November 12, 2009
BJJ Wrist Injuries and My Guilty Conscience
A bunch of people have recently emailed me, basically asking if I'm still alive. I haven't been sending out my normal volume of grappling tips and beginner lessons recently, and they want to know why!
You see, I've been working like mad on the Online Grappling Concepts course that I'm delivering at my new site, Grapplearts.tv. I'm really enjoying creating those lessons, but it takes a lot of time to write, film, edit and encode each weekly lesson. And the 15 to 25 page PDFs that accompanies each weekly lesson. And the occasional bonus video.
Anyway, that's the reason I haven't been posting quite as much recently. Thought you might want to know why!
But I HAVEN'T completely forgotten about you. That's why I want to talk about an easy way to prevent injury.
This tip comes from my heart, because I learned this lesson first hand when I injured my first BJJ teacher (and friend) Pshemek Drabchinsky.
Once upon a time we were grappling. I was on top and things seemed to be going well (this was unusual at the time because he was way more skilled than I). However on this day I almost had him pinned! Pshemek is one of those Daddy Long Legs kind of grapplers, and he was trying to put me back into his guard using his long, flexible and agile legs.
He was pushing on my hip with his hand to make enough room to bring his legs into play.
To thwart his defense I twisted my hips: this is one good option, because changing the angle of your body this way often collapses your opponent's arms.
Unfortunately this time I did it a little to abruptly and a little too fast.
The bottom man is stiff arming my hips
(over-exaggerated for clarity)...
...so I twist my hips to collapse his defense
There was pop!
And he gasped in pain.
His fingers had got caught on my body and when I twisted my hips he couldn't get his hand out in time. In effect I had applied a hard, uncontrolled wristlock on my training partner without meaning to do so. His wrist took more than a year to heal completely, and I felt bad about it the whole time.
There are eight small bones, and a lot of ligaments and nerves in the wrist. Unfortunately if something is broken in there, then the fractures is often missed by a non-specialist looking at an X ray. (So if you or someone you know severely injures the wrist, or if a nagging wrist injury just won't heal, then get hand specialist to take a look at you, and not just the regular ER doc...).
Anyway, I don't mean to scare you you, but I hope I've made my point that wrist injuries are not to be taken lightly.
If someone is pushing your body then go ahead and use the body twist to neutralize his arms. Just don't do it super-abruptly and with a lot of weight on his hands.
And if you're pushing from the bottom then be aware of the dangers. Be aware of the angles and positioning of your wrists and hands, and be ready to collapse your arms in before you get inadvertently wristlocked. Better to live and fight another day from the bottom of sidemount than have your training cut short by a hyperextended wrist.
Train safe, because as BJJ black belt David Meyer says, "Injury is the enemy!"
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You see, I've been working like mad on the Online Grappling Concepts course that I'm delivering at my new site, Grapplearts.tv. I'm really enjoying creating those lessons, but it takes a lot of time to write, film, edit and encode each weekly lesson. And the 15 to 25 page PDFs that accompanies each weekly lesson. And the occasional bonus video.
Anyway, that's the reason I haven't been posting quite as much recently. Thought you might want to know why!
But I HAVEN'T completely forgotten about you. That's why I want to talk about an easy way to prevent injury.
This tip comes from my heart, because I learned this lesson first hand when I injured my first BJJ teacher (and friend) Pshemek Drabchinsky.Once upon a time we were grappling. I was on top and things seemed to be going well (this was unusual at the time because he was way more skilled than I). However on this day I almost had him pinned! Pshemek is one of those Daddy Long Legs kind of grapplers, and he was trying to put me back into his guard using his long, flexible and agile legs.
He was pushing on my hip with his hand to make enough room to bring his legs into play.
To thwart his defense I twisted my hips: this is one good option, because changing the angle of your body this way often collapses your opponent's arms.
Unfortunately this time I did it a little to abruptly and a little too fast.
The bottom man is stiff arming my hips(over-exaggerated for clarity)...
...so I twist my hips to collapse his defenseThere was pop!
And he gasped in pain.
His fingers had got caught on my body and when I twisted my hips he couldn't get his hand out in time. In effect I had applied a hard, uncontrolled wristlock on my training partner without meaning to do so. His wrist took more than a year to heal completely, and I felt bad about it the whole time.
There are eight small bones, and a lot of ligaments and nerves in the wrist. Unfortunately if something is broken in there, then the fractures is often missed by a non-specialist looking at an X ray. (So if you or someone you know severely injures the wrist, or if a nagging wrist injury just won't heal, then get hand specialist to take a look at you, and not just the regular ER doc...).
Anyway, I don't mean to scare you you, but I hope I've made my point that wrist injuries are not to be taken lightly.
If someone is pushing your body then go ahead and use the body twist to neutralize his arms. Just don't do it super-abruptly and with a lot of weight on his hands.
And if you're pushing from the bottom then be aware of the dangers. Be aware of the angles and positioning of your wrists and hands, and be ready to collapse your arms in before you get inadvertently wristlocked. Better to live and fight another day from the bottom of sidemount than have your training cut short by a hyperextended wrist.
Train safe, because as BJJ black belt David Meyer says, "Injury is the enemy!"
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July 30, 2009
Bring 'Em Back Alive: More On Recovering From Chokes
The last blog post (Choke Recovery in Grappling) prompted some lively discussion and debate when I posted it on the Sherdog Grappling Forum and on MMA.tv. I also received a number of emails on the topic.
The most common question by far, was "what about lifting the unconscious person's legs up into the air to bring blood into their brain."
I've have seen the legs-in-the-air technique used to resuscitate unconscious grapplers. In fact, it's even been used on me (I was 12 years old and got knocked out by a Judo throw in the adult class. I awoke with my legs in the air and a whole bunch of very concerned faces looking down at me)!
But I didn't talk about it in my last newsletter for a simple reason - I've never seen any sort of research about the safety or efficacy of this resuscitation technique.
It seems fairly obvious that it 'should' bring more blood to the brain, and that it 'should' help people wake up faster. But that kind of thinking can be dangerous. Medical history is littered with techniques, procedures and drugs that 'should' have helped people, but instead caused grievous bodily harm.
A forum participant called "BJJ Medic" finally helped me out. He told me about some research on the so-called Trendelenburg postion. This head down, legs up position was used during and after World War 1 to help manage shock.
Recent research, however, indicates that this position does nothing to help with shock, and increases the risk of choking on your own tongue (which is, by the way, the most common cause for blocked airways in unconscious people). Click here to read The Myth of the Trendelenburg Position for yourself.
So until someone actually does proper research on the legs-in-the-air position, specifically with regard to waking up unconscious people, I'm NOT going to use it. The 'treatment' at this point only has risks, and no proven benefits.
BUT I SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED THIS
If someone is unconscious from a choke you should check to see if they're breathing. If they're not breathing, then either move them to the recovery position (3/4 prone) OR start rescue breathing. You should also check for a pulse, and if they don't have one, start CPR.
I think that every serious grappler or martial artist should have basic CPR and first aid training.
But even if you don't have the training to do rescue breathing and CPR, it's very important to be able to tell the 911 dispatcher "my buddy is unconscious but has a pulse and is breathing".
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The most common question by far, was "what about lifting the unconscious person's legs up into the air to bring blood into their brain."
I've have seen the legs-in-the-air technique used to resuscitate unconscious grapplers. In fact, it's even been used on me (I was 12 years old and got knocked out by a Judo throw in the adult class. I awoke with my legs in the air and a whole bunch of very concerned faces looking down at me)!
But I didn't talk about it in my last newsletter for a simple reason - I've never seen any sort of research about the safety or efficacy of this resuscitation technique.
It seems fairly obvious that it 'should' bring more blood to the brain, and that it 'should' help people wake up faster. But that kind of thinking can be dangerous. Medical history is littered with techniques, procedures and drugs that 'should' have helped people, but instead caused grievous bodily harm.
A forum participant called "BJJ Medic" finally helped me out. He told me about some research on the so-called Trendelenburg postion. This head down, legs up position was used during and after World War 1 to help manage shock.
Recent research, however, indicates that this position does nothing to help with shock, and increases the risk of choking on your own tongue (which is, by the way, the most common cause for blocked airways in unconscious people). Click here to read The Myth of the Trendelenburg Position for yourself.
So until someone actually does proper research on the legs-in-the-air position, specifically with regard to waking up unconscious people, I'm NOT going to use it. The 'treatment' at this point only has risks, and no proven benefits.
BUT I SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED THIS
If someone is unconscious from a choke you should check to see if they're breathing. If they're not breathing, then either move them to the recovery position (3/4 prone) OR start rescue breathing. You should also check for a pulse, and if they don't have one, start CPR.
I think that every serious grappler or martial artist should have basic CPR and first aid training.
But even if you don't have the training to do rescue breathing and CPR, it's very important to be able to tell the 911 dispatcher "my buddy is unconscious but has a pulse and is breathing".
