Ok I've probably asked this question before but I thought it was worth it again.. especially now that we have a seperate BJJ forum. Ear guards. Wrestlers headgear. http://www.wrestlingpod.com/WrestlingHeadgear.php Do you use them? If so... what techniques do you find that they help you to avoid ear pain on? Recently I've focused on my takedowns. That my rolling partners are all in the 100-115kg category means training takedowns and actually getting them to be successful are still two relatively seperate things. :cry: In addition to the usual BJJ style shoots (catching behind the knee, double leg, inside reap etc.) I've added in some Greco-Roman style takedowns... high crotch and lateral motion takedowns. I want to make sure the Christmas goose comes early this year. So at any rate... I've found that the Greco-Roman stuff has a slightly different take on takedowns in the movement of the head to cut laterally... which means you neck gets one hell of a workout. I guess that's really a trademark of Greco-Roman is that they really work their position with the head and neck a fair amount... not only in the take down either... pretty much anywhere they can use it to cut across an opponent... a la Randy Couture. But that also means that my ears are constantly sore. I mean right now I can only sleep on my back because of it.. OUCH!!!!! So... I've got to look into some headgear.. which I find surprisingly absent from the BJJ comps and BJJ training in general... though I do see a lot of guys with the cauliflower ears... several of the guys I roll with have them... big meaty pieces on the sides of their head. So here's the questions: 1) Any type you recommend? 2) Any drawbacks to wearing them? 3) Any BJJ specific moves that you find end hard on the ears? 4) Any good sites for dealing with cauliflower ear? (eg. draining cauliflower with a syringe?) 5) Am I just being a big girl about this?
I wear headgear pretty much whenever doing live training (and I ALWAYS wear a mouth guard whenever doing live training). I wrestled throughout high school and never had a problem with cauliflour ear despite not being too diligent about headgear, but for some reason developed a nasty case almost immediately on starting bjj. It took quite a lot of time and effort to get rid of it, so I'm all about the earmuffs now. There are a lot of ways your ears can get squeezed or battered about when grappling; when finishing double legs (drive with that head, kids), when escaping headlocks, going for arm triangles, and a lot of random situations that come up...but in my experience you're most likely to get your ear rubbed raw when passsing the guard. You'll be stacking someone and they'll lock their legs around your head, you'll be working your way out of triangles, and pulling out of guillotines, all kind of great opportunites to have to force your head and ears through a tight space. Headgear protects your ears from all of this, and the thousand odd things I haven't listed. Wear it diligently and you just won't get cauliflour or painful ears, period. Other upside: if you have been getting sore ears, you'll find that once you're wearing headgear you're much more active and aggressive about using your head as a fifth limb. This can only help your grappling. The main drawback: you may look silly if few others in your club are wearing them. No one's likely to give you a hard time about it, though you won't get to join the manly cauliflour club. Final word: If your ears don't bother you, don't worry about it. If they're often sore and you don't like that, and don't want to get cauliflour ear, just buy some and don't really give it another thought. I recommend anything Brute as a brand, though there are a lot of good ones out there.
Thanks for the thought out repsonse. Yeah I did notice the the ears basically get in the way or are easy to get crushed when escaping triangles (though better than getting triangled I suppose). I can also appreciate using the head as a fifth limb... we recently had someone visting from overseas (USA Nebraska) he'd wrestled all-state and he was very good at positioning his opponents by using his head. Impressive. Very impressive. I'm gonna check out the gear and will post back when I get it on the differences. Thanks for the post.
I haven't found the need to wear one yet, however there are a few people that do. I'm still dealing with mat burn on the elbows and tops of my feet. I use an alcohol based spray bandage, man that hurts like a mother... But it beats getting an infection.
I wear them, but then I am a big girl. I wear these ones:http://www.wrestlinggear.com/store/headgear/341_Brute LE-03 Earguard.html Same reasons you mentioned- hate getting sore ears and don't want caulis, but also it keeps my hair out of the way. Only problem is it makes it harder to get out of some chokes. I say wear all the protective gear you want, mate.
I've been thinking about getting one of these, although I haven't had any problems with my ears so far. Then again 'so far' only covers 8 lessons. Did you have any trouble with shipping and customs for that headguard, Ghost Frog? Or was it sufficiently cheap that there was no hassle?
I take it a step further and wear gigantic, goofy looking dip foam karate headgear when I spar. The reasons for this are twofold: -I do not own wrestling headgear, whereas I do own karate headgear -I have very long hair, and it really sucks when it gets pinned under my shoulders. I can usually tuck my hair up into the headgear and get it out of the way. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't work with wrestling headgear.
