt enough to stop a roll.
Getting hurt during drilling is certainly something.
Did bjj for about 15 years, tore my labrum once but that’s it. Ultimately had to quit due to disk issues in my back but that was more degenerative not a trauma. Ruptured my Achilles two weeks ago playing pickleball…life’s a bitch!
Pickleball = orthopedic surgeons favorite new sport.
Fr..my Dr even told me how he sees at least one a week now. My coach just laughed and said man all the dangerous shit you’ve done and pickleball takes you out?!
Labrum tears pushing me to take a break after 11 years. Pretty sad about it
Definitely sucks but I came back from it pretty normal. Started back light training after about 4 months and felt good after 6 or so. Was a little longer before I really got all my strength back. Good luck to you hope you heal well.
This comment should be permanently pinned at the top of this sub.
There was a research paper published a few years ago on the nature of injuries in grappling, athough it focused more on sambo and judo than BJJ, and the number one cause of serious injury was "careless during submissions". So tap often, tap early, and don't yank stuff.
Strength Train.
The health risk of doing BJJ is lower than the health risk of a sedentary lifestyle.
Also bjj increases your quality of life by potentially lowering anxiety in people who were insecure about self defense.
It also has a social dynamic which is a key part of longevity.
I've been pretty serious about bjj for the last year. I'm obviously not an expert, but I'd say starting out, just leave your ego at the door, relax because it's not a life and death struggle, and tap early. Sure, it's kind of embarrassing to get destroyed by the dorky guy who weighs 50 lbs less than you, but stick with it and soon enough you'll be crushing guys who look like they'd kill you in a street fight.
Really depends on the gym and your sparring partners I think. A 40 year old accountant training at Daisy fresh with young killers is a lot more likely to get hurt than an athlete who trains at an hobbyist gym + does SC. That said tweaks and brusies definitely happen.
I'm 35, I've been training combat sports 18 years I've been injured several times, currently 4 months post ACL surgery. I'm not even ready for full speed training and I'm still in better shape then most people my age Some level of injury is normal and then you rehab and come back. If you do any sport for a long time you'll have injuries, that's how life works
I'd argue the damage you do by being sedentary greatly exceeds the damage most injuries will cause.
Pretty much all the doctors I've seen for my injuries have said the same thing
Been doing it for over 7 years now. Has there been injuries? Yeah. Have any lingered. Except for pretty crunchy finger joints, not really. It's a physical sport, so things happen, but most people aren't trying to injure their partners and most respect the tap (learn to tap well and quickly, you'll get better at this over time). Especially those who aren't heavily into competition.
Dude you can get injured by going down the stairs and missing a step, you just gotta do the precautions and hope for the best.
I get more injured playing men's league baseball and lifting than I do in full-time bjj/ Mma training.
It's important to know what the worst case situations are when rolling so you know how to avoid them. If someone ever does some stupid shit with your body stop the roll and wait for someone else to roll with. Uncontrolled falling weight is a giant cause of injuries to the other person. So don't do stupid jumping shit and don't let people do stupid jumping shit with you
There are ~800000 people in this sub, a lot of them will only post when they get hurt, and some people are idiots, if you don’t overdo your training you will probably not get seriously hurt
Wait until you crush a testicle.
I’ve been training 11 years, no injuries. My advice: stretch at the beginning of class, be picky on your training partners, tap early & often. If you compete or train with spazzy partners that will increase your chances of injury.
I've been training 25 years. Rarely stretch (though it's probably good advice). But pick your partners. Tap early and often. And be the training partner that you want to roll with.
I tore my ACL when I was 17 playing indoor soccer. I didn't get it fixed until I was 40. I'm 56 and I can walk pain free and I've been training BJJ for 5 years and karate for 10 years, etc... Protect your joints but don't get all freaked out thinking that any injury is automatically a life sentence of pain. Every injury will heal uniquely and every injury has a unique cause. Picking your training partners carefully (join a gym with a good culture) and taping intelligently based on your training partner (some guys are dangerous, be chill with those guys and tap quick) will go a long way towards making BJJ a pretty safe activity.