Labels: Brazilian jiu-jitsu, chokes, Injuries
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July 27, 2009
Choke Recovery in BJJ and Submission Grappling
The first time I saw someone choked unconscious it scared the crap out of me. And it was made worse by the fact that it was a friend of mine...
It was many years ago at a local tournament. My friend was winning his match but got caught in a sneaky gi choke. He was (and still is) a stubborn bastard, so he refused to tap and passed out. He might have been out for about 10 seconds before anyone realized what was going on.
When the referee finally separated the two competitors, I could see my buddy lying flat on his back and he wasn't moving. From my position in the stands I couldn't even see if he was breathing.
But then it got even worse...
He started to snore REALLY loudly. We're talking horrible-keep-you-awake-from-the-next-room-sleep-apnea kind of snoring. Everyone at the tournament could hear it. Then, just to make things even more dramatic, he started convulsing a little bit, like he was having a small epileptic seizure.
Finally - to my infinite relief - he woke up, sat up and looked around sheepishly. Objectively he'd probably only been out for a total of 15 to 20 seconds (including the snoring and convulsing) but it sure seemed a lot longer than that to me at the time!
In fact this is a fairly normal sequence for someone who has been choked out. The snoring is normal. The mini-convulsions are to be expected. And they're going to be a bit light headed when they wake up.
Judo and BJJ coaches have different opions about what to do if someone gets choked out. The most common approach is to stand around and wait for the person to wake up. And this works just fine 99% of the time.
There are traditional judo resuscitation techniques (known as "kappo"). Kappo is an esoteric subject, and I don't know much about it. But I'll give you some guidance coming more from a western first aid point of view.
In first aid class I've been taught to roll unconscious people onto their side or into the 3/4 prone position (IMPORTANT: you only do this if you're sure that there's no neck or back injury). Being on the side helps drain fluids from the mouth and prevents the tongue from blocking the airway. And there are some Judo coaches who agree that this is a good idea.
I don't want to scare you with all this talk about unconscious people. Most accounts of chokes gone bad involve cops trying to restrain someone high on PCP by squeezing their neck with a billy club. Hopefully that's not happening at your club.
In fact, chokes and strangles are fairly safe.
The Kodokan, which is the central organizing body for Judo, has conducted studies on the safety of chokes ("shimewaza"). The results are encouraging: Judoka have been choking each other for more than 100 years without any reported fatalities.
Attacking the neck is part of submission grappling and BJJ. If you do this sport long enough then eventually someone will get choked out right in front of you. Now you know what to expect when that happens!
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It was many years ago at a local tournament. My friend was winning his match but got caught in a sneaky gi choke. He was (and still is) a stubborn bastard, so he refused to tap and passed out. He might have been out for about 10 seconds before anyone realized what was going on.
When the referee finally separated the two competitors, I could see my buddy lying flat on his back and he wasn't moving. From my position in the stands I couldn't even see if he was breathing.
But then it got even worse...
He started to snore REALLY loudly. We're talking horrible-keep-you-awake-from-the-next-room-sleep-apnea kind of snoring. Everyone at the tournament could hear it. Then, just to make things even more dramatic, he started convulsing a little bit, like he was having a small epileptic seizure.
Finally - to my infinite relief - he woke up, sat up and looked around sheepishly. Objectively he'd probably only been out for a total of 15 to 20 seconds (including the snoring and convulsing) but it sure seemed a lot longer than that to me at the time!
In fact this is a fairly normal sequence for someone who has been choked out. The snoring is normal. The mini-convulsions are to be expected. And they're going to be a bit light headed when they wake up.
Judo and BJJ coaches have different opions about what to do if someone gets choked out. The most common approach is to stand around and wait for the person to wake up. And this works just fine 99% of the time.
There are traditional judo resuscitation techniques (known as "kappo"). Kappo is an esoteric subject, and I don't know much about it. But I'll give you some guidance coming more from a western first aid point of view.
In first aid class I've been taught to roll unconscious people onto their side or into the 3/4 prone position (IMPORTANT: you only do this if you're sure that there's no neck or back injury). Being on the side helps drain fluids from the mouth and prevents the tongue from blocking the airway. And there are some Judo coaches who agree that this is a good idea.
I don't want to scare you with all this talk about unconscious people. Most accounts of chokes gone bad involve cops trying to restrain someone high on PCP by squeezing their neck with a billy club. Hopefully that's not happening at your club.
In fact, chokes and strangles are fairly safe.
The Kodokan, which is the central organizing body for Judo, has conducted studies on the safety of chokes ("shimewaza"). The results are encouraging: Judoka have been choking each other for more than 100 years without any reported fatalities.
Attacking the neck is part of submission grappling and BJJ. If you do this sport long enough then eventually someone will get choked out right in front of you. Now you know what to expect when that happens!
Labels: choke recovery, chokes, Injuries, judo
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March 26, 2009
Emergency Rx for Cranked Necks and Strained Backs
Yesterday I was training my side mount escapes. My partner and I repeatedly started with me pinned, and then we worked until I got out or until someone tapped.
Well I got sloppy and ended up on the receiving end of this rather horrendous armlock/choke/neck crank technique that's one of Marcus Soares's signature moves.
So there I was, getting squished. I was in pain, but pride kept me from tapping out (which, is, of course the wrong thing to do). I squirmed this way and that, trying to find a way out.
I ended up escaping by the skin of my teeth. I literally had to I 'walk' his leg off of my face using my face muscles, alternately contorting my face into a frown, then a manic smile. Frown. Smile. Frown. Smile. Frown. Smile...
Fortunately the combination of luck, determination and desperation eventually paid off and I was out of the submission and out from under side mount.
Not surprisingly, though, my neck was pretty sore that evening. A bad kind of sore. That oh-boy-I've-done-it-again kind of sore.
That was yesterday. And today my neck is almost 100% again. So what did I do?
Nowadays almost everybody knows about using the R.I.C.E. formula to deal with sprains, strains, pulls or tears. This 4 step process consists of:
R = Rest (i.e. don't make it any worse)
I = Ice (10 minutes on, 10 minutes off)
C = Compression (a not-too-tight ACE bandage, for example)
E = Elevation (lifting the injured body part above the level of the heart)
When it comes to neck and back injuries you're kind of limited though - compression and elevation don't apply.
You really don't want to be found unconscious with some sort of band wrapped around your neck - the optics just aren't good (honest mom, I hurt my neck...). And with regards to elevation it's hard to elevate your neck above your heart more than it already is.
This leaves us with steps one and two: rest and ice. It's funny: almost everyone will ice a sore elbow, but very few people apply ice to a sore neck. This is a mistake.
That evening I put a gel ice pack into a sleeve and tied it around my neck, 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off, all evening. The 10/10 rule is important, because it's easily possible to give yourself frostbite by leaving ice or ice packs on too long.
I even ran an errand with that neoprene sleeve around my neck. Yes, I got some funny looks, but I'm 100% certain that the early and aggressive icing had a lot to do with my quick recovery.
The other tool in the R.I.C.E. formula for sore necks and backs is rest. Notice that it does NOT say 'stretch'. If you've recently strained your neck or back then DO NOT STRETCH IT.
When you strain a muscle it's typically been slightly torn or damaged. The pain and stiffness is a way for the muscle to protect itself. When you stretch it too early, you're just aggravating it further.
The worst back pain I ever had is when I came home from work with a very sore lower back and tried to stretch it out. At the end of that (gentle) stretching session I was so seized up that I couldn't get up off the ground. I lay in the same spot on the floor for 24 hours, wondering if I would ever walk again.
It's usually OK to start gentle stretching AFTER the inflammation has gone down - typically 3 to 4 days in the case of a mild strain or sprain.
So to summarize: if you strain your back or neck, DO get ice on it right away, but DON'T try to stretch it out.
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Well I got sloppy and ended up on the receiving end of this rather horrendous armlock/choke/neck crank technique that's one of Marcus Soares's signature moves.
So there I was, getting squished. I was in pain, but pride kept me from tapping out (which, is, of course the wrong thing to do). I squirmed this way and that, trying to find a way out.
I ended up escaping by the skin of my teeth. I literally had to I 'walk' his leg off of my face using my face muscles, alternately contorting my face into a frown, then a manic smile. Frown. Smile. Frown. Smile. Frown. Smile...
Fortunately the combination of luck, determination and desperation eventually paid off and I was out of the submission and out from under side mount.
Not surprisingly, though, my neck was pretty sore that evening. A bad kind of sore. That oh-boy-I've-done-it-again kind of sore.
That was yesterday. And today my neck is almost 100% again. So what did I do?
