Are knee injuries common to BJJ?

**Sun Wukong** · Posted On: 11/14/2005 4:25pm

Well, my knee's are about shot. It even hurts to get out of bed every morning and has for about 3 years.

I've seen a few doctors and they pretty much all say the same thing, too much wear and tear too often. They're almost always swollen and most of the time sound like a mega sized bowl of rice crispies whenever I stretch. Yeah, i tried to be more careful but I'm not fooling anyone, I'm a clumsy fucker. I don't want surgery, because honestly everyone I've ever known to have knee surgery has spent the rest of their life as bad off as they were before surgery, and I don't want to sit at the house like a wuss.

So my question here is this, what are common injuries to BJJ? It doesn't seem like it would be so hard on the knee's as judo is. I'm thinking about switching over because I don't want to be fucking crippled before I get out of my 30's.

Any input on the subject would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

**Judah Maccabee** · Posted On: 11/14/2005 4:34pm

I have some knee problems too, though not as bad as your's.

I simply tell people before I roll "No lower body submissions." The one time I've hit someone in frustration was when they tried cranking a heelhook a minute after I said "No lower body submissions, ok?" I didn't slug them, but I whacked them on the hip to emphasize my displeasure with their inattention.

Still run the risk of someone falling on your leg funny or straining it in a weird direction.

Common injuries I've had are cuts, scrapes, bruises, injured pride, and soreness that lasted for max 3 days.

Possible injuries are dislocations/breaking of joints/limbs, death, unconsciousness, etc.

Not much different than wrestling, in my noob opinion.

**Yrkoon9** · Posted On: 11/14/2005 4:41pm

I took my ACL reconstruction in Judo. I am now in BJJ. I do get it twisted now and again but in terms of injury and pain on the knees I would say.....

...hmmmm. 4:1 as ratio. So maybe BJJ puts out about 25% as many injuries and pain that Judo does.

Just a wild freaking guess really. But I will say it is considerably less stressfull on the knees.

**Shuma-Gorath** · Posted On: 11/14/2005 5:06pm

Every night I came home from Judo class I would feel like I'd fallen down a flight of stairs, whereas these days I train BJJ 1-3x as frequently and feel great leaving class most nights.

Now, I have seen more freak accident knee injuries in BJJ, but I've been doing it for longer than I did Judo.

**PoleFighter** · Posted On: 11/14/2005 5:12pm

I had a lot of trouble with my knees in the beginning. The impact and constant pressure on them while crawling around on the floor caused them to swell up. I solved it by buying some high quality wrestling knee pads. I simply cant do BJJ without them. Other than that, the knee injuries Ive had have come from people that havent been careful with heel hooks and other leg submissions. Usually it hasnt been very bad, but Im not sure I would do BJJ if my knees got worse.

**Sun Wukong** · Posted On: 11/14/2005 5:23pm

Well, 4 to 1 sounds like a much better ratio. I've been thinking about it long enough, I should probably just make the switch and see if things pick up. Besides, it's not like starting over from zero, and honestly straight up grappling is more fun anyway. I know crap about leg locks, and it'll be fun to tackle a lot of new material.