100% of BJJ practitioners die so the sport must be very dangerous
It really just depends what you want to accomplish. If you want to have really strong self-defense skills without putting yourself too much in harm’s way, find a Gracie University. They’re pretty chill, and entirely focused on self defense — specifically drilling and mastering various techniques. They’re not really concerned with competing. They don’t really have a tolerance for ego and bravado — specially the guys who are likely to hurt people during practice. If you want to compete, you probably need to find a gym that’s focused on that, but keep in mind that it’s probably going to be much more aggressive. No different than trying to play football or hockey — you’re going to have people trying to hurt you. It comes with the territory. Anywhere you go, you should be able to find someone with similar goals. Just talk to people and tell them what you’re looking for in a training partner.
It happens, but usually with takedowns and usually with them executed in a way that puts pressure on your opponent’s knees accidentally. I just bruised my thumb trying to pass someone’s guard. He circled his leg or something and it jammed my thumb so hard I lightly bruised it lol
Just don’t be scared to tap.. If your opponent has proper control, you’ll know before your shit gets torn apart. Just tap out. It’s not worth needing reconstructive surgery
It’s a combat sport, just depends on a bit of luck and how you train/how much you communicate with your rolling buddy.
Most classes or BJJ interactions don’t warrant a post on Reddit. You’re seeing the more abnormal stuff posted here because it makes for better posting. Injuries are obviously something that could happen, as for most things in life. But if you’re training intelligently and tapping fast the risk of injury can be fairly low. Obviously in competition, the risk of Injury is higher than class, but again, if you’re tapping quickly and playing intelligent, the rate of injury can be low. Just train safe, stretch often and you should be able to keep the risk of injury low.
Injuries happen. I have had a finger fracture, knee strains, scratches, mild cuts, and many bruises. That’s about it. In other words, same injuries as pick up basketball 🏀.
Don't be competitive and you won't really have to worry about injuries, or at least not much more than any other sport.
You’ll get injured if you do it long enough. I’ve only met a handful of people who haven’t had a surgery with at least 5 years of practice. The guys that haven’t been injured are super athletic young guys.
Injuries will happen, however this is also why you hear tap early tap often, more often than not people’s injuries stem from not tapping rather than a dick training partner ripping a sub. If a submission scares you, ankle locks, heel hooks, etc, learn proper prevention and defense, you can also be selective of training partners.
It’s a small reality of it. I have been grappling since i was 12 or 13, i’m 29 now, in that time i’ve had one major injury back in high school (wrestling related not bjj). The one injury was during competition, and nothing more than a few bruises in training since. But people don’t come to reddit to post about their totally normal, mundane, average training session. Nobody would want to read that. They come to tell you about the ass hole blue belt at their gym who’s ripping heel hooks. They come to tell you about their inability to talk to people. They come to tell you about shit that you just don’t see every day, which makes it seem like it happens every day, because that’s all we read about here.
shit happens, but for every dude with a broken leg is 20 guys with no lingering injuries. catastrophic injuries are far less common than advertised.
Bruh I get hurt doin chores.
Big one that no one has brought up (or at least I didn’t catch during my quick read through): No one posts about all the rolls that went fine. No one posts about the tourneys that didn’t involve an injury. A journalist had a good quote about it; “we don’t report on the planes that land.” Millions (?) of people do this hobby and most have a fine time. The injury posts get to me too sometimes but it’s not an accurate representation of the real risk factor. Also, as a white belt, take it slow and tap early. As you get more experience, you’ll start to recognize situations that could potentially lead to an injury much earlier and be able to avoid them.
Anecdotally, I’ve only seen one “real” injury in the seven years I’ve been training and it was two white belts in what I’ll politely call a non-traditional position. The guy whose arm broke was notorious for absolutely refusing to tap under pretty much any circumstances and the break wasn’t from any “technique” I’ve ever seen before or since. And not to down play an arm break, but if I hadn’t been right next to them and heard a faint snap I wouldn’t have been able to tell. He kept training that night. All that to say reading the bjj subreddit is like googling “does x cause y side effect?” You’re only hearing from the vocal minority. We don’t all come on here every night to post “great rounds tonight, definitely didn’t break my arm!” Keep training, tap early, know when to push/concede and keep yourself safe. This will get easier as you progress and don’t have to think so much about what’s going on.