Nowadays almost everybody knows about using the R.I.C.E. formula to deal with sprains, strains, pulls or tears. This 4 step process consists of:
R = Rest (i.e. don't make it any worse)
I = Ice (10 minutes on, 10 minutes off)
C = Compression (a not-too-tight ACE bandage, for example)
E = Elevation (lifting the injured body part above the level of the heart)
When it comes to neck and back injuries you're kind of limited though - compression and elevation don't apply.
You really don't want to be found unconscious with some sort of band wrapped around your neck - the optics just aren't good (honest mom, I hurt my neck...). And with regards to elevation it's hard to elevate your neck above your heart more than it already is.
This leaves us with steps one and two: rest and ice. It's funny: almost everyone will ice a sore elbow, but very few people apply ice to a sore neck. This is a mistake.
That evening I put a gel ice pack into a sleeve and tied it around my neck, 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off, all evening. The 10/10 rule is important, because it's easily possible to give yourself frostbite by leaving ice or ice packs on too long.
I even ran an errand with that neoprene sleeve around my neck. Yes, I got some funny looks, but I'm 100% certain that the early and aggressive icing had a lot to do with my quick recovery.
The other tool in the R.I.C.E. formula for sore necks and backs is rest. Notice that it does NOT say 'stretch'. If you've recently strained your neck or back then DO NOT STRETCH IT.
When you strain a muscle it's typically been slightly torn or damaged. The pain and stiffness is a way for the muscle to protect itself. When you stretch it too early, you're just aggravating it further.
The worst back pain I ever had is when I came home from work with a very sore lower back and tried to stretch it out. At the end of that (gentle) stretching session I was so seized up that I couldn't get up off the ground. I lay in the same spot on the floor for 24 hours, wondering if I would ever walk again.
It's usually OK to start gentle stretching AFTER the inflammation has gone down - typically 3 to 4 days in the case of a mild strain or sprain.
So to summarize: if you strain your back or neck, DO get ice on it right away, but DON'T try to stretch it out.
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March 01, 2009
Hernia Recovery and Prevention for Grapplers
A few weeks ago I wrote about getting an inguinal hernia on New Year's Day and my subsequent surgery.
(For those of you who don't know, this type of hernia is when your intestines start protruding through a weakness or tear in your abdominal wall and show up as a bulge on the outside of your belly. These hernias may become strangulated, painful and infected, and if untreated might even kill you!)
First of all, thank you very much to all those who got in touch with wishes of a speedy and complete recovery. I'm happy to say that I'm doing great - I've even had a couple of light sparring sessions which was a ton of fun after 6 weeks away from the mats!
I've also received some emails with questions about hernias. To my knowledge this subject has never been addressed in the context of BJJ or submission grappling. So long as everybody understands that I AM NOT A DOCTOR I'll take a stab at answering some of these questions:
--------------------------------------------------
Q: How long does it take to recover from hernia surgery and get back to BJJ and grappling?
A: Well, predictably the answer is "it depends." As far as I can figure out, it depends on a number of factors, including
I was very surprised, therefore, when I visited the surgeon for a followup visit and told me that I could get back to FULL activity even though only 2 weeks had gone by since the surgery. He said that the 4 to 6 week rest period recommended by the pamphet was based on old surgical techniques.
So the bottom line is that recovery times seem to be getting a lot shorter (especially for mesh-based surgeries), but YOU REALLY NEED TO TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR OR SURGEON before getting back to training of any kind!
--------------------------------------------------
Q: What was your post-surgery workout and rehab schedule like?
A: Here's my rough schedule so far:
--------------------------------------------------
Q: If a fit guy like you can get a hernia, what about the rest of us? How can we prevent hernias?
A: Well there are a lot of different types of hernias. As I understand it, prevention depends on the exact type of hernia that you're talking about.
I had what is known as a direct inguinal hernia, which has a strong genetic component. A family history of this condition means that you're more likely to get it too (and, in fact, my Dad had a hernia surgery a couple of years ago).
It's clear that picking the right parents is probably the best way to avoid these types of hernias.
On the other hand, some other types of hernias are more related to excessive body weight and/or lack of muscle tone. Staying fit, avoiding obesity and keeping your abdominal wall strong through exercise is probably your best bet to avoid these types of 'lifestyle' hernias.
I'm just so very very glad that I had the mostly-genetic type of hernia, because of the saving face factor. I know I'd never live it down if I'd come down with an optional lifestyle hernia....
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(For those of you who don't know, this type of hernia is when your intestines start protruding through a weakness or tear in your abdominal wall and show up as a bulge on the outside of your belly. These hernias may become strangulated, painful and infected, and if untreated might even kill you!)
First of all, thank you very much to all those who got in touch with wishes of a speedy and complete recovery. I'm happy to say that I'm doing great - I've even had a couple of light sparring sessions which was a ton of fun after 6 weeks away from the mats!
I've also received some emails with questions about hernias. To my knowledge this subject has never been addressed in the context of BJJ or submission grappling. So long as everybody understands that I AM NOT A DOCTOR I'll take a stab at answering some of these questions:
--------------------------------------------------
Q: How long does it take to recover from hernia surgery and get back to BJJ and grappling?
A: Well, predictably the answer is "it depends." As far as I can figure out, it depends on a number of factors, including
- what type of hernia you have (inguinal, femoral, umbilical, etc.) and how bad it is,
- what type of surgery you had to repair it (synthetic mesh, internal stitches, etc.),
- what your fitness level was prior to the injury,
- whether there were any complications during or after surgery (hemorrhage, infection, etc.)
- etc.
I was very surprised, therefore, when I visited the surgeon for a followup visit and told me that I could get back to FULL activity even though only 2 weeks had gone by since the surgery. He said that the 4 to 6 week rest period recommended by the pamphet was based on old surgical techniques.
So the bottom line is that recovery times seem to be getting a lot shorter (especially for mesh-based surgeries), but YOU REALLY NEED TO TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR OR SURGEON before getting back to training of any kind!
--------------------------------------------------
Q: What was your post-surgery workout and rehab schedule like?
A: Here's my rough schedule so far:
- For the first two weeks after surgery I did absolutely NOTHING.
- After two weeks I got the OK to 'get back to everything' from my surgeon. Frankly this sounded a bit over-optimistic, and I decided on a gradual back-to-grappling program.
- For the next week I only did light bodyweight exercises and light BJJ technique drilling with a considerate partner.
- Then I did a week of light circuit training with weights (i.e. no heavy squats or deadlifts) and continued with the light partner drilling
- A month post-surgery I'm in a phase of doing slightly heavier weight training (still no squatting with more than 245 lbs though), a bit of running, and some easy sparring with people at least 10 lbs lighter than me
--------------------------------------------------
Q: If a fit guy like you can get a hernia, what about the rest of us? How can we prevent hernias?
A: Well there are a lot of different types of hernias. As I understand it, prevention depends on the exact type of hernia that you're talking about.
I had what is known as a direct inguinal hernia, which has a strong genetic component. A family history of this condition means that you're more likely to get it too (and, in fact, my Dad had a hernia surgery a couple of years ago).
It's clear that picking the right parents is probably the best way to avoid these types of hernias.
On the other hand, some other types of hernias are more related to excessive body weight and/or lack of muscle tone. Staying fit, avoiding obesity and keeping your abdominal wall strong through exercise is probably your best bet to avoid these types of 'lifestyle' hernias.
I'm just so very very glad that I had the mostly-genetic type of hernia, because of the saving face factor. I know I'd never live it down if I'd come down with an optional lifestyle hernia....
Labels: Injuries
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February 18, 2009
Coming Back from a Training Layoff
Coming back to training after a layoff is a tricky thing. There is a real danger that you jump back into full intensity training and re-injure yourself right off the bat (especially if you've been gone for a while and/or are coming back from an injury).
No, you need to ease back into training. Give your body some time to 'remember' what it used to do and ramp up your intensity slowly.
I actually have some authority to dispense advice here, because I'm coming back from a training layoff myself.
Three months ago, in November, I was working like crazy on some new grappling instructional products. Filming, producing, editing, writing and quality control took up almost all my time. I trained, but not very much.
Two months ago I injured my chest. This interfered with most aspects of my training, and so I was only on the mats once or twice a week in December.
One and a half months ago - on New Year's Day no less - I was shocked to find out that I had a hernia (a direct inguinal hernia, to be precise). It didn't hurt, but I really didn't want to make it worse, and so I stopped ALL training and ALL conditioning until my surgery.
Three weeks ago I had surgery, during which they lined my abdominal wall with a prolene mesh. The recovery has gone well, and I've just been cleared to get back to strenuous physical actiivity
So I didn't train much for a couple of months, and then not at all for the last 6 weeks. I'm recovering from two injuries and one surgery. Should I just jump back into class and start training, hell bent for leather?
Obviously not.
I really, really want to get back to training, but I'll have to make haste slowly. It would really suck to have my repaired hernia explode again (or to injure myself somewhere else).
My back-to-the-mats program has consisted of two things so far:
For once I'm taking my own advice, and it feels weird!
