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Gracie Barra America instructor Marcinho Feitosa believes Jiu-Jitsu is a sport that demands fighters use their heads: “If practiced intelligently, Jiu-Jitsu hurts very little,” opines the three-time world champion. In his experience of over 15 years as a teacher, the man from Rio now living in California recites an old maxim to explain injuries to practitioners, generally the less experienced: “Most of them occur when the student tries to force the position. The secret is to let go to win.” With years of experience in training athletes, physiotherapist Fabio Perissé is direct in pointing out the spinal column, the elbow and lumbar region of the spine as the areas most wracked by injuries. The choir of instructors also points out the knee and wrist as joints that suffer on a daily basis in academies.
The bad guys and the ways to deal with them
Out with the unfortunate. That unhappy movement that causes an injury that no one can avoid. The accident. With a little effort and observation, it is easy to identify the causes of the injuries that are common in Jiu-Jitsu. Feitosa gave the tip about the lack of limits; an instructor of 14 years, Leo Dalla agrees with the Carlos Gracie Jr. black belt: “Sometimes, it is the sheer pride of students not wanting to tap out to a fully sunk position,” comments the leader of Leo Dalla Jiu-Jitsu, in Northern Virginia. Orientation from instructors is crucial for Fabio Gurgel: “The most important of all is to teach students how to respect the limits of their bodies. This also helps to define the type of game they will have in Jiu-Jitsu,” the four-time world champion affirms. Two-time openweight world champion Rodrigo Comprido points out another of instructors’ responsibilities: “Poorly matching sparring partners.
Two nutty or rival training partners should never train together.” Dalla calls attention to yet another important factor in matching partners: “There should not be a great disparity in size or technical level.” To this point, John Danaher adds that pushing students beyond their limits is another grave error: “Tired people make mistakes. When they are pushed beyond their abilities, students end up trying risky moves that put them in dangerous situations.” Lack of proper warm-up is unanimous among the causes of injury. “My warm-up is composed of technical simulations.
Thus the body warms up carrying out the movements of the sport themselves,” reveals Danaher. Gurgel, who also simulates fighting movements during warm-up, adds: “I also use rubber resistance bands to develop strength and speed,” the Alliance general reveals. Ricardo “Cachorrão” Almeida has a more philosophic view of the warm-up in the practitioner’s routine: “I believe a lot in the warm-up as a transition of the mind and body from life away from the mat to our perfecting ourselves as practitioners of Jiu-Jitsu. My main objective is to bring the student to a high degree of concentration with which to practice the sport,” the four-time Brasileiro champion, now an instructor in New Jersey, sums up
If warming up before training is vital, stretching shortly after should be taken seriously, as the physiotherapist Perissé emphasizes: “These days we know that stretching before physical activity doesn’t prevent injuries, stretching should be done as training to prevent injuries.” Along the same line, Danaher suggests practicing a little less than usual: “Yoga is good for preventing muscular tears.”
What more can be done to make the body more resistant to injury? Strengthening the muscles is the general consensus, but each professional has their own recipe. Fabio Gurgel thinks it is important to reserve some class time to work the muscles: “I feel we should set aside the first 30 minutes of class time for this, as often students don’t have time to lift weights separately.” Comprido follows the same line and presents two alternatives: “Muscular strengthening can be part of the warm-up and may be done by either lifting weights or in the pool.”
“Tired people make mistakes and end up trying moves that put them in dangerous situations”
John Danaher
Cachorrão lays out the benefits of muscular strengthening in the life of the student: “This type of work will improve the balance, coordination, strength, and cardio-respiratory capacity.” Feitosa, however, does not feel muscular strengthening is vital to the practitioner, although it is extremely important to high-level athletes. “For the student that wants to learn Jiu-Jitsu well, but not prepare to compete in high-level competitions, I feel the sport is enough. I don’t see any reason for muscular strengthening.”
John Danaher also agrees on the importance of muscular reinforcement, but sees problems in using weight-lifting equipment: “These exercises make the muscular fibers more susceptible to tearing and leave the body vulnerable.” The American instructor defends the use of more natural muscular strengthening techniques: “Lifting weights and kettle bells make the body more resistant.” Danaher’s experience is echoed in the teachings of Doctor Michael Colgan, a specialist in physical conditioning who created his own system for muscular strengthening. Colgan’s method does not isolate the muscles like weight-lifting equipment does.
