Tag Archives: Injuries
How to Train BJJ, even with an Injured Arm (Drill)
This article and video are about how to train and continue to make progress in BJJ when you’re dealing with an arm injury.
Now I hope that you go through your entire BJJ career without ever suffering a single injury. But this is a contact sport, and therefore you’re probably going to get a little banged up from time to time. (more…)
How to Improve Your Hip and Leg Flexibility
Hip and leg flexibility is a huge asset in grappling, especially when it comes to not letting your opponent pass your guard, for launching sneaky sweeps and submissions from the guard position, and for weaseling your way out of tight pins.
Plus if you’re training in MMA, Muay Thai, Karate, Kickboxing, or any other martial art that involves kicking then flexibility will obviously help you out there as well. (more…)
Inflexible, Stiff Back? Try This Workout...
There’s almost nothing worse than a painful back. Unlike other body parts, an injury to your back comes to define your entire life.
If your arm is strained, or you’ve twisted your knee, or if you’ve tweaked your shoulder, then usually you can find a way to get through your day without aggravating your injury too much. But a sore back finds a way to haunt you every second of every day. (more…)
How Not to Break Your Neck Doing Takedowns
There’s no getting around it, all contact sports are inherently dangerous. And it’s hard to have more contact in a sport than in MMA.
Now it’s true that MMA might not be the most dangerous contact sport – that dubious title could arguably go to boxing or pro football – but in the past few years there have still been been some very, very serious injuries in MMA related to takedowns… (more…)
Preventing Achy Elbows (and Getting a Killer Grip)
A lot of grapplers have creaky joints, and tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow are just two of the most common overtraining injuries you’re likely to encounter at the club. Here’s one grappler’s solution to his grappling-induced elbow problems. (more…)
Here’s a reader question that turned into quite the 3-way discussion….
Q: Hi Stephan, I twisted my foot badly around 18 months ago. I tore a load of ligaments and was out of action for a bit. (more…)
19 Tips on Lifting Weights for Martial Arts
In the not-so-distant past weight training was discouraged for martial artists. “It will make you slow”, “it will make you muscle-bound”, and “all you need is technique” were common opinions from the ‘experts’. (more…)
Torn ACL Info for BJJ / MMA / Judo / Grapplers FAQ (ver 1.2)
Stephan’s Note: The following FAQ was first published on the mma.tv forum by ‘The Stewed Owl.’ I thought it was so valuable that I contacted the author and asked him if I could republish it on Grapplearts. He kindly agreed, so here it is!
This FAQ is a work in progress, since the topic of ACL injuries comes up so often. I will refine it and add links when I have time, including the posted experiences of other MMA.TV members such as eabeam and tyrian. (more…)
A Girl’s Guide to Grapping What You Need to Know Before You Start Rolling
Although the sport and art of grappling is currently mostly a male activity, many female readers have commented on how important it is for women to learn to grapple (see Why Should Women Grapple?). In this article Liz Bader, an active mixed martial art competitor and instructor, explains what women should be aware of before they step onto the mat for the first time. (more…)
Frank Mir's Kimura on Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 140
UFC 140 last Saturday night was one of the best MMA shows in recent memory.
There were lots of exciting matchups, but THE fight of the night was the much-anticipated rematch between heavyweights Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir. (more…)
No cauliflower for you!
Some grapplers think that cauliflower ears are a status symbol.
Others think that it’s gross.
Some people can train for 20 years and still have perfectly shaped ears.
Others need to wear headgear all the time or their ears start getting lumpier and lumpier.
(more…)
Don't make this classic training error!
About 10 years ago I was talking to a pioneer of early MMA. This fighter trained all the time, even between fights.
But whenever he had a fight coming up he’d go absolutely mental and grind himself down into an exhausted mess. (more…)
Erik Paulson; an MMA Master Coach Shares His Secrets
Erik Paulson is an MMA Master Coach. He’s trained tons of fighters competing at the highest levels of Mixed Martial Arts. And he held the Shooto light-heavyweight title in Japan for 5 years.
He’s also my friend and a mentor. (more…)
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! (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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). (more…)
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).” (more…)
Functional Training Gone Bad
Today I’m going to tell you about one of the sillier ideas I’ve ever had…
About 10 years ago I got interested in functional training and sports specific exercises. I wanted to get away from the Pec Deck and do exercises that more closely mimicked the movements I was using on a daily basis in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo and wrestling. (more…)
Catch and Release - What to do if your opponent just won't tap?
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 (more…)
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 (more…)
The Pre-Fight Check In
A few days ago, in class, it was time to spar. I walked over to an older white belt, new to the club, who was standing by himself at the edge of the mat. I introduced myself and asked if he wanted to do some rolling. (more…)
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. (more…)
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