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No, you need to ease back into training. Give your body some time to 'remember' what it used to do and ramp up your intensity slowly.
I actually have some authority to dispense advice here, because I'm coming back from a training layoff myself.
Three months ago, in November, I was working like crazy on some new grappling instructional products. Filming, producing, editing, writing and quality control took up almost all my time. I trained, but not very much.
Two months ago I injured my chest. This interfered with most aspects of my training, and so I was only on the mats once or twice a week in December.
One and a half months ago - on New Year's Day no less - I was shocked to find out that I had a hernia (a direct inguinal hernia, to be precise). It didn't hurt, but I really didn't want to make it worse, and so I stopped ALL training and ALL conditioning until my surgery.
Three weeks ago I had surgery, during which they lined my abdominal wall with a prolene mesh. The recovery has gone well, and I've just been cleared to get back to strenuous physical actiivity
So I didn't train much for a couple of months, and then not at all for the last 6 weeks. I'm recovering from two injuries and one surgery. Should I just jump back into class and start training, hell bent for leather?
Obviously not.
I really, really want to get back to training, but I'll have to make haste slowly. It would really suck to have my repaired hernia explode again (or to injure myself somewhere else).
My back-to-the-mats program has consisted of two things so far:
- Easy bodyweight exercises: pushups, pullups, squats, shrimping, hip heists, etc. Nothing too strenuous and certainly nothing to failure.
- Non-competitive partner flow drills for repetition of basic grappling techniques. And I'm only using sane, in-control, and relatively light partners for this drilling.
- Get my body used to the physical strain of exercising again.
- To recover a bit of timing and help my body to remember how to move like a grappler.
- To test things out in a nice controlled environment. If either injury flares up again, I want that to happen in a controlled setting, and not with some bozo doing a flying knee-on-belly technique on me in sparring.
For once I'm taking my own advice, and it feels weird!
Labels: drills, Injuries, overtraining, training
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February 11, 2009
Off to the Glue Factory?
Here's a question I received recently:
Q: "I'm 56 years old and in pretty good health except for a few old injuries. My question is whether it is it too late for me to start training in grappling without wrecking my body too badly? (I'm not interested in competition)."
A: I've actually addressed this topic quite often in the past few years (maybe that's because I'm turning 40 this summer).
In any case, my answer is a guarded 'Yes.' You can definitely start training and make progress, BUT it depends on a few critical factors:
To balance all this out, keep in mind that you're still younger than my teacher (and inspiration) Dan Inosanto when he started Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And now he's a very respectable BJJ black belt...
Good Luck!
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Q: "I'm 56 years old and in pretty good health except for a few old injuries. My question is whether it is it too late for me to start training in grappling without wrecking my body too badly? (I'm not interested in competition)."
A: I've actually addressed this topic quite often in the past few years (maybe that's because I'm turning 40 this summer).
In any case, my answer is a guarded 'Yes.' You can definitely start training and make progress, BUT it depends on a few critical factors:
- You HAVE to be careful
- You HAVE to go slow when you spar, and be ready to tap out when you get caught in submissions (or even awkward positions).
- You HAVE to watch out for overtraining (also known as under-recovery)
- You probably SHOULDN'T train at a school with a lot of young studs who all want to fight in the UFC
- You might want to consider taking BJJ, not submission grappling. There is often a lot of testosterone and explosive movement in submission grappling, which tends to lead to worse injuries than the more controlled and methodical sparring in BJJ.
To balance all this out, keep in mind that you're still younger than my teacher (and inspiration) Dan Inosanto when he started Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And now he's a very respectable BJJ black belt...
Good Luck!
Labels: Injuries, older grapplers, overtraining, teachers, training
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October 17, 2008
Catch and Release
Back when I was mostly training in Judo I heard that there were some traditional dojos in Japan where tapping out to a choke was frowned upon - even in club sparring sessions you were supposed to fight the choke right to the bitter end, and your opponent would release the hold only AFTER you passed out. I thought that this was pretty hardcore, and felt lucky that the Judo club I trained at wasn't like that.
Towards the end of my Judo career, however, I came across something even more bizarre. A Jpanese collegiate Judo team on a North American tour came and trained at my club. Not only did these guys not tap out to chokes, they didn't tap out to jointlocks either, at least until something in the joint had popped a few times. This was in PRACTICE, not competition. The irony is that most of these guys actually weren't very good on the ground, and at the end of a training session a whole bunch of them would be sitting against the wall, nursing sore elbows.
I recently told this story to my BJJ coach, Marcus Soares. After he finished laughing and shaking his head, he told me that back in Brazil he'd done the exact opposite. If he had a submission locked in, and he was sure that could finish it, then he'd often stop that attack, release the grips and go on to hunt for another submission elsewhere.
Perhaps not coincidentally I've seen video of Marcelo Garcia, the best pound for pound grappler in the world, using this same 'Catch and Release' method in his training. By loosening up your submissions before they are finalized you can study your opponent's reactions and escape motions, and then work countering his counters to your initial attack.
This intelligent approach to training sure beats the meathead approach of putting your training partner out of commission for a few months until his arm heals up...
Finally, as I talked about in a previous tip, some submissions are just inherently more dangerous than others. Knowing how to train dangerous submissions is important: if you never, ever use them in sparring then you may develop a myopia towards them. Now you might not even recognize when people are setting them up on you, or know what to do if you're caught in one. Sometimes people even apply these submissions accidentally: they might not realize that a choke has turned into a neck crank, for example. Knowing a little bit about how to intentionally apply a neck crank will help you be aware of when you are doing them unintentionally, and also teach you how to defend against them better.
These were all considerations I had to weigh as I was writing the script for my High Percentage Leglocks DVD. I knew I wanted to show some safer yet still highly efficient material on that DVD, but I was concerned about revealing too much about the heel hook, on the off chance that someone would injure their training partner. In the end I decided that I would be doing a disservice to the grappling community by not showing the heel hook, and included a lot of different methods to train these efficient and effective submissions safely.
For a more detailed discussion of how NOT to blow out your training partner's knee while leglocking him I would like to refer you to the High Percentage Leglocks DVD itself.
So be like a fisherman, and occasionally practice Catch and Release!
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Towards the end of my Judo career, however, I came across something even more bizarre. A Jpanese collegiate Judo team on a North American tour came and trained at my club. Not only did these guys not tap out to chokes, they didn't tap out to jointlocks either, at least until something in the joint had popped a few times. This was in PRACTICE, not competition. The irony is that most of these guys actually weren't very good on the ground, and at the end of a training session a whole bunch of them would be sitting against the wall, nursing sore elbows.
I recently told this story to my BJJ coach, Marcus Soares. After he finished laughing and shaking his head, he told me that back in Brazil he'd done the exact opposite. If he had a submission locked in, and he was sure that could finish it, then he'd often stop that attack, release the grips and go on to hunt for another submission elsewhere.
Perhaps not coincidentally I've seen video of Marcelo Garcia, the best pound for pound grappler in the world, using this same 'Catch and Release' method in his training. By loosening up your submissions before they are finalized you can study your opponent's reactions and escape motions, and then work countering his counters to your initial attack.
This intelligent approach to training sure beats the meathead approach of putting your training partner out of commission for a few months until his arm heals up...
Finally, as I talked about in a previous tip, some submissions are just inherently more dangerous than others. Knowing how to train dangerous submissions is important: if you never, ever use them in sparring then you may develop a myopia towards them. Now you might not even recognize when people are setting them up on you, or know what to do if you're caught in one. Sometimes people even apply these submissions accidentally: they might not realize that a choke has turned into a neck crank, for example. Knowing a little bit about how to intentionally apply a neck crank will help you be aware of when you are doing them unintentionally, and also teach you how to defend against them better.
These were all considerations I had to weigh as I was writing the script for my High Percentage Leglocks DVD. I knew I wanted to show some safer yet still highly efficient material on that DVD, but I was concerned about revealing too much about the heel hook, on the off chance that someone would injure their training partner. In the end I decided that I would be doing a disservice to the grappling community by not showing the heel hook, and included a lot of different methods to train these efficient and effective submissions safely.For a more detailed discussion of how NOT to blow out your training partner's knee while leglocking him I would like to refer you to the High Percentage Leglocks DVD itself.
So be like a fisherman, and occasionally practice Catch and Release!
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October 04, 2008
The Two Meanings of the Tap
Tapping out is sending a message to your opponent. The most common message is "OK, you got me with that submission. Now let me go"
Many grapplers don't realize that tapping out can also be used to send a different message, namely: "I don't know what's going on here - I might be in danger of getting injured, so let's stop for a second"
Recently I was sparring and had my opponent pinned in side mount. He wrapped my head at an awkward angle and bridged. To relieve pressure on my neck I decided to go with the it and roll to the bottom. Halfway during that roll we collided with some punching bags at the edge of the mat - I was now wedged into a corner, my neck at a strange angle, and my partner perched precariously on top of me.