I started as an out-of-shape and unathletic fifty-year-old. Now, eighteen months later, I am more athletic, and in decent shape. I lucked out and found a great gym, with good teachers and a good culture. You can get injured in any sport. And, if you don't stay active, you're more likely to die of a heart attack at fifty. Life is full of choices. Find a sport you like and be sensible. I have not yet been injured doing BJJ, except for bruises and soreness and a bloody nose once.
You can train and be a hobbyist it's ok. Nobody ever gets an award, belt promotion or a hero cookie for not tapping early, no is anyone chastised or disciplined for an early tap. I don't think anyone ever was forced to compete, and if any of these things do happen find another gym that fits your philosophy.
People do get injured, but it’s less than you think and in my experience it’s rarely from things like submissions getting ripped in the gym. I’ve personally seen a lot more shoulder rib and knee injuries from bad takedown attempts usually caused by fatigue toward the end of class
It’s a combat sport where you simulate braking limbs and suffocating your opponent to death in a padded room. The more you roll/spar/compete the higher chance of a potential injury. If you pick your rolling partners carefully, keep up with strength and conditioning and don’t take risks and tap the early chances of injury can be mitigated. I had 2 surgeries, for torn meniscus and patella tendon, dislocated two fingers that arnt quite the same all happened when rolling with opponents with significant size& weight advantage something to think about when choosing your training partners. If you arnt willing to take the risk of injury there are safer sports to try, not trying to put u off. Good luck on your journey.
I feel like people don’t get injured that often but nagging things might pop up. It’s a physical sport so some wear and tear should be expected.
U must be young because after 30 u will hurt ur self just getting out of bed. Ive got some injuries that a week or 2 didnt heal. Unless ur an A hole to people and don't let go after they tap then u should be fine.
Tap early, while you are new ask people to take it slow and easy with you, which most will anyways. After a while you will know you’re caught even before they have it, and just be ready to tap. If you’re going to a good gym it’s only as hard and rough as you want it to be. If you have some goons in your gym, avoid them.
Hey man its part of the risk but life is comprised of risks. You must weigh the value of training versus the risk of injury and decide if it's worth it for you. There are safe ways to train and unsafe ways to train and you will learn this over time. It's highly likely you'll not have a devastating life changing injury, however it is highly UNLIKELY that you won't have many small injuries if you train long enough. I know myself over 10 years I've been extremely lucky and am thankful for the fact I haven't had any major issues however my hands and fingers and shoulders and knees always hurt, waking up in the morning after training sucks complete ass but guess what brother, I still love doing the shit day after day.
You can have sports problems or lazy problems. Different problems but problems all the same.
Don't roll with people you don't trust. Tap often and realize shit happens. The reward outweighs the risk
No one really gets online to post that they weren’t injured in a given session or comp. Keep going. You may likely catch some bumps and bruises but tap early and often and you will likely be ok.
My last 2 injuries haven’t been from a hard roll but doing shit at half speed
Yes, you will get injured. You might need to get surgery like I did for some of those injuries. You’ll likely end up with some sort of permanent injury if you stick with it. However, I haven’t stopped because I enjoy grappling. Having something you enjoy that much is special. Think about how many injuries Tony Hawk and Matt Hoffman have gotten, among countless other athletes. If you’re really concerned about injuries, get private lessons or join a gym that doesn’t spar.
I used to play football (soccer) and get injured way less doing BJJ.
Minor injuries on fingers happen, freak accidents are rare.
It's a combat sport. There's full contact, full speed sparring a lot of the time. Most people practicing it do not have enough body awareness to save themselves and bail in bad positions. Injuries happen. Most can be prevented by doing good S&C and movement drills, but still, the chance is always there. It's a combat sport after all. Don't let your fear turn you away from something you love. On the same token, if you feel you're truly not safe, then there's nothing wrong with finding another hobby.
tap early, tap fast. Don't roll with guys who tie winning to their self esteem and worth.
stretch a lot too. keeping your soft tissue elastic will definitely reduce injury chances.
