Tag Archives: injury

Avoiding Knee Injury Against Jumping Closed Guard

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I firmly believe that the road to improvement in any sport should involve the mastery of injury prevention. I am constantly trying to understand what positions may lead to injury and look to avoid those positions or it least avoid the aspects of those positions that result in injury. Let me be more specific with an example from a recent tournament…

A common dangerous situation is when I’m looking to take my opponent down and they are looking to jump closed guard. In most cases, neither person has extensive experience with this exact situation. Most grapplers do not drill (nearly enough) jumping closed guard, and I certainly don’t drill shooting a double while a person is jumping closed guard. Those drilling sessions are too painful to imagine. What has happened to me in the past a few times is I made the mistake of not keeping my knees bent (even just slightly). There are a million reasons not to keep you legs locked out, but when you get tired you do stupid things. So when my opponent jumps closed guard, it’s tempting to step the straight leading leg forward. If they jump too low, this will result in their bodyweight slamming up against my knee. Here’s an example:

When your opponent jumps closed guard, they often pull you forward. This naturally forces you to step forward with as the person does in this video. Injury result when this step is taken on a straight leg not a bent one. The way to avoid injury is to keep a strong base and a bent leading leg. That way the leading leg can support the weight of the jumping person’s body. In general it’s good to have at least a slightly bent leg at all time, kind of like Olympic-style wrestlers do. With a slightly bent leg you can change levels quicker, sprawl back quicker, move around quicker, etc.

Street Fighting Should Be Legal but Regulated by the IBJJF

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USA. New York. 1950.I think a lot of the problems in public discourse (in real-life and online) arise from the fact that people don’t have to back up their words with action. That’s why I am usually more comfortable talking to a guy who has been punched in the face, or especially lost a fight, many times in their life. There is a humble reality-check that comes with that. Reality-checks like that can come in many ways, but fighting is a potent one.

I think fighting on the street (or anywhere) to resolve a conflict, when both people agree to it, is a great way to learn about the consequences of words except for the fact that people can get seriously hurt (or die). So I propose that Congress pass a bill legalizing street fighting but that it be regulated by the International Street Fighting Federation (ISFF) that will be a branch of the IBJJF ;-) The goal is to make illegal any techniques that can cause permanent bodily harm. No ground and pound on a hard surface, no slams, etc. If you do any of those things, you’ll go to jail, otherwise if both people agree to it, the fight is completely legal. You might get banged up pretty bad, but you’ll be fine a week or two later.

Obviously, this idea (much like A Modest Proposal) is not a serious one (especially about the IBJJF), but I still am saddened when I’m confronted with people in our society who hide behind the veil of the “I’ll sue you” threat versus the much more basic human threat of fighting. I think most of us (including myself) would be a lot more careful in talking crap if we had to back it up through fighting.

Training for Competition with Higher Ranks

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damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-dontOne of my goals in training for competition is to train as hard as possible with as little ego as possible. What I mean by that is, I focus on attacking aggressively with control and good technique, but if I’m caught off-guard by my training partner, I don’t use crazy spazzy power rage mode to get out the bad situation like I might in competition.

In general, I have a geriatric training style, where I move slowly with a strong focus on never putting any part of my body in a weak position. That’s good for not being swept, passed, or submitted, and it’s also very good for avoiding injury.

Now here’s the tricky part… There’s a catch 22 in training hard with competition-ready brown and black belts who are going at 100%. If I want to step up to their level and challenge them at least in some positions, I have to go 100% myself. But because they have superior technique, they constantly put me in vulnerable positions that threaten injury. So I’m less inclined to go 100% when there is a constant threat of injury. But if I go less than 100% then I have no hope of getting anywhere with them except inside a triangle or at the bottom of mount. That’s the catch 22.

I get a lot from rolling lighter with higher ranks, because they reveal the flaws in my game. But when I’m training for competition, I’m not looking at exposing the flaws in my game broadly speaking. I’m looking to pull every training partner (white belt to black belt) aggressively into my “A game” where I at least have a brief chance.

I’m not quite in competition mode yet, but these are the thing I think about, and have recently had conversations with a few fellow purple belts about. In the end, no matter what, I believe that quantity of training is important. You need to do whatever you need to do in order to get a lot of sets in with minimum risk of injury and with maximum mental focus on constantly improving your technique.

Side note: I’ll often write blog posts that I’m not happy about, because what comes out on the screen is a lot different than what was in my brain. I sound like a tunnel-visioned asshole, while I think of myself as more of a big-picture asshole.