It wasn't a submission per se - my neck didn't actually hurt - but I sure as hell didn't want to find out what would happen if either he or I tried to scramble from that position. I tapped out, he let go, and -for once - nothing went snap or pop.
As you become more experienced your knowledge of technique grows - that is a no-brainer. A less appreciated aspect of the grappling learning process is that your mental library of awkward positions also grows as you spend more time on the mats. You'll figure out when certain positions are merely uncomfortable, vs. actually being damaging. You might be willing to accept the discomfort of a guillotine choke for longer, because you'll know if it is going to damage your neck or your windpipe.
Even when you get to black belt level, however, you're still going to periodically end up in weird, contorted positions that might be uncomfortable but not be submissions per se. My advice is, that if you are unsure about the safety of a position, then swallow your pride, tap out and live to fight another day. The worst that will happen is that you will make the day of some junior guy at the club who just tapped out one of the big guns. Not such a big price to pay really, when you compare it to the alternative of not being able to train for many months due to some stupid, preventable injury!
Remember that the tap can be used to send two different messages.
Happy Tapping!
Additional Resources: an article about two things that will put a halt to your training.
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Many grapplers don't realize that tapping out can also be used to send a different message, namely: "I don't know what's going on here - I might be in danger of getting injured, so let's stop for a second"
Recently I was sparring and had my opponent pinned in side mount. He wrapped my head at an awkward angle and bridged. To relieve pressure on my neck I decided to go with the it and roll to the bottom. Halfway during that roll we collided with some punching bags at the edge of the mat - I was now wedged into a corner, my neck at a strange angle, and my partner perched precariously on top of me.
It wasn't a submission per se - my neck didn't actually hurt - but I sure as hell didn't want to find out what would happen if either he or I tried to scramble from that position. I tapped out, he let go, and -for once - nothing went snap or pop.
As you become more experienced your knowledge of technique grows - that is a no-brainer. A less appreciated aspect of the grappling learning process is that your mental library of awkward positions also grows as you spend more time on the mats. You'll figure out when certain positions are merely uncomfortable, vs. actually being damaging. You might be willing to accept the discomfort of a guillotine choke for longer, because you'll know if it is going to damage your neck or your windpipe.
Even when you get to black belt level, however, you're still going to periodically end up in weird, contorted positions that might be uncomfortable but not be submissions per se. My advice is, that if you are unsure about the safety of a position, then swallow your pride, tap out and live to fight another day. The worst that will happen is that you will make the day of some junior guy at the club who just tapped out one of the big guns. Not such a big price to pay really, when you compare it to the alternative of not being able to train for many months due to some stupid, preventable injury!
Remember that the tap can be used to send two different messages.
Happy Tapping!
Additional Resources: an article about two things that will put a halt to your training.
Labels: Injuries
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September 17, 2008
Lets Get The Groundrules Straight!
One of the worst organized MMA shows I ever saw was a small local show, back in 1996. Before I talk about that particular show though, I have to set the stage: UFC 9 had just happened. That UFC was 'special' because at the last minute the rules had been changed to ban punches with the closed fist to the face (more on the event and the backstory here).
Some of the fighters in that UFC ignored the no closed fist rule and merrily punched their opponents in the face (incurring minor financial fines along the road to victory). Other fighters apparently took that rule seriously and only slapped their opponents. Almost of the fans, myself include, were confused by what was going on.
So now let's get back to that particularly putrid local MMA show.
A friend of mine was coaching one of the fighters, so I was privy to the pre-fight rules meeting. I was interested to see what they would allow at these fights. This was before the athletic commissions got involved in regulating MMA so every event had a different set of rules governing the legality of headbutts, elbow strikes, knees on the ground, wearing of gloves, closed fist punching, etc.
Are you ready for the rules meeting? It was one sentence long: "OK, like it's total UFC rules".
That's it.
After that, the fights themselves were a gong show. Some guys were doing Pancrase-style open hand slapping. Other people were throwing repeat headbutts into their opponent's faces and trying to punch them in the balls. The referee, the same guy who had delivered the oh-so-concise rules meeting, seemed completely out of his depth as he tried to manage the mayhem.
The climax of the show occurred when one fighter knocked down his opponent near the ring ropes. He then grabbed the bottom rope, stood up and stepped on the neck of his opponent. With the full weight of his body and the tension of the bottom rope pressing down on his opponent's neck and pinning him there he started stomping his victim on the head.
And the ref did - nothing. He was useless anyhow, but this tactic so stunned him that he stood there and watched.
Finally the victim's corner stormed into the ring and bull rushed the aggressor off of their fighter. A near riot broke out, and eventually, after much yelling in about 3 different languages, the stomper was disqualified and the stompee, somewhat worse for wear, was declared the winner.
Of course this entire schmozzle was almost entirely the referee's fault (who was also the organizer and promoter, by the way). If I had been a politician, and this had been my introduction to MMA, I would have knelt down and made a vow that my life's mission would be the eradication of this brutal bloodsport. Not amateur MMA's proudest moment...
So what does that have to do with us today? MMA is much more regulated and standardized now, but jiu-jitsu and submission grappling tournaments still use widely varying rules. Some allow suplexing throws, others do not. Some allow certain leglocks, others do not. Some award points when you use the turtle position to reverse an opponent, others do not. Some allow neck cranks, others do not.
Even if you never compete, it's still worth clarifying the rules when you're about to spar with someone you've never rolled with before. If you're operating under the assumption that heel hooks are forbidden, but it's the bread and butter move at that other guy's home club, then things could go badly in a hurry. No matter whether you compete or not, make bloody clear that you know what the ground rules are; your ACLs will thank you for it.
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Some of the fighters in that UFC ignored the no closed fist rule and merrily punched their opponents in the face (incurring minor financial fines along the road to victory). Other fighters apparently took that rule seriously and only slapped their opponents. Almost of the fans, myself include, were confused by what was going on.
So now let's get back to that particularly putrid local MMA show.
A friend of mine was coaching one of the fighters, so I was privy to the pre-fight rules meeting. I was interested to see what they would allow at these fights. This was before the athletic commissions got involved in regulating MMA so every event had a different set of rules governing the legality of headbutts, elbow strikes, knees on the ground, wearing of gloves, closed fist punching, etc.
Are you ready for the rules meeting? It was one sentence long: "OK, like it's total UFC rules".
That's it.
After that, the fights themselves were a gong show. Some guys were doing Pancrase-style open hand slapping. Other people were throwing repeat headbutts into their opponent's faces and trying to punch them in the balls. The referee, the same guy who had delivered the oh-so-concise rules meeting, seemed completely out of his depth as he tried to manage the mayhem.
The climax of the show occurred when one fighter knocked down his opponent near the ring ropes. He then grabbed the bottom rope, stood up and stepped on the neck of his opponent. With the full weight of his body and the tension of the bottom rope pressing down on his opponent's neck and pinning him there he started stomping his victim on the head.
And the ref did - nothing. He was useless anyhow, but this tactic so stunned him that he stood there and watched.
Finally the victim's corner stormed into the ring and bull rushed the aggressor off of their fighter. A near riot broke out, and eventually, after much yelling in about 3 different languages, the stomper was disqualified and the stompee, somewhat worse for wear, was declared the winner.
Of course this entire schmozzle was almost entirely the referee's fault (who was also the organizer and promoter, by the way). If I had been a politician, and this had been my introduction to MMA, I would have knelt down and made a vow that my life's mission would be the eradication of this brutal bloodsport. Not amateur MMA's proudest moment...
So what does that have to do with us today? MMA is much more regulated and standardized now, but jiu-jitsu and submission grappling tournaments still use widely varying rules. Some allow suplexing throws, others do not. Some allow certain leglocks, others do not. Some award points when you use the turtle position to reverse an opponent, others do not. Some allow neck cranks, others do not.
Even if you never compete, it's still worth clarifying the rules when you're about to spar with someone you've never rolled with before. If you're operating under the assumption that heel hooks are forbidden, but it's the bread and butter move at that other guy's home club, then things could go badly in a hurry. No matter whether you compete or not, make bloody clear that you know what the ground rules are; your ACLs will thank you for it.
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July 31, 2008
Refusing to Concede the Sweep
I trained with Denis Kang for the first five or six years of his MMA career. At some point during that time he became very, very difficult to sweep. Partially this was due to his increasing technical knowledge, but it was also more than that. He started refusing to accept getting swept, and would keep on scrambling and fighting the sweep from its initiation to its very end. Even when I managed to complete the first 90% of a sweep on him I could usually never finish the last 10%: at the very last instant he would bounce, twitch, roll and scramble, ending up back on his feet again.Needless to say, this was VERY frustrating.
Refusing to concede a sweep has a lot of advantages. In MMA the bottom position is almost always a bad place to be, because your opponent can use gravity and land some very heavy blows. In BJJ and submission wrestling getting swept costs you points which could lose you the match.
