Hey all. BJJ, Wrestling or Judo?? Just wondering what the most injury prone grappling art is? I thought about doing BJJ but the nature of the art makes me think it's basically signing your death warrnt i.e. broken major joints are a matter of when not if? Is wrestling the safest? or Judo? Thank you
Probably depends on your own, and your clubs, attitude towards training. Where I roll No-Gi, the instructor asks if there are any injuries, and we all ask at the start of each round. If someone wants to roll light, then you roll light. In gi training I've seen a couple of bust fingers from bad grips, but again had a positive experience injury wise (Judo at school, JJJ). No one I know from training has broken anything major while training, and lots of them train 5 nights a week at various clubs including BJJ
If you train in an effective manner you'll pick up injuries along the way at some point. The reality of gym culture is, "if I go to X club, will I be more likely to be injured?" If you train at a nice gym with nice people, injuries happen less. You're also far less likely to be injured by rolling with higher level people. Purple belts and above will go much easier on you than another white belt. And no, it's not like you will get injuries every other day. They are quite rare all in all if you train smart. If I had to pick an art that was more likely to injure then I'd have to say judo because it involves a lot of straight legs vs twisting bodies and randori is always scary.
it depends on what level you plan to push yourself to, and can vary from club to club. Judo competitively have a lot of randori work which stops once someone hits the ground, so falling a lot has it's risks. I'm not sure what percentage on the training wrestling works, in the freestyle class I trained worked a lot from standing, but I think that was because it catered to the MMA gym for wresting takedowns; I'm not sure if that's the norm for wrestling? BJJ won't have much impact with ground focus, and I don't know many that picked up as much injury from ground work as with stand up. injuries happen in all contact sport, if you're looking at one of these styles to train in, then maybe weigh up which suits your goals best instead of which carry the highest risks.
someone broke their fingers at my club putting their "hands down" to stop a hip throw Kano really didn't think that name through did he
Never seen as many hand finger knee or foot injuries as when I did judo, and the banning of leg attacks just made it worth now the big throws were the scoring ones lol
Yep judo by a long way, BJJ is super safe, especially if you start off with IBJJF rules. I've seriously hurt one joint, once, and that was a freak accident in well over ten years of training.
whereas in the 8 years I was in judo, I didn't know anyone in class that wasnt injured apart from those who left before moving to senior classes (over 15s) interestingly the under 15s class was a lot more Newaza focused.
Sanda is the safest. My biggest injury (knee) is from Wrestling in a comp. I been dumped, swung, twisted and squished. No issues. Its how I know certain throws wont hurt my team mates more than a bit of winding. Of course you're gonna get aches n pains. In submission wrestling...you're training so tap early and often and you wont get hurt.
Ya, I've long thought it's a stupid mis-translation by stupid American soldiers returning from occupied Japan. The books all say "ju" means "gentle, or yielding" and use the analogy of a branch blowing in the wind. It bends/yields/gives way to the wind and thereby survives the storm. The trees that don't move with the wind get uprooted by the storm. So it's not "gentle art." It's "yielding art," as in, moving with the other guy's energy. Not resisting the energy. Stupid people not thinking it through. But back to the question -- I've only been exposed to BJJ and judo, and judo is waaaaaaay rougher on the body. Those falls are brutal, man, and some of the throws are bad for your knees. (Whose idea was that?!) In BJJ you're just getting squished. You'll get "gi burns" and "mat burns," sometimes, but I don't count that as an injury. (shrug)
One reason I gave up Judo was that I felt I was almost always on the verge of an injury. Falling the wrong way, getting my foot caught in a throw, falling badly, etc. It felt precarious to do. Had a couple of heavy landings that brought on the stars in the vision.
I loved the judo I did, I thought it was brilliant. If I had my time again I'd start judo at 5. But near 50 year old me would fall apart if I took it up again now I reckon, the injury rate is horrific. I don't know about wrestling, but BJJ is a much safer option.
BJJ is pretty chill, you're very unlikely to break anything if you're training in a reasonable manner.
Thanks for all the replies guys. Obviously, I expect a sprain/strain at some point and regular bruising. But what I really don't want is a major injury after which I can't do any sports....once you break something like your knee or lower back, it's over! I'm going to give BJJ a go, it seems like the reasonable choice.
