Best Ways to Prevent Injury in Jiu-Jitsu

To get better and climb the ranks of the Jiu-Jitsu ladder, you need to stay consistent in your training practice.  The worst thing that can happen to that dedication and consistency though is injury.  Unfortunately, it does happen and some kind of injury will affect most people at some time or another.  There is good news though.  There are a few great ways to prevent Injury in your Jiu-Jitsu practice.

I will both provide personal experience and guidance and reference a few studies, the main being Injury Patterns, Risk Factors, and Return to Sport in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: A Cross-sectional Survey of 1140 Athletes.  Feel free to check it out yourself as well as looking through some of the main highlights and points in the article below!

Note that an “injury” as defined in most of these stats refers to anything that required an absence of training for at least 2 weeks.  With that being said, let’s get into it!

 

Tap Early, Tap Often

It’s highly likely that you’ve heard this before, and there is a good reason for it.  About 1/3rd of injuries occurring during sparring happen during a submission.  It’s easy to want to fight through and bear it, but a lot of the time it’s better to leave your ego at the door and tap.

This holds even more true if you are a higher belt (purple, brown, black) in competition.  Interestingly, white and blue belts sustained injuries more frequently in training than in competition.

Purple, brown, and black belts experienced the opposite.  I believe it is because higher belts have more control of the moves and positions they get into and can regulate their power and pressure better than newer practitioners.  In competition however, higher belts have refined their skills and are able to hit tighter and more effective submissions.

Because of the training they have gone through, they are far more capable of hurting someone than a lower belt.  This brings me to the next point which may not be a favorite…

Don’t Compete, Especially If You Are Older and A Higher Belt

Belt rank, higher age, and competing regularly were a few of the most significant risk factors for injuries.  To restate the point above, you are far more likely to get injured during competition as a purple, brown, or black belt.

In being a higher belt, the ability to perform and execute submissions and moves is substantially better.  This means that your opponents will be more capable of that as well.  And when there is the pride of winning and the intensity of competition, it is far more likely that you will try to not tap in a situation that you should.

Regarding age, the model that they represented showed a significant increase in injury for those ages 25-40 vs those 22-38.  While that doesn’t seem like a big difference in age, it shows how drastic healing and mat return can be for those in their low 20’s vs those in their high 30’s and 40’s.

One nice point here is among martial arts competitions, Jiu-Jitsu has the lowest injury rate among them.  So if you do decide to compete, know that you are in a far safer martial art than some of the others that are out there.

 

Choose Your Sparring Partners Carefully

77% of injuries in Jiu-Jitsu in this study occurred during sparring (aka rolling).  29% of those were during submissions, 26% was during takedowns, and 24% was during guard passes.

Because such a high percentage of injury occurs from rolling, it is important to go against people who you trust are going to go at the pace and intensity that you want.  If you go to an open mat and want to be careful, I suggest watching people before taking on a new partner.  I would take this especially seriously with opponents that are a lot heavier than you.

In my personal experience, going against higher skill and higher belt opponents can be incredibly safe and rewarding.  They tend to be very intentional with their moves and know the positions and pressure they can put without putting you in any serious danger.

This is incredibly important and something you should look for in all partners.  I touch on the importance of good coaches and people more in my other post, Picking a Jiu-Jitsu Gym: The Ultimate Guide.

 

 

Improve Your Flexibility

One of the other main predictive variables for injuries was the flexibility of the posterior static muscle chain.  Don’t worry, I had to look up what it was too.

The posterior static muscle chain includes calves, hamstrings, glutes, lats, and the muscle along the spine.  These are major muscles that are required to do a large number of activities.  It turns out as well that being more flexible along this muscle chain was a statistically significant factor in reducing your chance of being injured.

Outside of personal stretching to help your own flexibility, I’ve personally found Yoga to be a great way to supplement my Jiu-Jitsu training and would recommend it to anyone.  Great news here is there are tons of guided Yoga sessions for free on Youtube, so it can be easy to add into your routine!  If you decide to take it or something similar on then know you are gaining flexibility while helping prevent potential injury as well!

 

Other Comments

While the amount of training per week doesn’t seem to affect your chance of being injured, the fact that more white and blue belts get injured during training tells me a few things.

1. Working on finishing moves with technique rather than power will always be a good practice.
2. This goes for passing, takedowns, and submissions, which were the highest rates of injury occurrence at 29%, 26%, and 24% respectively.
3. Practice flow rolling more. I.e. sparring at 50% rather than 90%.  Especially as a younger practitioner.

 

4. Interestingly, takedown injuries occurred both to the person who was taken down as well as the one taking down their opponent.  178 occurrences to 100 occurrences respectively.  So learning how to fall is as important as learning to complete a takedown properly.

5. The triangle submission was the most common in injuring the submitter.  Another point for working technique and having flexibility in your legs.

 

Final Thoughts

While there are a lot of good and scientifically backed points in this article, there is one I think is worth highlighting again.  Find good training partners.

Everyone has their own style and pace, and it’s important to find people that fit yours.  These partners will allow you to learn and grow far more effectively than with partners that don’t fit your pace and learning style. So take the time to find your jiu-jitsu people.  You won’t be sorry.

 

Hopefully you found this article insightful and useful.  If there is anything I missed, please let me know in the comment form below!