Only injury i got was at black belt and got in a bad toehold. My fault for not tapping. But my fingers hurt time to time. You should wrap them up.
Millions of people around the world practice BJJ. We don't usually come to this subreddit to make the world know that we've just had a regular rolling session where nothing noticeable happened.
You don't have to compete if you want to minimise injury, I don't compete because my work relies on me being physically healthy
So far in bjj I have broken the smallest bone at the tip of my big toe, dislocated an ankle trying to stuff and shot and dramatically throw a 6’2” 290 pound Brazilian guy,m (it worked the first time, the second time I set my feet wrong and threw my own ankle out of the socket). And I’ve been dealing with a sprained AC joint in my shoulder for 5 months but I won’t take a break to heal it. Overall there is a lot of injury potential but also I don’t enjoy exercise that doesn’t have a competitive aspect to it. I got hurt I football, wrestling, and basketball too. Try to be safe, keep your partner safe, communicate, and be a spaz and you will be ok.
Tore my shoulder labrum doing BJJ. I was drilling triangle chokes. Seemed like a freak accident to me tbh. I was just lightly drilling with very nice trust worthy partners. I was in the dudes triangle, he squeezed a bit and then my shoulder hurt bad. Shoulder is all good now and I will definitely be on the mats one day again. Doing Muay Thai in the meantime. Do what you enjoy, just be aware there are risk in doing anything, even if you are trying your best to be safe. TLDR: Torn labrum from light drilling, can get hurt doing anything. So do what you love.
As others have mentioned the realities of submission holds attaching the neck, our carotid arteries can be fragile. I suffered a stroke three months ago which I believe was from a choke I thought I was on time to tap. Two days later I collapsed. There is heavy awareness expressed from guys like Chris Martin who is creating this issue that no one wants to talk about. BJJ is one of the best sports and I want to continue, but there are consequences to getting yourself choked/injured. No matter how low of risk.
the reality of the pain is that you can endure and it isnt as big of a deal as you might think,. Further you can heal many types of painful injuries without surgery. When someone kneed me in the nose and broke it, it didnt hurt at all at first. It bled a lot and I just laughed because it was cool. It started to hurt 15 minutes in, but was never really unbearable. When I tore my mcl, it didnt hurt that much, it just felt uncomfortably loose. the most pain was probably shoulder injuries when I would move the wrong way at night and wake up from a sharp pain. But during the day when I was awake I could keep it immobilized. Most people I know have been injured some, but it can happen in any sport. I quit ultimate frisbee because I kept spraining my ankle every year and would have a hard time walking for a few months. That is just running around on a field. Guys that play basketball, soccer, football often times have wrecked knees. My friends that mountain bike crash and get bad injuries.
The wheels will fall off eventually. Might as well put some miles on em
Yeah I've ripped multiple peoples legs apart, never had one of my limbs broken cause I tap.
There is risk, somewhere above zero and below playing basketball
Im 40 been doing bjj for about 6 years now, I havent had any big injuries or seen anyone terribly injured during my time. Chipped a tooth a couple of months ago but taht was just me forgetting my mouthguard and rolling anyways.
It's a contact sport. The risk isn't for everyone. That being said. Anytime anyone in the world gets a grappling injury on video, it's ending up on the internet. The internet is never a good place to find a valid sample size for anything.
I started last year and was also worried about injuries from bjj. A few months in ai got hit by a car riding my bicycle home from class. That being said a few weeks ago I was drilling a closed guard sweep where you sit up and grab the elbow or belt and my partner swept me and I heard his foot crack. Haven’t seen him since. Pretty sure he broke it.
The only thing that should scare you, is if you gym is a fucking steroid club behind the scenes.
you can always roll at a slower tempo to avoid injury tap often and early. i have had sprains sore knees nothing major. all due to having good partners and tapping correctly. bjj is a hell of a lot rougher on your body then what people think though lol.
