My thoughts on Judo/Wrestling

With Lad_Gorg's thread locked, nobody else can express their opinion, so I might as well create a new post.



I've done JJJ for 7 months 4 days a week, with a lot of focus in takedowns and ne waza.



I have to point out that I am working out / participate in sports (competitively too, 6 hours of training a day, 6 days a week, flat water kayaking) since I was 14, currently 20, and I have had some minor injuries that healed at a month or two mostly, with proper rest, rehabilitation etc.

I worked around some of them too, not having to stop training 100%.

Also, intensity of the training reached 100% usually, it was not leisure time.



None of these injuries still bug me.



Anyway, in those 7 months of training, my left shoulder has cracked badly, like 5-6 times, each crack a light injury in its own, making the next injury easier.

I remember the first time it happened, it was the second day I trained there, we started on our knees at a "really relaxed" rolling and the other guy, a former judoka blackbelt and champion rushed at me, I didn't have time to do anything, my left arm violently moved some degrees behind my torso, crack.



At that period, I was really amped with JJJ and MA generally, but this injury was keeping me back so I was attending class twice a week to let it heal -that was pretty stupid, I should stop going completely until it healed 100%-.



Second time, during ne waza, the other guy pulled an Americana lock pretty fast, crack.

Third and fourth time, getting a kick on my lead hand (while avoiding the kick) by someone stronger/bigger ( one of those kicks was from a 2.0 m 110 kg guy, I'm 80 kg and 25cm shorter ).

I might be missing some more times too.

Anyway, every time I had to let my shoulder heal and be extremely careful at takedowns etc.



Add to that thumb injuries from standup striking with karate gloves (not something serious, my thumbs were too "sore", I think most of you get the feeling) and the occasional kick to the enemy's elbow, when he defended successfully, which led to swelling of my foot ( we didn't kick with the shins ), I started to think, "Is it worth it?".



The worst injury was during a takedown, the enemy (a former greco-roman wrestling champion) dropped me and I fell on my shoulder. Next day, my left ACL joint was swollen and 2 times bigger than the right one.



This in the only injury so far in my life that bugs me 6 months after, and I've done many stupid things with weights(bad form, no warm up, no cooldown, too much weight for my strength at that moment) and cardio (too much running, sprinting without previous warmup, no mobility work), which resulted in some minor injuries, and those rarely.



I have to point out that I'm not disappointed with the risk ratio of standup striking nor with groundwork, but with takedowns.



To sum up my thoughts:

• We did extensive training in breakfalling,randori,etc, but sparring, even though restricted, was pretty hard. Actually, I don't think that you can go easy on takedowns, you can either drop a resisting opponent (who does NOT want to get dropped) or not. It's not like striking, you can't easily modify your power output. So, occasionally, no matter how much you train your breakfalls and your technique, you fail to fall properly and an injury is welcome. This goes to holyheadjch mostly, before he says I didn't train properly and blah blah blah.
  


• I came to the personal conclusion that combat sports which include a lot of hard takedowns -like JJJ/wrestling and maybe BJJ- actually have many more injuries, usually serious, even if you don't want to go at 100% power or compete, than striking combat sports, which, if done at a non-competitive more relaxed fashion, don't have many injuries actually.
  
  On the topic of brain injury, if you don't want to risk it, just spar really light in a controlled fashion and stop sparring with idiots who think they are Rocky Balboa. Also, check your ego too.
  


• As I said before, I am not disappointed with the minor injuries from striking, because they heal rather quickly and they DO heal. It is pretty much known, that more severe joint / bone / ligament injuries (like Lad_Gorg's injuries, my ACL injury and many more injuries from takedowns which happen daily) most times leave something behind. And, to be honest, I don't want to get beat up at 20 years old after 4 years of successful competition in other sports with no serious injuries, I'd rather be healthy and able to workout at 50 years old than be really good at takedowns. Just my point of view, of course.

Closing the thread, right now, when I resume my MA training, I'm pretty sure that I will choose a striking only MA.

Of course, to be honest, in terms of sparring, I will go light usually and rarely medium, no point for hard sparring if you don't care about competition in my opinion.

I prefer bruises and a swollen (for 2-3 days) foot or shin, than a shoulder/ankle/knee or even a spine/neck injury which will follow me until I die.