Two No Gi Grappling Styles: Hummingbird vs Viper

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I came across the following picture that is now on display in Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C (source). The photographer is Bence Máté. This picture, like most pictures of animals in conflict, made me think of jiu jitsu.

snake-vs-hummingbird

It reminded me of the range of grappling styles in no-gi: from the super-quick back-take specialist “hummingbird” to the slow strong heavy-pressure-based “viper”. In gi, the hummingbird loses its “wings” because grips can slow down even the most creative chain of movement. But in no-gi this style can flourish. Note: this is the part of the post where I start feeling bad about overusing the animal kingdom analogy.

Being an aspiring “viper” myself, I like training with other “vipers”. I can go 50% with another slow deliberate pressure-based player and learn a lot from the experience while almost never getting injured. But when I go against someone who is very dynamic and constantly making quick sharp movements, I have to go closer to 100% in order to get on the same wavelength as them, and then the probability of injury goes up.

I like the fact that jiu jitsu allows a 130 lbs guy to go against a 250 lbs guy and it be an even match because they are each working with a different set of weapons. Very few combat sports have that. Being a 180 lbs middleweight, I get to see both sides of that coin. There are plenty of people who are lighter than me and plenty who are heavier. In the white, blue, and purple belt ranks I have definitely struggled much more with the 130 lbs competitor than the 250 lbs one. But when I watch the black belt divisions, the picture is reversed. Size does matter after all, when the number of flaws in your game decreases.

Be Careful: Five Ways to Hurt Others in Jiu Jitsu Training

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To me, one of the biggest parts of jiu jitsu is staying healthy and avoiding injury. In some cases, being overly cautious in trying to avoid injury can actually have the opposite effect of putting you at greater risk of it. Jiu jitsu at times, like much of life, can be a cruel counter-intuitive mistress. The way I approach it: I try to relax, quiet my ego, and focus on not hurting my training partners, and hope that they return the favor.

There are some things I noticed that I do (and others do to me) that can lead to injury (large or small). So let’s all agree to be careful with those things and use common sense. Here are five of them:

  • Jump closed guard really suddenly from semi-standing exchanges such as when your partner comes up for a single. His lower back or legs might be a little relaxed and thus vulnerable to be hurt due to suddenly having to carry all your body weight. When training from the feet, most people (especially non-competitors) don’t expect you to jump guard or jump anything really. They expect you to either go for a takedown or to pull guard by sitting with a foot in the hip or some other variation of that.
  • Wristlocks: I know that footlocks get a bad rep in jiu jitsu for being potentially dangerous, but I find that people are actually TOO cautious with footlocks in gyms where their danger has been drilled into people’s heads since day 1. On the other hand, wristlocks are not taught very often (even though they are legal in most divisions of most tournaments in both gi and no-gi). And when they are taught, they are not talked about as something that could potentially lead to injury. I don’t know anyone who broke their wrist due to a wristlock, but I do know MANY people that had to be out for 1-2 weeks due to a wristlock and after that still had to take it easy with the wrist for a couple months. It’s a great submission, but be careful when you apply it in training.
  • Guillotines: This had to make the list, of course. The problem with the guillotine is that it has an evil brother: the neck crank. The other problem with the guillotine is that often times if you don’t finish it, you are putting yourself in a less-than-dominant position. So you really want to finish it! But sometimes the technique is a little off and you want to add a little “sauce” by pulling up. And guess what: that cranks the neck. This isn’t a problem really, except that a little tweak of the neck can often leads to pain for weeks. There’s no reason for this. On this one technique I’ll often tap a little early in training, even though I don’t like doing it. And when I’m applying the guillotine, I try hard NOT to crank the neck. If that means I don’t get the submission, I’m okay with that.
  • Pulling the Turtle Backwards: A tight turtle can be a frustrating position to break open, and one of the ways that seems to intuitively make sense to people is to pull the person directly backwards over his ankles. This can actually be an effective technique (with some important details) but it’s also an asshole technique that you should save for competition-style training when anything effective goes. Like most dangerous techniques, they are less likely to cause injury when your training partner is going close to 100% and thus are more physically and mentally primed for a wider range of possibilities.
  • Try Stuff You Don’t Know with the Spazzy Intensity of a Raging Bull: I would say that 90% of my training is about figuring out small details around techniques that I’m already very familiar with. That requires a little exploration: figuring out the timing, feel, and leverage of the technique. But sometimes, I explore beyond the confines of what I know, and their I proceed with caution. I know that I can hurt myself and others. I have the luxury to proceed with caution, because there are always things I can fall back on. Of course, folks that are just starting out don’t have that luxury, since most every technique and position is new. The right approach, therefore, when you start to jiu jitsu is to relax, learn, and explore with caution. The best way to halt your progress in jiu jitsu is to be forced off the mat for months due to a stupid injury.

One of the lessons I’ve learned about training is you have to be very good at reading your training partners. You have to consider their rank, their style, their current mental state, and whether they are preparing for a tournament. It’s a complicated social interaction that takes a long time to learn. This is why beginner white belts are usually the most dangerous: they are not very good at reading these subtle social cues.