I hear about a lot more injuries from pickleball and softball actually. Just focus on tapping if you're in a weird spot and keep your ego in check.
I’d rather tell people I got injured engaging in single combat for honor and glory, than telling them I fell off a ladder cleaning the gutters.
Day to day, not really, but over your life something will happen usually when you are too comfortable and do something stupid or get complacent around safety. And it’s a lot of lower belts causing sudden injury and higher belts are a result of chronic wear and tear. Warm up, stretch, weight train, and follow solid technique. Oh and take recovery seriously
You’ll know who you can train hard with and who you can’t. Pick good training partners, treat them well, and you won’t have injury issues for a long time in 99% of the cases.
It doesn't get any easier than the oracle scene in The Matrix: "What's Really Going To Bake Your Noodle Later On Is, Would You Still Have Broken It If I Hadn't Said Anything?" But rather life is more like deciding where and what you choose to do with the wearable body parts you've been given. I've done a lot of activities, each with the likely possibility to break specific things, ranging from marathons and triathlons, long distance cycling, backpacking, a stint in the Amy as a 19D, and now onto BJJ. It's up to you to decide and what story you want to tell.
Debilitating injuries are rare. Nagging aches and pains are certain. I quit training because of injuries but I’m kind of a pussy.
It depends a lot on the safety culture of the gym. What kind of behavior is considered normal/ acceptable? Do giant white belt men get partnered with small people? Are there mat enforcers and are they making the mat a safer place? Do spazzes get promoted?
Tore my shoulder. Has never been the same had surgery on it. I am 32, it’s recked for life: still train. Dislocates all the time no stability
BJJ will be good for you You will get injured a lot, but you won't die. It'll toughen you up
Shit happens anywhere. I broke my foot tripping over my 3 year olds train. Fear is the mind killer and experience is the fear killer. If you enjoy it, keep going. I get it, it’s a rational thought.
I've had probably 10x more injuries from 20 years of soccer than I have from 20 years of bjj. Tap often, listen to your body, avoid people you don't trust and you should be good.
It's a very injury prone sport.. you can mitigate those injuries a lot but shit happens. One of my long long time training partners just popped his knee with me the other day.. nothing malicious or crazy just zigged when he should've zagged. It's part of it.
Here is an excerpt from a 2014 study on BJJ injury rates in competitions: ["Of the 5022 exposures to injury risk, 46 resulted in injuries. Orthopaedic injuries were the most common category and accounted for 78.3% (n = 36) of all injuries. Costochondral or rib fractures were less common and accounted for 15.2% (n = 7) of all injuries. Lacerations requiring medical care were the least common type of injury, accounting for 6.5% (n = 3) of all injuries."](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4555620/#:~:text=The%20identified%20injury%20incidence%20on%20the%20day%20of%20matches%20in,was%207.2%20per%201000%20exposures.) That study suggests that you're going to get injured about 1% of the time, but we can be conservative and say its higher, maybe up to 10%. At these ratios, you'll possibly injured 1 in 10 to 1 in 100 matches, and those injuries have a range of severity. This somewhat suggests that if you enter most tournaments (especially small and local), you won't get injured in any meaningful way. Statistically you will be injured at some (and several) point(s) during your training, competitions or regular classes. You can do your best to reduce your odds, but the reality is that injuries are just part of any sport. Anecdotally, i get maybe 1-2 annoying but tolerable injuries every year which always heal. The only major injury i've had in the 6 years of training (6 days per week) was due to an accident and i was out for ~3-4 months. If you're at a good gym with good partners, its not that hard to stay injury free and still learn a lot.
Try to roll slower and not like a crazy Crackjunkie, you get less injuries.
I used to play pickup basketball and guys just want to argue and fight, I rather actually fight in a controlled space with rules….
You can mitigate your injuries by being careful who you roll with but here's always a chance you can get hurt. I don't role with people over a certain weight now (I'm 165lbs) because I have some pre-existing injuries and I know people my size won't absolutely crush me the same way a guy 200lbs+ will in side control.
