Injuries

We had two minor injuries in class today, a knee and a wrist. It always saddens me when someone is injured, but I'm certain it's not near as much as the injured person, nor their training partner. As it is at every school, safety is paramount. We do our best to create a safe training environment to reduce the risk of injury. I'm constantly giving safety briefings and monitoring the mat. I want the training to be realistic, but safe at the same time. I guess that when you're learning how to break bones and rip tendons, that is exactly what will happen from time to time. I think it's important to keep this in mind. What we do can be extremely dangerous.

as I've said before, I've come to realize and accept that my previous injuries were all my fault. It's my responsibility to protect myself at all times, tap when it hurts, and not defend past the point of my physical ability. Even so, there are some things a training partner can do to help his partner from getting injured. Take care of your training partners. If they're injured, you won't have anyone to grapple with and eventually no one will want to grapple with you.

If your training partner is trying to defend an armbar by carelessly flailing around, be the bigger person and ease up on your hold or let it go. Talk with them afterward about the dangers of their maneuver and show them a valid escape or two.

If you're applying a submission and using all of your strength to finish it, you should really consider transitioning to something else. This is a true recipe for an injury. To begin with, this is not the way of Jiu-Jitsu. Secondly, you'll probably tire yourself to the point of exhaustion if you don't injure your partner first.

New students can be dangerous. They use a lot of strength to compensate for a lack of knowledge of the techniques. This often leads to errant strikes or kicks. Know who you're grappling with. Two newer students grappling each other is not the best thing. I prefer to have the more experienced students working with the new students for awhile. If you're grappling with a new student, don't throw on a submission too fast. They don't know what is and what isn't a submission and may not know to tap until it's too late. If you are a newer student, tap early and often. Don't wait until your arm is extended to the point of no return.

If you're applying a submission, such as a Kimura, and you have your training partner's arm bent past the point where a "normal" person would tap, you best know who you're grappling with and know that they're extremely flexible. If this isn't the case, stop applying the armlock.

If you weigh 50, 75 or 100 pounds or more than your training partner, take this into consideration. Be conscientious of this fact and know that your weight alone can cause an injury.

So now that our training partner is working to protect our butt, we should probably do our part to keep ourselves safe. My number one piece of advice is to leave your ego at the edge of the mat. We all have family, jobs or school. Your grappling match during training is not so important that you don't need to tap when it's time to tap. Sometimes you don't get to win, and that's okay. You'll live to fight another day.