Injuries are always going to happen if you train in Jiu-Jitsu. It’s part of the journey. How does BJJ stack up with other martial arts in terms of rate of injury?

It has often been said that you are typically less prone to serious injuries when training and competing in BJJ than in other more high impact martial arts.

Why is that? First of all, there is no striking in BJJ (in sports BJJ at least) so you will not suffer from head trauma, broken nose, broken teeth… You will still get injured but according to injury data obtained from records of on-site medical coverage at 8 statewide BJJ tournaments in Hawaii, USA, between 2005 and 2011, you are still less likely to get injured doing BJJ than in other martial arts.

You will still get injured in BJJ though, but here are 8 ways that you can stay injury free as much as possible

Leave your ego at the door

You basically have two choices: Either you tap and fix your mistake next time you roll or you can try to escape a very tight submission and get injured, risking even having to go through surgery. That’s the magic of Jiu-Jitsu, you don’t actually need to get hurt to keep training effectively and that is exactly why the tap exists, to give you another chance. Another good point is to always trust your training partners, so if you feel you might get injured rolling with that guy, simply don’t roll with him. There is no shame in being tapped out, everyone passes through it and it’s part of the learning process.

In this video, this BJJ practitioner talks about how not to develop a victim mentality in Jiu Jitsu. There Are No Victims in Jiu Jitsu!