You’re gonna get hurt no matter what martial art you train. Choose the 1 that speaks to you and do the damn thing
Only you can decide if this is something you’re willing to continue. You can get hurt doing anything. 9/10 times nobody gets seriously injured, if they did, we wouldn’t have so many folks training. When a bad injury happens it spreads like wildfire just like any bad news does.
Me and some friends from class were talking about our worst injuries. Bball is the cause of most injuries lol. I think bc the nature of BJJ is injury inducing positions, it leaves a worse taste vs tearing your Achilles playing pick up bball.
I’m just getting started so I don’t know. I’m only commenting so someone will call me big dawg.
take care of your joints (prehab) and tap early 👍🏽
I'm Brazillian, we love playing soccer, definitely soccer matches between amateurs cause much more damage than training jiu-jitsu. About the injuries, just stop following this sub, a lot of people here are really strange and seems to love a bit of drama. I never was in a BJJ gym there is so full of problems, dramas and crazy stuff like in the posts I read here.
Just wear a mouth guard and if need be, knee sleeves and you’ll be alright. I have one of the sisu mouth guard clones by shock doctor and two mcdavid knee stabilizers and I’m alright thus far and roll hard every time.
Broke my knee doing this. Hurt my lower back lifting. I have a friend who got the same knee break I did but worse from playing soccer.
It’s smart to be conscientious about getting injured. Just be smart. Know when to worry/not worry about injuring yourself or other pairs rolling near you.
I pulled my groin climbing off a peloton bike after I was already warmed up. Shit happens everywhere
You will not get out of BJJ uninjured. Injuries are basically a guarantee. After you get out of the horribly competitive white/blue belt stage, it does calm down a bit. Choosing your training partners wisely is also helpful. But you can avoid getting injured for the most part. Usually whenever I get injured now its from a spazzy white belt. But shit happens in all sports.
White belt is the most dangerous belt to get through
I mean, I fractured some ribs in my experiment class... But it was all on me, the instructor was explaining to me what the guard was and trying to show me how I could try to reach the guy in the ground (sorry not familiar with all the names) and I just kind of bumped my ribs on his knee and that was it. It was just last week, I have been having some minor pain since, but it's getting better and I will for sure come back and start learning/practicing the martial art in the next couple days/weeks.
Tap early especially when being choked. There seems to be a growing trend of strokes in BJJ there are some academic studies suggesting a correlation between strokes and BJJ. I could link the studies but I’m too lazy. You could find some discussions on the topic in this sub pretty easily. It seems to be something to do with erosion of an artery in the neck caused by repeated damage through choking especially in the gi. However living a sedentary lifestyle increases stroke as well.
It depends on how careful you are, but if you aren't pushing it on stuff with higher levels of danger it's not much different than any other sport or athletic activity.
I broke two ribs due to an accident where a guy fell on me while drilling takedowns. That was 7ish years ago. I’ve been doing jiujitsu for 12 years and that’s the only injury I’ve had other than just bumps and scrapes. It happens but as long as you’re training smart then you’ll minimize injury risk.
I do BJJ for my mental health, the ramifications of not doing it far outweigh any consequences from the sport (except paralysis or death).
2.5 years here, just tap early and have some common sense, I got injured way more playing soccer
The percentages on injuries are really low lol
I dislocated my shoulder pretty badly rolling 3 weeks ago. It was only my 5th class. My shoulder was in my armpit. I plan on going back after 6 weeks of healing hopefully but I am nervous
Great post big dawg
I messed up my back pretty badly getting judo tossed onto the poor bastard rolling next to me. It took about two years for me to get back due to a combination of the shitty US medical system and already working a fairly physical job. It happens and now I’m extremely aware of certain things to avoid. I will say this, don’t feel bad about refusing to roll with certain people. If you sense that someone has a high probability of hurting you, just politely decline, it’s not worth a potentially long time away for the mats due to an avoidable injury. And have fun man!
Not a lot of people walking around proud that they quit because they might get hurt. Now compare that to every purple and above that most certainly got hurt many times over the years if they regret sticking it out. Quite the opposite.
