anyone who's trained for a while knows that injuries are a part of the game. fortunately for me, i haven't had any serious to require surgery (knock on wood) but i have definitely had my share of injuries over the last few years. as a result of my injuries, i have altered my game in order to make it "safer". i'm just a recreational BJJ guy and i'm interested in doing this for the long run. i was hoping to hear about the injuries fellow forum members have had and how they occurred.
Here are my stories:
1) hand injury. i was playing sitting up guard against a big fat guy. i had one hand in his collar and was basing out with my other hand. the guy lunged to put his weight on me and by pure fatness, all the weight that he put on me ended up fucking up the hand i was basing on. it just wasn't able to handle all of that weight. my lesson from this was not to roll with fat spazzes.
2) neck injury. probably an accumulation of things. i used to play a lot of high guard and go for armbars and triangles from there. as a result, i'd get stacked a lot. there were a few times where i was stacked hard and that aggravated things. another problem for me was that i used to do a lot of "rollouts" for things like omoplatas, guard retention from turtle, etc. some times when attempting these rolls, i'd get stacked hard. that fucked up my neck a few times as well
3) low back problems. it seems like all older BJJ guys have some issue with their low back. i think it's just the accumulation of guard playing
4) shoulder injury. in my early, more stubborn days, i fought off a kimura far longer than i should have. my shoulder and i are still paying for it to this day. i also separated my shoulder once (minor) by fighting off a sweep too long. rather than going with the flow, i ended up resisting until the end and ended up falling flat on my face and shoulder.
5) knee injury. i took a little to long to tap to a heelhook as well. my lesson from this is to be very wary of where your feet are and to tap whenever someone is even thinking about attacking my legs. just not worth it IMO.
1. right wrist injury. hurt it boxing. let it go. then really hurt it and tore a tendon when playing deep collar control during a round robin with some 220lb white belts, one after another, i was getting tired and sloppy and just twisted my wrist really bad.
im out 4-6 weeks with a brace on and some phyiscal therapy.
I think I set the record for fastest injury. I blew my knee out (torn ACL) during the first five minutes of the warm-up of my first-ever BJJ class. Blew it out doing "leap frogs".
Muay Tired - I think I set the record for fastest injury. I blew my knee out (torn ACL) during the first five minutes of the warm-up of my first-ever BJJ class. Blew it out doing "leap frogs".
worst luck of all time!
so, did you ever make a come back?
Broken like 4 toes. the first one was the worse and the second was terrible as well. The first one had me out for a month and the second a few weeks.They still suck balls but on the 3rd and 4th I simply taped the toe off and kept training. I don't have time for that bullshit anymore.
To be fair, apart from the constant neck ache you get when you first start training, the worst injury I have had was a dislocated thumb joint. I put my hand out to breakfall and the tip of my thumb landed first which just popped it out.
The worst injury from MA was when I was doing XMA. I got pretty good and was trying a side flip-split kick. I undershot my landing and my ankle just dislocated really badly. I tore all sorts and couldn't walk properly for months. I'm fully rehabbed now though and doing something a bit safer (like BJJ lol)!!!
It's funny how little we think of this stuff. I started typing that I have been lucky an have never been injured but then I thought about it a bit more.
I got a double hernia the first day of bjj working takedowns on an awkward 7 footer.
I got can openered and badly hyper-extended my neck.
I have broken too many toes to count.
I've popped 3 ribs
I ruptured a tendon in my finger getting it caught in the mat.
I am also at the end of a month layoff for a pinched nerve in my back.
Too many stupid injuries to remember...
But the "oddest" one was when I first started I broke my thumb --in three pieces-- just by shooting a double-leg takedown and hitting it on my opponent's hip bone just as he hipped in.
Never thought that could happen.
Broken collar bone
Dislocated thumb
numerous broke toes
and an absolutely fucked middle finger.
Only the collar bone was genuinely serious.
BY MARRYING THE WRONG WOMAN 27 YEARS AGO : )
1year and 8 months ago
some guy said lets go easy
we were doing butterfly sweeps and I put my head on his stomach and he just blasted forward and my ear touched my neck
so i lost strength in both arms
8 months ago I had surgery
I havent had a decent roll in 8 months and havent been above 35% since the injury
I am still getting over the surgery and trying to get muscles to connect again
its been hell but I have been in the gym everyday
Wow - I can't touch that.