Some grapplers, however, give up too easily when fighting a sweep. Often this is particularly noticeable for grapplers who love the guard position: they are almost relieved to be swept because it means that they can retreat to their comfort zone and start working their own guard game. Probably their jiu-jitsu would improve faster if they tried to keep the top position and worked on their guard passing skills.
Some people might argue that high-speed scrambling uses up too much energy, but think of it this way: if you do get swept and pinned then how much energy are you going to have to use to escape to a neutral position? It's probably a lot better to use some energy up front and prevent the sweep from getting finalized, rather than ending up in a bad position and having to settle in for a long, hard, and defensive fight.
Scrambling out of sweeps can be taught and trained. What you need is a training partner who will sweep you at 50% to 70% of regular speed, and then takes his time finalizing the sweep by coming to the top position rather slowly. He has to give you the time to scramble and get your legs back underneath you, rather than jumping on top of you and squishing you flat. It can be difficult to find someone who is willing to help you this way, but the results of this sort of training can be very valuable.
IMPORTANT CAVEAT: I don't want to end on a downer, but I have to point out that refusing the concede the sweep is not without its own dangers. If you're trying to stop a very high-energy sweep, or if your opponent is heavy (or heavier than you), then the consequences of posting an arm out could include a sprained wrist, a hyperextended elbow or even a broken bone in the arm. The basic rule here is that it is OK to scramble but it is NOT OK to post on the ground with a straight arm. Better to concede the sweep than end up with your arm in a cast for six weeks!
Not having your arm straight and posted on the mat was also discussed in this previous tip: www.grapplearts.com/2008/02/simplest-way-to-avoid-injury.htm
Finally, some people take the principle we're discussing a step further and apply it to their standup wrestling, which is to say that they refuse to concede the takedown even after all their technical counters have failed. This approach is valid and has won a lot of matches, but the danger level of doing this is very high. I know several people who have broken their arms or dislocated their shoulders posting on their hands while fighting a throw, and every decent size Judo tournament features multiple visits from ambulance crews to pick up and cart off yet another Judoka who was doing all sorts of silly things while trying not to get thrown. Do it if you want to, but consider yourself officially warned!
Labels: Injuries, MMA, positions, the guard
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July 02, 2008
Slumps Vs. Plateaus
Acquiring new skill sets and polishing your existing skills is the very essence of training. When everything is working properly and you're surfing up the learning curve it is an exhilarating process. The learning curve isn't always smooth, however, and sometimes you run into things called slumps and plateaus. These two phenomena have some similarities, but are different.
In a slump your skills and performance deteriorate. Suddenly you have no gas, no coordination, and are always a step behind in sparring. Those sparring partners you usually dominate start dominating you, tapping you out with ease.
Oftentimes there is an obvious reason for the slump (at least in retrospect). Maybe it was because you were overtrained, or fighting off a cold, or emotionally drained from work, or sleeping badly, or not training enough. In any case, you usually figure it out and your learning curve starts to go head in the right direction again. Most slumps are fairly short, on the scale of days to a few weeks. It's very frustrating while it's happening, but at least it's over quickly.
A plateau, on the other hand, happens when you stop making progress and get stuck at the same skill and performance level for a long time. You might be training just as hard as you always have, but you're just not getting any better.
Plateaus usually last longer than slumps, especially as you become more skilled. Plateaus typically last one to several months, and sometimes as long as half a year. To make matters worse, during this time your highly inconsiderate training partners insist on continuing to make progress, widening the gulf and leaving you in the dust.
Plateaus are usually more demoralizing than slumps. Anyone can handle having a bad day or two, but training hard and not seeing any obvious benefits or improvements from training is hard on the ego and can make anyone question themselves.
The underlying cause for skill plateaus is hard to diagnose, and definitely harder than figuring out why someone is in a slump. Furthermore, without knowing the cause for a plateau it's hard to prescribe a cure, so often one is just left with a shotgun approach to solving the problem. Sometimes people have some success in ending a plateau by changing their techniques, training regimen, diet or the amount of sleep they get, but the fact of the matter is that most people's skills improve in little steps, not in a smooth line. You work and you work and you work and then, all of a sudden, BAM! Your game jumps up one or two levels overnight!
My advice for dealing with plateaus: maybe try shaking things up in your training or conditioning routine, but mainly try not to get too discouraged and remember that everyone goes through this at some point. Definitely hang in there: everyone gets better eventually!
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In a slump your skills and performance deteriorate. Suddenly you have no gas, no coordination, and are always a step behind in sparring. Those sparring partners you usually dominate start dominating you, tapping you out with ease.
Oftentimes there is an obvious reason for the slump (at least in retrospect). Maybe it was because you were overtrained, or fighting off a cold, or emotionally drained from work, or sleeping badly, or not training enough. In any case, you usually figure it out and your learning curve starts to go head in the right direction again. Most slumps are fairly short, on the scale of days to a few weeks. It's very frustrating while it's happening, but at least it's over quickly.
A plateau, on the other hand, happens when you stop making progress and get stuck at the same skill and performance level for a long time. You might be training just as hard as you always have, but you're just not getting any better.
Plateaus usually last longer than slumps, especially as you become more skilled. Plateaus typically last one to several months, and sometimes as long as half a year. To make matters worse, during this time your highly inconsiderate training partners insist on continuing to make progress, widening the gulf and leaving you in the dust.
Plateaus are usually more demoralizing than slumps. Anyone can handle having a bad day or two, but training hard and not seeing any obvious benefits or improvements from training is hard on the ego and can make anyone question themselves.
The underlying cause for skill plateaus is hard to diagnose, and definitely harder than figuring out why someone is in a slump. Furthermore, without knowing the cause for a plateau it's hard to prescribe a cure, so often one is just left with a shotgun approach to solving the problem. Sometimes people have some success in ending a plateau by changing their techniques, training regimen, diet or the amount of sleep they get, but the fact of the matter is that most people's skills improve in little steps, not in a smooth line. You work and you work and you work and then, all of a sudden, BAM! Your game jumps up one or two levels overnight!
My advice for dealing with plateaus: maybe try shaking things up in your training or conditioning routine, but mainly try not to get too discouraged and remember that everyone goes through this at some point. Definitely hang in there: everyone gets better eventually!
Labels: Injuries, overtraining, the mental aspect
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May 26, 2008
The Stiff Arm (in Grappling)
The stiff arm on the Heisman Trophy is an iconic posture in football, and it is used by players in every single game. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, however, the stiff arm has a bit of a bad rap. One of the first lessons a grappler learns is to NOT push the chest with straight arms when trapped in the mount. This piece of wisdom is reinforced by training partners endlessly applying effortless armbars until the lesson is learned.
But there are many times and places to use the stiff arm correctly...
One good example is in guard pass prevention. I've written before about the importance of pushing the head to prevent the guard pass. If you manage to lock your arm straight when you do this it is much more efficient than using a bent arm: you can push your opponent further away AND it leaves you with more energy to think about what to do next.
Another example comes from offensive guard work. If you've seen my Butterfly and X Guard DVD then you know that transitioning from butterfly guard to X guard is one of my favorite techniques. This technique requires a stiff arm push to the ribs in order to keep your opponent's weight off of you. The most common error I observe when people try to do this technique is that they try to push with a bent arm, which usually just isn't strong enough to do the trick.
A final example is the backwards somersault mount escape. In this technique you bridge to get your opponent's weight forward, put your hands in his armpits, keep your arms straight and do a backwards somersault to escape the mount. If your arms are bent you just won't be able to pull off this escape.
A straight arm can hold much more weight than a bent arm, because the bones, not the muscles, are doing the work. Consider weightlifting: a person can usually hold (or 'lock out') at least a hundred pounds more than they can actually bench press. If the arm is bent then the triceps muscle has to actively work to push the weight away, and gets tired much more quickly.
Keep in mind that when you stiff arm your opponent in the middle of his chest you might be giving him the positioning and energy he needs to apply a quick armbar on you. On those occasions when I do stiff arm someone in the chest I am on ultra-high alert for the armbar. If you want to avoid the armbar danger, restrict your stiff arming to the head, hips or side of the ribcage.
Finally I need to say a few things about injury prevention. Intentionally stiff arming an opponent is very different from just sitting around on the mat with your arm locked out. It's also very different from putting your arm out straight to stop being thrown, which is a recipe for breaking your arm and/or dislocating your elbow. The general rule in jiu-jitsu is that you DON"T fully straighten your arms, and what I discussed today is an exception to that (very good) rule. Go ahead and stiff arm people, just be conscious about what you are doing and use it judiciously.
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But there are many times and places to use the stiff arm correctly...
One good example is in guard pass prevention. I've written before about the importance of pushing the head to prevent the guard pass. If you manage to lock your arm straight when you do this it is much more efficient than using a bent arm: you can push your opponent further away AND it leaves you with more energy to think about what to do next.