The Six Stages of Grief After a Jiu Jitsu Injury

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My knee popped in training (MCL sprain). It hurts, but it’s manageable. Feels unstable, but I feel that recovery is possible without taking any time off.

It seems that once people start having knee problems of this kind, it has a long lasting effect, not just physically, but psychologically. Confidence in the knee’s stability is lowered, affecting many decisions you make while grappling. I definitely feel it now, but I’m staying positive and taking it all in stride.

With any injury, big or small (though with jiu jitsu my injuries have been all small so far), I seem to go through stages that resemble the stages of grief. For the fun of it, let me try to describe them:

  1. Shock: The moment an injury happens, the pain is usually most acute. I don’t know how bad it is, but the fact that it could be very bad leaves me in a state of shock where I just remain motionless, trying not to think about anything.
  2. Anger: Once I get a handle on how bad the injury is, I realize that I can’t train any more at that moment and have to go home. That realization leads to anger at myself, at the world, at the people around me, at everything really. It’s the kind of anger you feel when you stub your toe on something and you yell out a profanity of the creative variety.
  3. Depression: Anger quickly gives way to zen-like reflection of my place in the world, and how nothing really matters. Somehow, in this case, the result of this reflection is usually a kind of loneliness.
  4. Recovery Planning: After the nihilistic depression wears out (usually after a nap and a snack), I get very optimistic, and make grandiose detailed plans for recovery. I plan on what I will do if I can’t train. I plan on what I will do if I can only train lightly. And so on…
  5. Acceptance: I prepare myself mentally for taking time off if the injury does heal without prolonged rest. I imagine myself taking several months off (which kills me to think about). I slowly accept the negative elements of the circumstance, accept the plan of action, and try to focus on the hope that such a plan provides.
  6. Game Change: During the days and weeks after the injury I experiment with what hurts and how to avoid making the injury worse. Based on that I change my jiu jitsu game.

All that sounds kind of depressing. I don’t exactly go through all those steps, but I do experience parts of each. I just like putting things into a numbered list.

Anyway, hopefully I’m lucky in this case, and will be able to at least continue drilling (and maybe training) as often as I did before, and won’t damage the ligament any further.

There are a bunch of tournaments coming up, next one in 10 days, but I’m trying not to think about the fact that I may have to miss any of them.

Taking Time Off Before a Competition

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Last year I competed, on average, every other weekend. Mostly judo, but some jiu jitsu too. What made competition an enjoyable experience for me was competing often and treating it as just another hard training session (where my opponent tries harder than usual). As in most aspects of my life, turning something into a habit makes it much more natural to fit into my schedule which is overcrowded by work-related activity.

Due to a recurring shoulder injury, shift of focus from judo to jiu jitsu, and a change in training regimens and teams, I struggled to get back into the same regular mode of competing in late 2010 and early 2011.

I missed 3 major competitions in 2011 due to the same shoulder injury. I hated how it felt as just another lame excuse. The essential problem is that my favorite technique from the feet is exactly what causes this injury, and even minor tweaks take weeks to heal back to anywhere near 100%.

All that being said, I’ve been really looking forward to the IBJJF New York Open (this upcoming weekend). I was very nervous about the shoulder injury, but training hard twice a day for several weeks leading up to it. Of course, as the gods would have it, I rehurt the shoulder Tuesday night, but not bad, just bad enough where it hurt and felt weak. I tried training Wednesday morning and it still hurt (worse). So I stopped right away and decided to take the next 3 days before the competition off. This is something that many people have said is a good thing to do anyway (even without injury) to let your body and mind recover. And also to get your mind to the restless state where you are itching to get on the mat by the day of the tournament. I never liked this idea, but the injury is forcing me to try it.

I’m not sure where my shoulder will be Saturday, but I’m competing without excuses no matter what. However, I have to be smart about it… With a division of 37 people and more in absolute, if I keep winning, there will be a lot of fights! So while the main goal of any one fight is to win, I have to be very strategic about the set of techniques I go for as to minimize the probability of making the shoulder much worse.

Much like white belts, blue belts are often very aggressive and erratic on the feet, so I just have to relax, be patient, and attack when the opening is there, without forcing anything even if the other guy is going crazy. I believe in the techniques I know, and that very little power is needed to execute them when the timing is right.

The time off from training is giving me a chance to relax and enjoy several productive days (and nights) working.


Training Every Day Keeps the Doctor Away

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I remember hearing this on some Fightworks Podcast interview that training every day (or several times a day) is actually the best way to avoid injury.

I’m not going to try to defend the logic of that with some statement like “your body gets used to it”, except that I am, because it’s true, despite whatever common sense you may have about the matter.

