are injuries inevitable in BJJ?

Closed guard does lead to injury. Just ask Rickson, who is a train wreck physically.

Actively attacking from closed guard against a quality opponent is a losing proposition, long term. You are playing at the limits of flexibility while under intense and rapidly shifting opponent pressure.
Subs from bottom position are largely a race between your opponent smashing you down and pulling in versus you fighting to get an angle and isolate a target. What your opponent is trying to do to you is physically damaging.

Look at Roger Gracie who has the best closed guard on the planet. He is not getting damaged when playing it.
BTW. Rickson has never faced an elite by modern standards opponent on video.
 
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Look at Roger Gracie who has the best closed guard on the planet. He is not getting damaged when playing it.
BTW. Rickson has never faced an elite by modern standards opponent on video.

Lots of guys don't get injured playing any guard you could name, particularly when they are still young and super-flexible.

Part of Roger's closed guard success is based on sweeping to mount and subbing them there. Instead of constantly grinding for subs from closed guard, Roger is famous for slaughtering everybody from top mount. That is a much safer and smarter way to look for submissions.

The other thing is that Roger is huge, and often outweighs his opponents. He's not a mid-weight guy trying to play closed guard against bigger guys who are constantly stacking him.

Bottom line is that any time you are at the limits of your flexibility AND bearing your opponent's weight while he is trying to stack/crush you, it's the worst possible position for your health. If you have any interest in long-term joint health, I strongly suggest avoiding any such positions, and closed guard is normally full of them.
 
Avoid blowing your wad in every roll and you may avoid some injuries. I don't know anybody who has trained for more than a couple of years that did not get a few minor injuries or infections.
 
Lots of guys don't get injured playing any guard you could name, particularly when they are still young and super-flexible.
The other thing is that Roger is huge, and often outweighs his opponents. .

It might be a matter of perspective. I'm less the too inches shorter than Roger and have decent neck flexibility from doing berimbolos so I don't get stacked to the limits of my flexibility from closed often. It also seems that in the us there are much more very heavy dudes.
 
Avoid blowing your wad in every roll and you may avoid some injuries. I don't know anybody who has trained for more than a couple of years that did not get a few minor injuries or infections.

I'm pretty lucky to not have gotten any yet.
I also credit it our gym having a strict policy regarding hygiene. I'm sure other gyms have a policy regarding hygiene as well
for us, with the bathroom you need footwear to use the stalls, toilet, etc. Footwear doesn't touch the mats. Can't be having people walking onto the mats and drilling with everyone while coming from the stalls barefoot filled with piss and who knows what else. Going against this comes with in a month ban.
As for getting cut(s), everyone's pretty cautious on their own, and does the usual procedure of disinfecting, and patching up. Nails are kept short, no raptor nails either.
 
I'm pretty lucky to not have gotten any yet.
I also credit it our gym having a strict policy regarding hygiene. I'm sure other gyms have a policy regarding hygiene as well
for us, with the bathroom you need footwear to use the stalls, toilet, etc. Footwear doesn't touch the mats. Can't be having people walking onto the mats and drilling with everyone while coming from the stalls barefoot filled with piss and who knows what else. Going against this comes with in a month ban.
As for getting cut(s), everyone's pretty cautious on their own, and does the usual procedure of disinfecting, and patching up. Nails are kept short, no raptor nails either.
Those are good precautions, but all it takes is a cut and the staph sitting on your skin can penetrate your outer defenses and blow its wad all over your immune system. Can happen in any gym.
 
Avoid blowing your wad in every roll and you may avoid some injuries. I don't know anybody who has trained for more than a couple of years that did not get a few minor injuries or infections.

I'll blow my wad whenever I like, thank you very much
 
i'm wondering how long ppl have practiced BJJ until they meet their inevitable injury? or are there ppl that have trained injury-free for years?


I've been training a long time and yes injuries are always present. Normally very minor, sometimes it's a strain of tendon and will heal in a few weeks. Major injuries can happen. Have to be careful who you roll with, it's always good to while go hard don't get into insane scrambles and 100 percent all out go matches, it's a fine line, you want to train hard but not to point you or partner will hurt each other. The key is having good partners that have understanding and wont go apeshit during rolls.

Also use good common sense and I believe you can avoid major injuries in long term.


Last, tap if you are extended or beaten , it's hard for ppl to put ego aside and tap and that's how I've seen some injuries happen. It's not worth losing months of training because you got hurt for not tapping.
 
Nearly 3 years now without injury. I've had some snapped ankles and such, but they don't require anything but some tape ;)
I train 6-8 times a week and some strength training on top of that. 2-3 times a week. I think strength training helps a lot in preventing injuries and healing quicker from them. I've also had something like 100 matches in jiu-jitsu and sw. Most injuries come from takedowns from what I've seen. I always pull guard though...

I think the injuries will come someday, but that day is not today.

Haha I thought you were serious there for a minute
 
Depends on how long you plan to train. But I would say yes. Every physical activity has a risk of injury.
 
seems like bjj results in lot of back issues
 
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