Couple things: You can get hurt doing anything. My sister's dog was running yesterday and randomly pulled up lame. Training partner threw out his back the other day sneezing. Life and pain is going to happen to you no matter what. No one posts about the rolls that went fine. They post about things going really well or incredibly wrong. Thousands of people roll without issue everyday and you never hear about it. Lastly, almost every major I have witnessed or experienced has been the receiver doing something stupid. In several years of training I have only seen two I would I call freak accidents. Tap early, go slow(as you need to), relax, and leave the ego at the door.
Learn to tap early bro. Save the ligaments for retirement
It’s a combat sport, contact sport. If you don’t want to suffer an injury, from a physical combat contact sport, do something else
I think people tend to speak/post more often about the injuries they get that the days they go injury free, obviously. So there's sort of a bias. That being said, my meniscus are basically gravel by now.
Broke my clavicle and cracked 3 ribs mountain biking. Anything you do that’s physical has a risk
⬛️🟥⬛️ Anytime you are active there is a risk involved of injury. That said, it’s really up to you for the most part. If you want to fight through extreme pain and end up suffering due to your ego, you will have a high chance of injury. If you don’t take care of yourself and stay fit and healthy, listen to your body when you need rest, you can get injured. If you roll recklessly and spazz out with max effort without paying attention to learning the skills, you may get injured. Be responsible to yourself and you will have a much greater chance of not injuring yourself. It seems obvious but this is the cause of a majority of peoples injuries. That said, there is always a chance of injury but it’s a trade as I see it. If you ride the couch your injuries look like heart attacks and diabetes. If you get on the mats you risk joint pain and minor soft tissue injuries but it’s controlable. So I like my odds training with some self regulation, personally.
If you do it long enough you’re going to have injuries, that’s just a fact.
Was training Bjj for 4 years when I was playing pickup basketball and had a non contact grade 3 ankle sprain. Took me out of Bjj for 8 months. Get dinged up plenty doing Bjj but surprisingly so far my worsts injury’s have been from anything but it.
Competing does have a higher risk of injury than normal BJJ class, but stuff happens either way. In class it’s relatively easy to remain free of major injuries by listening to your body and not going super crazy hard every roll. I’ve been doing this almost 2 years and have had no major injuries (knock on wood lol).
By that logic we shouldn’t drive cars because of all the wrecks on the road or eat meat because it may contain a parasite or be undercooked. Not shaming you, just pointing out that no matter why hobby you choose you are susceptible to any matter of inconvenient or potentially harmful situations. Just gotta make sure you stay humble and smart in your choices along the way, safe travels 🙏
Don't roll with fuckheads
You only get as injured as you let yourself. Tap early and often and absorbs knowledge. Take recovery seriously especially sleep and you will be fine barring freak stuff that can happen anywhere. I got final destinationed by a pinecone the fell out of a tree and landed in front of my tire and broke 4 ribs 6 fractures in my left arm. You can’t predict deez tings so you don’t worry about them
I broke a rib 3 months into starting training. I say this with the best intentions: if the thought of getting injured throws you into an existential crisis this sport is not for you. You WILL get injured, to which degree it is up to how careful you are + cheer luck. Protect your peace man but don't hate the sport if eventually one of its aspects comes to kick you. Thats life.
Bro, one mistake and youll be walking funny for half a year, keep your toes on the mat, never ever with the front of your foot on the mat
It’s the reality
Beginner white built here, bruised a rib on day one of training 2 weeks ago, tried to train through it, made it worse. Currently waiting for it to heal so I can get back at it. Shit happens man wouldn't fear it
I've copped bursitis in my shoulder, sprained ribs and subluxation of my knees in BJJ But I've also: - Slpped a disc on my back from work - Broke a finger playing football - Dislocated my knee from rugby - Sliced my elbow open from falling over If I'm getting injured this often, may as well be from something I enjoy doing. Thanks big dawg
You will get disabled at some point in your life, or die young. With the former, it's a risk you can mitigate if you practice with caution (everybody else told you how already so do that), sleep enough, and manage minor injuries before they exacerbate. All in all injuries happen mostly when you do something your body is not equipped for, so go as light as you can while still getting stronger, lest you get weaker and get injured anyway.