A few months ago, I was taking the fundamentals class (I'm a purple belt), so I was cruising, relaxing, and just playing around while we're doing some "live" drills. I put my foot on the newbie's hip, and he pushes forward; my other foot is caught under me - pop, pop, pop goes the ankle.
I'm still walking funny, but I'm too stubborn to miss class.
"Protect yourself at all times."
dropped back for an ankle lock and fell weird twisted my knee and had to get surgery 2 months on crutches and 9 months no training... i was attacking his leg for fucks sake!
I hurt my MCL sweeping a guy. It made a loud pop and scared the shit out of me. I was out for 6 weeks but didn't have to have surgery. 
Damn Malachy, that sucks man. Hope you get back to it.
I'm in phys therapy right now for a ruptured quad tendon. Ripped off on a guard pull in practice. A mother f'ing guard pull. I hardly ever pull guard.... Lesson learned....Got my foot caught on a mat and that was it. I took a few days off, then kept practicing and competing. Finally couldn't take it and got the MRI, surgery, and now about 10 weeks out from it. Finally doing stuff again. Probably another 4 weeks until I'm rolling around at an average pace. About 3.5 months total. The attachment takes about 10-12 weeks to heal to about 95%, the strength comes back sort of fast, but the leg doesn't fire well and my leg just buckles sometimes and I stumble around like a tard.
If I have any advice, it's find a good physical therapist. The PT at my ortho's office handled mostly older patients who only cared about walking again, not activity. It even had a name with Sports Medicine in it.... I got a reference for a PT that had worked with fighters, wrestlers, other athletes. TPK gave me a good reference as well. Not only is a good PT that can understand what you do and get you on the right track valuable in that respect, they also know when it's healthy and safe to return to the type of activity you want to do. Most people just want to walk again and do their job, not suplex people and choke them. The worst dudes in my PT office are the golf douchers (my God I hate them.)
I've been spiked on my head twice.
The first time, I took the back of a blue belt twice my size. He hugged my arms in place and did a somersault. I tucked my head in as far as I could, but we both landed on the back corner of it. It took 5-10 minutes before I could feel my left arm and leg again.
Two years later, I had the crucifix on a little guy, and he did almost the same thing--grabbed both of my arms, and rolled us both onto my head. Again, it was several minutes before I could feel or move my left side.
Not cool.
Thank you guys
its been a huge bump in the road. Biggest thing is probably stretching the neck and stopping training and taking a break when you feel hurt.
I did a video right after the surgery thinking I would be back in no time. Its been a physical and emotional ride. I picked up the gi though and have studied it like crazy. I can't train no gi bc of the neck controls and with the gi I can only go over technique slowly but its something.
I have definatly used the time with the injury to get better though.
I hope everyone heals up here. I know the struggle.
Twinkle be careful brother!
I hear you, man. It's scary stuff. I almost never take the back from the top anymore unless I can superman my partner immediately. Last weekend I worked out with Jason Lambert, and he showed me how to change my crucifix position so that people can't roll me over. I'll be (carefully) playing with that.
Be safe and heal up well. I look forward to hearing your progress as your body allows you to get back into the game.
- popped an MCL from going for an omoplata/gogoplata from a poorly executed rubber guard, before I had any idea how to use the rubber guard properly. Off for a couple months.
* I injured my other MCL through accumulated improper weight lifting technique and compensation for my other injured knee, I think. The weights is technically not a BJJ injury, but I was lifting weights to be stronger for BJJ. Off for a couple more months.
* Tore cartillage in one of my knees while kneeling inside a team mates closed guard, but it was likely another case of accumulated stress on the joint through improper weight lifting technique. The kneeling in the guard was just the tiny stress that broke the camel's back. Off for a long time.
* tore a muscle in my rotator cuff from being dropped on it. Tried to keep rolling, but it hurt too much and my arm was useless. Off for a couple months.
* numerous temporary little finger and toe pains.
* a sore neck, but that might not be entirely BJJ related. Though BJJ has definitely not helped it.
* not BJJ related, but it's keeping me off the mat: broken glass table severed an artery, vein, the tendons in my hand, and did some nerve damage. Had a surgery, and everything is healing up well praise The Lord. Will be two to three months before I can get on the mats again, and at least five or six months before I can compete again. It was a gift that I'm still alive though, the way it all happened.
Be thankful for your good health and good training sessions :)