Another example comes from offensive guard work. If you've seen my Butterfly and X Guard DVD then you know that transitioning from butterfly guard to X guard is one of my favorite techniques. This technique requires a stiff arm push to the ribs in order to keep your opponent's weight off of you. The most common error I observe when people try to do this technique is that they try to push with a bent arm, which usually just isn't strong enough to do the trick.
A final example is the backwards somersault mount escape. In this technique you bridge to get your opponent's weight forward, put your hands in his armpits, keep your arms straight and do a backwards somersault to escape the mount. If your arms are bent you just won't be able to pull off this escape.
A straight arm can hold much more weight than a bent arm, because the bones, not the muscles, are doing the work. Consider weightlifting: a person can usually hold (or 'lock out') at least a hundred pounds more than they can actually bench press. If the arm is bent then the triceps muscle has to actively work to push the weight away, and gets tired much more quickly.
Keep in mind that when you stiff arm your opponent in the middle of his chest you might be giving him the positioning and energy he needs to apply a quick armbar on you. On those occasions when I do stiff arm someone in the chest I am on ultra-high alert for the armbar. If you want to avoid the armbar danger, restrict your stiff arming to the head, hips or side of the ribcage.
Finally I need to say a few things about injury prevention. Intentionally stiff arming an opponent is very different from just sitting around on the mat with your arm locked out. It's also very different from putting your arm out straight to stop being thrown, which is a recipe for breaking your arm and/or dislocating your elbow. The general rule in jiu-jitsu is that you DON"T fully straighten your arms, and what I discussed today is an exception to that (very good) rule. Go ahead and stiff arm people, just be conscious about what you are doing and use it judiciously.
Labels: Injuries
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May 03, 2008
Cauliflower Ears in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
We've added a lot of information on the care and feeding of cauliflower ears, a relatively common grappling injury. Read the whole article, Cauliflower Ears in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, here.Labels: Injuries
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Train Hard, Recover Smart
Quick: what's the most important meal of the day?
If you said "breakfast" then you're wrong, at least if you're a hard-training combat athlete. According to Martin Rooney, author of 'Training For Warriors, the Team Renzo Gracie Workout', the two most important meals of the day are your pre and post-workout meals. Furthermore, Mr. Rooney isn't alone in this belief: there is research on sports as diverse as endurance running and weightlifting showing very significant effects of preworkout, and especially postworkout, nutrition.
Getting some extra liquid, carbohydrates and protein into your body shortly BEFORE a workout allows you to train harder, longer, and minimizes muscle damage and compromise to your immune system during your workout.
Eating (or drinking) within 45 minutes AFTER exercise actually helps heal your body, builds new muscle, and replenishes your body's energy stores so that you'll feel fresh for your next workout. Lack of proper postworkout nutrition is a huge contributing factor in overtraining. If you often feel like a stumbling zombie for 24 hours after intense training then the first thing you should try is making sure that you get good nutrition into your body soon after the training stops. If you're doing multiple workouts in a day then then postworkout nutrition is often the only thing between you and total system breakdown.
It is important that your post-workout meal be consumed soon after your workout (within 45 minutes). After training your body experiences an 'anabolic window', during which the cells of your body are especially able to absorb and use nutrients. This window starts to close soon after you stop training, so it is better to get something into your belly fast rather than waiting and having the perfect meal two hours later.
OK, so what should these meals look like? Most people agree that the pre and post workout 'meals' should be in liquid form, both to provide you with liquid to replace lost sweat and to speed absorption of the nutrients. Basically we're talking about an athlete's version of the bodybuilder's shake.
THE PREWORKOUT MEAL (c. 10 minutes before exercise)
This is a chance to get some liquid, fuel (sugar and carbohydrates) and electrolytes into your body before your workout, giving it something to burn up and sweat out. The addition of a small amount of protein helps limit muscle breakdown. A typical preworkout meal might consist of:
This feeding gets nutrients into your body at a time when it needs them most and also when it is most receptive to them (the 'anabolic window' window again). A typical postworkout meal might look like this:
You can buy powdered shake mixes that purport to give you the exact right mixture of these ingredients, typically with the addition of some secret or proprietary compounds (exotics like black mamba venom, or fancy chemical names like 2,3-diethyl-dichloro-cancer-some-day). While these mixtures are convenient they are also very expensive.
A cheaper alternative is to buy bulk powdered sportsdrink (Gatorade, Powerade, etc), maltodextrin (an easily absorbed carbohydrate) and protein powder (whey, hemp, egg, etc.). Play mad scientist, mixing up different concoctions using water or diluted fruit juice as a base until you find a mixture with flavor and consistency that you like. Feel free to experiment: for example I eventually discovered that my body reacts quite badly to whey protein and now use a variety of other proteins instead.
I can't say that I follow these guidelines religiously, but the bottom line is to try and get something into your belly immediately before and immediately after exercise. If all you can get your hands on is a small bottle of Powerade or Gatorade then that is still way better than having nothing at all. Please note that I've skipped over a lot of chemistry and physiology in this article: if you want to know more about this topic check out just about any sports nutrition book ('Nutrient Timing' by Ivy and Portman is one of my favorites).
Train hard, recover smart!
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If you said "breakfast" then you're wrong, at least if you're a hard-training combat athlete. According to Martin Rooney, author of 'Training For Warriors, the Team Renzo Gracie Workout', the two most important meals of the day are your pre and post-workout meals. Furthermore, Mr. Rooney isn't alone in this belief: there is research on sports as diverse as endurance running and weightlifting showing very significant effects of preworkout, and especially postworkout, nutrition.
Getting some extra liquid, carbohydrates and protein into your body shortly BEFORE a workout allows you to train harder, longer, and minimizes muscle damage and compromise to your immune system during your workout.
Eating (or drinking) within 45 minutes AFTER exercise actually helps heal your body, builds new muscle, and replenishes your body's energy stores so that you'll feel fresh for your next workout. Lack of proper postworkout nutrition is a huge contributing factor in overtraining. If you often feel like a stumbling zombie for 24 hours after intense training then the first thing you should try is making sure that you get good nutrition into your body soon after the training stops. If you're doing multiple workouts in a day then then postworkout nutrition is often the only thing between you and total system breakdown.
It is important that your post-workout meal be consumed soon after your workout (within 45 minutes). After training your body experiences an 'anabolic window', during which the cells of your body are especially able to absorb and use nutrients. This window starts to close soon after you stop training, so it is better to get something into your belly fast rather than waiting and having the perfect meal two hours later.
OK, so what should these meals look like? Most people agree that the pre and post workout 'meals' should be in liquid form, both to provide you with liquid to replace lost sweat and to speed absorption of the nutrients. Basically we're talking about an athlete's version of the bodybuilder's shake.
THE PREWORKOUT MEAL (c. 10 minutes before exercise)
This is a chance to get some liquid, fuel (sugar and carbohydrates) and electrolytes into your body before your workout, giving it something to burn up and sweat out. The addition of a small amount of protein helps limit muscle breakdown. A typical preworkout meal might consist of:
- 12 oz of water
- 20 to 30 grams of carbohydrates (glucose, sucrose and/or maltodextrin)
- 5 to 10 grams of protein (e.g. whey protein)
- electrolytes (mostly sodium, potassium and magnesium)
This feeding gets nutrients into your body at a time when it needs them most and also when it is most receptive to them (the 'anabolic window' window again). A typical postworkout meal might look like this:
- Lots of water
- 20 to 30 grams protein
- 80 to 100 grams carbohydrate
- electrolytes (e.g. sodium, potassium, magnesium)
You can buy powdered shake mixes that purport to give you the exact right mixture of these ingredients, typically with the addition of some secret or proprietary compounds (exotics like black mamba venom, or fancy chemical names like 2,3-diethyl-dichloro-cancer-some-day). While these mixtures are convenient they are also very expensive.
A cheaper alternative is to buy bulk powdered sportsdrink (Gatorade, Powerade, etc), maltodextrin (an easily absorbed carbohydrate) and protein powder (whey, hemp, egg, etc.). Play mad scientist, mixing up different concoctions using water or diluted fruit juice as a base until you find a mixture with flavor and consistency that you like. Feel free to experiment: for example I eventually discovered that my body reacts quite badly to whey protein and now use a variety of other proteins instead.
I can't say that I follow these guidelines religiously, but the bottom line is to try and get something into your belly immediately before and immediately after exercise. If all you can get your hands on is a small bottle of Powerade or Gatorade then that is still way better than having nothing at all. Please note that I've skipped over a lot of chemistry and physiology in this article: if you want to know more about this topic check out just about any sports nutrition book ('Nutrient Timing' by Ivy and Portman is one of my favorites).
Train hard, recover smart!