“It is better to tap out and continue training than to be in traction for a month or more, while the others evolve and you are doing nothing”
Leo Dalla
The scholar is didactic: “Athletes use their muscles as a group, which is why one should not work them separately.” Also preoccupied with fighting movements, Fabio Perissé adds: “We cannot forget that there are several muscles in the body that lifting weights does not strengthen. These muscles lie deep and are responsible for the stability of our joint segments.” To Perissé, the practitioner can achieve good results by working with a specialized physiotherapist to stabilize the different segments.
The little ones
More and more Jiu-Jitsu is being recommended as a physical activity for children. That being the case, it is natural that one would worry about their safety. Ricardo Cachorrão makes it clear right off the bat that teaching children has its own particularities: “In our classes we do not teach more injury-prone techniques like the footlock or the kneebar and chokes. We also take greater care in teaching takedowns and body-to-body fighting.” Feitosa also takes a cautious approach and affirms that the instructor should be sensible: “With chokes, for example, I seek to be more selective in the children that will learn them and I am always reinforcing how I want them to be extremely careful in applying them.”
Perissé goes over some tricks in teaching Jiu-Jitsu to children: “We should avoid matching sparring partners of different weights and levels of strength even more, as it is common that children will be the same size but different ages, with different strength.” Beyond caution in the techniques to be taught, children demand something else to keep them interested in the activities and doing them satisfactorily.
“The body of someone that doesn’t warm up and doesn’t stretch is like an un-greased bicycle chain. And if you peddle too hard with a poorly lubricated chain, it snaps!”
Marcio Feitosa
“Warm-up is always playful, with educational movements that make the children warm up as though they were playing, but knowing that that is a very important part of the class,” explains Gurgel, who is backed up by what Comprido has to say: “The games should help teach without the children realizing it. They should learn to take responsibility, as they are learning techniques that may cause injury. It is also very important they learn to roll and to give up.”
For both children and adults, the secret is to respect the limits of the body, not skip steps in training and take care of the well-being of training partners, so that they will take care of their own safety. Practitioners should keep in mind, however, that injury is a part of practicing sports. “There is no way to reach a goal in a sport without assuming a certain degree of risk,” states John Danaher.
Preventing injury:
Bad guys
- Lack of warm-up
- Stretching before training
- Not respecting the limits of the body
- Failure to take care of training partners
- Excessive pride preventing the student from tapping out to a hold
- Poorly matched training pairs
- Unsafe environment (academy is too small, wet floor, pillars without padding, overcrowded classes)
Good guys
-Warm-ups that simulate fighting movements
- Stretching after training
- Muscular strengthening respecting the movements specific to Jiu-Jitsu
- Respecting the limits of the body
- Know your technical level and have the humility to tap out to holds
- Sensibility of teacher when matching training pairs
- Safe environment in academy
- With children, dynamic and playful classes and care in teaching dangerous positions
유익하군요...음...
첫댓글 웜-업이 굉장히 중요한거군요...일찍가서 준비 운동 꼬박꼬박 참여해야겠습니다 근데 스트레칭을 운동 전에 하는것이 좋지 않다는것은 좀 의외네요 모두들 부상없이 운동하시길 바랍니다
당첨~!!! 진우야~ 이거 다 해석해서 다음 글로 올려놔라~~ㅋㅋㅋ~
웜업을 스트레칭으로 하는게 좋치 못하다는것은 스트레칭으로 인해 너무 이완되버린 근육을 바로 스파링이라던지 무리한 근육을 가동하게 되버리게되면 부상으로 연결될 확률이 큰것이지요! 고로 웜업을 할때에는 유도에서 하는식으로 반복되는 기술연습(Warm-ups that simulate fighting movements:가상싸움동작들로 웜업(?)) 으로 하는것이 좋다는것이지요 그리고 자신의 육체의 한계점을 언제나 잘 파악하고 무리하지말라는것과 운동뒤의 스트레칭의 중요성을 강조하고있습니다~~
글치....나도 얼마전 죤사부님에게 들었던 이야기....누가 번역 좀 해봐봐