I changed my training program to include a BJJ training session every day 12-1:30pm, no exceptions. I run (fast pace) to training (from work) and back. The running adds up to about 2.5 miles total for the day is a nice little addition to the training. The key difference has been the no exceptions part. Before I used to take off a day here and there, but that actually makes everything more difficult.

That training regimen is my core. Everything else is extra (a very important extra, but extra). Why have a core? I don’t know if my brain works different than others (it probably doesn’t), but if I do something everyday (especially at the same time every day), I get used to it much easier. It starts requiring a lot less motivation and mental energy. It’s just what I do at noon, I run and train BJJ. Stayed up all night programming? Doesn’t matter, BJJ at noon. Shoulder, finger, ankle, back hurt? Doesn’t matter, BJJ at noon. Egyptian people revolting against their government? Doesn’t matter, BJJ at noon.

I relax more, I learn more, I enjoy it more, and I’m never really sore. I mean the kind of sore where you’re mentally drained and just don’t want to move.

My shoulder is still in pain constantly during training but it’s getting better through physical therapy, ice, heat, and advil. Despite the unpleasantness of training with an injury, I still go, I still train hard, and I still love it. Except of course for the fact that I can’t do judo, wrestling, or any stand up yet. That part I hate.

Training Around an Injury

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I got a small tear in my right rotator cuff. There’s pain, there’s weakness. It’s a mess.

So instead of training twice a day, hard, with and eye for the New York Open in 2 months and Worlds in 4 months, I’m forced into the state of limbo that most of us know from having been injured: trying to recover, but not taking too much time off.

A reasonable doctor will recommend to stop all training until complete recovery. I honestly would IF I knew when complete recovery would happen. The problem is that you never really know.

My new program is BJJ for an hour every other day. Then I also do treadmill work every day: one day crazy intense, one day jog.

I hate running, truly, especially the hard interval training on the treadmill. But I don’t have much choice.

So, how am I surviving on just 1 hour of BJJ every other day as compared to 2-3 hours every day before the injury? Watching lots of video, both instructional and competition footage. For example, right now I’m watching the Back Attack DVD from JT Torres. It’s an example of the type of instructional DVD that I can learn from while sitting at home. He doesn’t show anything flashy, just the fundamentals of attacking the back. So I’m watching it second time through and trying to catch the little details, especially of the moves I’ve seen many times before. I find that instructional DVDs help most with moves that I’ve already practiced a lot. So I look for new little details that work for the particular instructor.

That’s the thing about guys like JT Torres. How does he pull off these very techniques on some of the best people in the world? There are two component I think. The first can be taught: solid technique (the details). The other cannot be taught with a DVD and that’s the timing, pressure, speed, etc of the move. So step one is to understand the details that make the technique work, and THAT I can sit at home and visualize after watching instructional DVDs. But then I have to take those ideas to the mat and get thousands of repetitions in. With an injury only the first part is possible, but since this part is often neglected, it’s good to give it some much needed focus.

Muay Thai Injuries

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Muay Thai kick in competitionI got hit in the arm in muay thai from a hard kick that missed the pads. The downside of training as much as I do is that injuries are that much more difficult to deal with mentally.

Most minor and major injuries provide me with time and motivation (born out of frustration) to rethink where I stand, where I’m going, from high level goals down to the details of day-to-day training.

So, I started reading about injuries in Muay Thai (example) and realized that they happen a lot, more than with judo or grappling. In fact, that’s the fundamental problem with striking arts. If you want to execute the techniques at anywhere close to 100% intensity, you are going to deliver damage to yourself and/or your opponent. There is just no way around that. That’s partially why jiu jitsu and submission grappling is so effective at building great fighters. More than other disciplines, it allows you to train at 100% intensity with a minimal risk of injury, so you can train more often, for longer, and at full intensity.

Of course, when I talk about “risk of injury” I’m assuming both people have extensive experience in the sport and thus have clean, polished technique. For me, in Muay Thai, this is not the case. Arguably, the reason I got injured is that I don’t have extensive experience in holding the pads, and that in itself is an art. The cost of being a beginner in a contact sport is that you are going to have to accept injuries as you learn how to avoid them while amping up the intensity of regular training.

The key is to not let injuries deter you from confident full emergence into the dynamics of the sport. In Muay Thai, too many people seem to get injured, and then start flinching or hesitating every time they hold the pads or in sparring. I guess it boils down to being a tough, crazy, even stupid s.o.b. It’s the wrestling mindset of going harder whenever every reasonable part of your brain is telling you to quit, stop, go home and sit behind a desk reading a book of Convex Optimization or some such other mathy crap. I know I’m not that tough yet, but I’m learning it, and unlike many people that talk about this subject, I believe that it is something that can be learned. Of course, those people usually know a lot more than me, so my belief is on shaky ground, but that’s why life is a bitch.