Labels: conditioning, Injuries, overtraining
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Leglocking Interview
I recently had a great discussion with Dan and Caleb from TheFightwork's Podcast about the role of leglocks in Brazilian jiu- jitsu. We discussed a lot of things leglock, including how to train them safely, how to use them to help augment your guard passing game, and how their role has changed and evolved within the sport. Check the interview out on the site or download it to your iPod.
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March 09, 2008
Senior Jiu-jitsu
Stephan's note: todays's tip is brought to you a guest columnist, my friend Don Whitefield (www.jiujitsulife.com). Not only does he offer good advice for older BJJ players, but if young punks were to adopt some of the advice I guarantee they'd get better faster..I don't consider myself old at age fourty-two, but I know that my Jiu-Jitsu game differs a lot from the game of an eighteen year old. Anyone over thirty is considered either a Master or Senior in BJJ competition, and it is important for these students to understand the special rules that apply to them in order to make it to their black belt and beyond.
1. Rule: Roll Smart
Even if you feel like it don't take the young spaz by the horns and get tossed around. Give them a little space to protect yourself, even if it means giving up position. Another good strategy is to stay on the top for a while or keep them in your guard (if you can) and tire them out to equalize the playing field a bit.
The most important advice is to avoid unusual positions unless you are positive that you can trust your training partner to look out for you. Often injuries occur when senior students get into unfamiliar position and they and/or their partner make a wrong move in the heat of battle resulting in injury. You have to be able to completely rely on your partner before you can open up your game.
2. Rule: Protect your body
I see teens and kids in my BJJ classes sometimes bend their joints at angles that make me shiver, but after the initial squeal they usually are back on the mat within five minutes. Their tendons and bones are flexible, but we loose this luxury as we age. The problem is that this occurs slowly and unnoticed and we sometimes spar as if we were still teenagers.
We become only aware of our age when we have (painfully) gone beyond the flexibility of our body. Since our recovery time is a lot longer than five minutes try to follow this simple rule we have in my academy: "Tap today, train tomorrow". It reminds you to tap early even if you are not in a submission but just get caught awkwardly.
3. Rule: Recover smartly
It is sad that as teenagers we got away with 4 hours of sleep, eating only fried foods and sugary carbonated drinks. As you get older these sins will catch up with you, so change these habits if you still live that way. As a senior jiu-jitsu fighter you should get lots of sleep, water, protein, fruits, veggies and supplements; these will help you stay in the game (or get back into it if you get injured).
Be smart and recognize when you are injured: take the week off than have the injury turn chronic. Stretch every day to maintain your body's flexibility. It protects you while you roll and helps you to overcome injuries much faster. Once you return to the mats don't hesitate to point out your injury to your training partner so he can look out for you if necessary. Get medical advice early on if you get an unfamiliar injury, read up on it and educate yourself regarding recovery and prevention of these injuries.
Lastly, use your maturity and your ability to keep your cool as an advantage to prevent injuries, recover from them and protect yourself from future injuries. There is one good thing about not being a teenager anymore: You got a lot smarter since.
Labels: Injuries, older grapplers
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February 23, 2008
A Dangerous Time
We've been discussing injuries a lot recently, and it seems to have hit a chord with the Grapplearts readership. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I wanted to discuss one more thing before we leave this topic.
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One of the most dangerous times in a martial artist's career is AFTER a serious injury, especially if it involves a lengthy break from training. Far too often I've seen a hard-training competitor get injured and start to gain weight, sometimes a lot of weight. I've known fighters who originally fought at 185 shoot up to almost 250 pounds. Some of them eventually get back to pre-injury bodyweight, but it's always a long and tough road. Others never competed again: they blamed the injury of course, but I think that the specter of getting back in shape had more to do with their decision than they would like to admit.
Of course not all hard-training martial artists are going to react to injury in this way, but it is fairly common. In some ways, the more serious the martial artist is about his training, the more likely it is that this weight gain is going to happen.
Maybe this weight gain is because hard training requires a lot of calories, and injury stops the training but not the daily caloric intake. Maybe it's because fighters have to stay within 10 to 20 pounds of fighting weight and react to their injury layoff by saying "screw it, KFC and cold beer here I come" . Or maybe it is that many martial artists rely on regular hard training to stay on an even keel emotionally, and when they suddenly can't train they become depressed and thus prone to weight gain or loss.
If you do have a major injury, keeping an eye on your bodyweight and doing whatever you can to maintain some level of physical conditioning is definitely a good idea. Doing something, anything, will help keep you in shape and make your return to the mats a lot easier.
In addition your physical well-being, keep an eye on your state of mind post injury. I am NOT a psychologist, and I DON'T know what all the answers are, but just because you used to win all the local tournaments doesn't mean that you're invulnerable psychologically. Do whatever it takes to keep your mindset as positive as possible while you heal from your injury. A more full discussion of fighters and depression was published by Fighter's Only Magazine.
Labels: Injuries
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February 17, 2008
The Simplest Way to Avoid Injury
Several years ago I found myself waiting for a Jean Jacques Machado seminar to start: I was sitting on the mat, watching people train, and chatting with a friend . Jean Jacques, the jiu-jitsu superstar, strolled over to us and told me something that I think about almost every time I train. What was this nugget of wisdom? He corrected my sitting technique!
You see, I'd been sitting and propping my weight up with my arm which was posted on the mat behind me. My arm was straight and my elbow locked out. Jean Jacques told me never to sit like that on the jiu-jitsu mat. He pointed out that if someone behind me, absorbed in their sparring, rolled onto my arm then my elbow would be shattered. BJJ is such a casual martial art that sitting sprawled out on the mat seems like a 'normal' thing to do, but it's not the right thing to do and it's not the safe thing to do. Keep your arms where you can see them, and not locked out
This may seem like a minor detail to get hung up on, but the readership of this newsletter is huge. If I share this tip here then someone, somewhere in the world, will avoid a severely damaging arm injury. One less injury is a good thing, justifying the inclusion of this story in my newsletter.
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You see, I'd been sitting and propping my weight up with my arm which was posted on the mat behind me. My arm was straight and my elbow locked out. Jean Jacques told me never to sit like that on the jiu-jitsu mat. He pointed out that if someone behind me, absorbed in their sparring, rolled onto my arm then my elbow would be shattered. BJJ is such a casual martial art that sitting sprawled out on the mat seems like a 'normal' thing to do, but it's not the right thing to do and it's not the safe thing to do. Keep your arms where you can see them, and not locked out
This may seem like a minor detail to get hung up on, but the readership of this newsletter is huge. If I share this tip here then someone, somewhere in the world, will avoid a severely damaging arm injury. One less injury is a good thing, justifying the inclusion of this story in my newsletter.
Labels: Injuries
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Always Injured, the Feedback
Several tips ago I gave some advice to a reader who had suffered a rather terrible string of orthopedic injuries while training in MMA . I also opened up the conversation to other readers of this newsletter and invited comments on several martial arts forums. Thanks to everyone who wrote in, and here is what they had to say:
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- "I have realized I was getting injured when I was was gassing. With better cardio, I stayed more out of trouble."
- "Nutrition plays a huge role in injury prevention. Bones and ligaments, like muscles, need fuel to regenerate. Fish oil helps for inflammation (I use Carlson's fish oil.)"
- "Being fat is an invitation for an injury. Your body isn't as balanced, and you're carrying around more weight than you should."
- "The biggest thing to prevent injuries and especially reoccuring injuries is to understand what cause them, meaning the ANGLES your body is in, and where the PRESSURE is being applied to you and don't let it get in that position again even if you have to tap for no apparent reason. I have stopped sparring matches on many occasions and my partner was like "what happened?", I just tell them the situation and let them have to closest position with them being in advantage and restart. I have never had someone complain about me doing that."
- "Find a sports medicine doctor not a primary care...makes a world of difference!!!"
- "Warm up properly. Nearly every injury I've received in judo has been from going hard early in the session before I'm warm and loosened up."
- "I find (as a 60 year old fighter) that my injuries come from rolling with guys that weigh 50, 75 100 or more pounds heavier than me.... At my age i would like to work with more guys in my weight class. It would be easier and i would develop quicker if i could just work with someone in my weight class."
- "Sometimes it is important to turn it up a notch and escalate your sparring. Recently I sparred with some MMA guys who outweighed me and all went 110% in their sparring. When I took it easy I found myself in potentially dangerous situations (e.g. stacked on the back of my neck), but when I went all out and got to the top position I was alright for the rest of the match. It's important to be aware of your training partners' tendencies, but it's also really important to know yourself too.
- "There's a big difference between being 25 and being 37 or 40. I am now going to a traditional BJJ class that focuses on technique. That's what I need to do to improve. Rolling with a bunch of testosterone junkies isn't going to make me better. My goals are to (1) not get hurt, (2) have fun, and (3) improve my BJJ. In that order, since they all depend on #1."
Labels: Injuries, overtraining, training
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