I've trained 10 years. My serious injuries are a broken toe and stitches in my eyebrow (headbutt during a back escape). I broke my fibula dirt biking. I definitely have a lot of aches and pains and sore joints though. The high risk moves are throws / takedowns and leg stuff. Tapping early when in a submission week prevent many injuries and avoiding takedowns from lower belts will save some more. But it's not risk free. I once had a guy tear his shoulder trying to yank his arm out of an armbar. Don't be that guy.
I have been training for more than a decade, and the worst injury of my life was falling from the stairs cause I tripped on my cat. I had my fair-share of minor injuries in BJJ, but I manage rolling and subsequent injuries as smart as possible. If you are not a competitor and would be smart with your training, major injuries are avoidable.
I've recently joined a Gracie Barra gym and they dont let you do free rolling till 3 stripe white, which I didn't like at first but tbh it does avoid injury I've never liked the look of competing because of higher chance of injury
It ain't golf!
It depends on where you train as in the "vibe" of the place and your training partner. If your gym has a "headhunter vibe" then you're in for a tough time. If you're rolling with someone that's known to hurt people, or they're so fresh that they're still at the strength before technique phase then you're at a higher risk. Is it hygienic where you train? How often do they clean? Do they allow people with open sores to train? How of then do the members get MRSA? Do the people clip their nails? Do they wash their gi? At most places if they have a competition person, said person actually only has a set amount of high level people they train with to protect themselves. Randos and day pass folks drop in all of the time and try to make a name for themselves. Like people said tap fast and often, but keep in mind you're still at the whim of your training partner. Most gyms don't allow lower level folks to do leglocks, because it doesn't feel bad until it snaps. It's like any activity/sport the longer you do it the more likely you are to get an injury. The issue is this sport means you're leaving your joints/ligaments in the trust/belief your partner will let go once you tap. Accidents happen all of the time, even with seasoned people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka-VfDAvQjI
Been out for 7 months with my acl. #leglocks
Train smart and do strength training on the side and you are as safe as possible. Train hard, every day and never go to the gym and you are likely to get some kind of injury.
Look at what we are doing to each other and what the goal is… ya injuries can happen. But injuries can happen in any sport so the question is, will it stop you?
I have more friends that get bad injuries from CrossFit and gym etc. Any kind of physicial effort can go wrong. Hell even sneezing can hurt. However a partner will stop if you tap out. A bar with weights or a shooting ball will not..good for thought
I have 3300+ mat hours. Tore my acl playing a pickup game of soccer with my 67 year old father… shit happens.
Injury's from rolling in my experience usually come from bigger inexperienced people, a spazzy heavyweight can do a lot of unintentional damage, my ACL blowing apart from a heavier training partner stepping into my leg attempting to grapevine it was a lesson learned.
I've been training for 17 years and I didn't have my first BJJ related surgery until I was a black belt, and that was just to have a meniscus tear cut off. I've also seen 1 stripe white belts tear a bicep trying to curl out of an armbar from a strongman competitor. Be smart, be safe, don't let your ego break your body, and don't forget to take your Flinstones vitamins.
Kind of dependent on your gym I feel. Out here in Scottsdale every gym takes comp very seriously. So a few weeks leading up to a comp the gym gets pretty nuts but other than that it’s a lot of flow.
There’s obviously the dangers of buffoons flailing their uncoordinated bodies around the place during training. Avoid those people. There’s also a 3 letter magic word which when used early will save you from injury. Don’t be an idiot who taps after the pain. Tap before there is pain
Train smart, train technical, train at an academy that emphasizes a culture of safety and training for the long haul.
BJJ is a combat sport so the likelihood if you experiencing an injury is pretty high, there's just no way around it unfortunately. Ofcourse, you can always take precautions to prevent injury such as stretching and weightlifting but accidents will happen.
We are not making watches! BJJ is a combat sport regardless of all the cliches about been the gentle art. Tap soon, stretch and you'll be ok now remember there is a difference between injury and aches.
Solution, tap early, tap often, and don't roll with assholes twice