Brother

The other day I was surprised by one of my brothers, and I didn't have the right response ready.

He said he was thinking of joining a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class, and was asking me for advice. I told him to go watch a class before he joins in, and to see how they treat their White Belts. I also said that if they won't let him watch, to walk away from that group. This is good advice, as far as it went, but it left out more than it included.

If my brother was a young dude of twenty or thirty, he would do fine whatever happened, but the poor old guy is almost my age. For grappling, that is incredibly ancient.

There is a real risk of serious injury. A younger guy could get his neck cranked, and as uncomfortable as it would be, he'd likely be fine and dandy again in no time. With somebody like us, a neck crank could easily do damage that would never heal, ever. We're not talking about black eyes and busted noses here, but spinal disks and bones.

If he were starting to train at a Gracie school, that wouldn't be an issue. There is a very specific curriculum that gets taught in a highly structured manner. He wouldn't be free-rolling with anybody for about a year, minimum. That would get his old muscles and reflexes ready for the activity, or maybe he wouldn't stick around that long.

Free-rolling, or wrestling, is where the bad stuff can happen really, really fast.

In many Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools, beginners are doing it on their very first day. Danger on day one. This is risky enough with a gentle, careful partner. Imagine the danger if the partner is an overly-competitive jerk. There are a lot of them out there. Many, many meat-head jerks.

Recently, at a seminar in Seattle, I had a string of jerk partners. We weren't even rolling, but were supposed to be doing very specific movement sequences. My meat heads insisted on doing their turns with speed and power every time, and to defend the same way when it was my turn. We were doing guillotine chokes, which are a really good way to get injured by an idiot. Luckily, I'm no rookie. I managed to move myself in such a way to minimize trauma, and tapped out really, really early. All that was bad for me was that the entire drill time was wasted. If I hadn't known how to handle it, or been slow, I'd still be walking funny and rubbing my neck, or worse.

A beginner who is also an old guy should not be rolling at all; period. Not even a little bit.

Maybe I should have listed all the injuries I've had, even with the best of partners. Let's see. Just about every toe has been hurt, at least once. Had a thumb pulled way back the wrong way, and had it taped for months. Had my neck over twisted a bunch of times. Had a knee hurt so bad I thought I'd have to give up running forever, and had to have it investigated with fancy medical mri stuff. After months of physiotherapy it is finally settling down; a year after the original injury. Have also been to the doctor over a jammed finger that still won't straighten out.

If he lived near me, I'd take him to class with me and all would be well.

He already does Yoga, and that's much safer.

Maybe I should have told him that.