Low Injury

I recently hooked onto a Facebook page dedicated to old people in Jiu-Jitsu.

On one recent posting, people were putting up their ages. Keep in mind that these all self-identify as “old.”

I am too lazy to scroll through the hundreds of responses that poured in, but did look through the first set of 49.

There was one guy who is in his early 70s, and two of us in our 60s. Forty five had ages spread pretty evenly though the 40s and 50s, and even one guy who is only in his 30s.

They all think they’re old.

The page itself is full of questions, often related to how much they seem to get hurt.

Jiu-Jitsu is pretty rough, and things happen, but if somebody is going home hurt all the time there are only three possible reasons.

The first possibility is that their training partners are a bunch of jerks. The second cause is that the student is just rolling wrong. The third and most likely cause is that both conditions are in action together.

I am 62 years old, and have been doing Jiu-Jitsu for over 7 years. That’s easily over a thousand classes, and several thousand rolls. I have been hurt, but only on a very few occasions. After any typical night of training and rolling, I go home with no damage in particular.

How do I manage this? Well, the first thing is that my partners are not jerks, at least not many of them. But let’s say I’m off travelling, and run into Mister Aggressive somewhere that I’m a guest. I’ve run into situation number one, and have done so many times in my travels.

There is some risk in this situation, but nothing major. It will become a problem only if I insist on acting in a way that multiplies the danger.

Recognize what is going on, and react accordingly. Strategy one is easy. Do not match what Mister Aggressive is doing. He wants the top position, and goes after it like a charging rhino. If you self-identify as “old” and you try and match him, you’ll likely get squashed. I don’t care if you are big, or strong, or whatever. You just might succeed, but you’ll pay for it. You’ll get hurt, or exhausted, or both.

What is the upside? There is none. The downside? You end up walking funny, or you are so tired that you get hurt with what should have been a pleasant roll later.

So what exactly do I do with Mister Aggressive? I defend, like Helio Gracie did as a young man, or Royce Gracie did underneath Dan Severn.

And as I defend, I keep in mind that this guy might get a submission on me, and he might apply it fast. To prevent injury, I keep myself ready to tap. If he gets me, I want to tap well before any damage. Usually, this isn’t necessary, but remaining ready is only prudent.

Try it. It sounds easy, but for a lot of folks it isn’t.

Some groups don’t value defence, and the culture there pushes people to meet opponents head on, even younger, bigger, stronger, and psycho ones.

Lots of folks also consider tapping out to be some sort of disgrace. It isn’t, unless you do it too late and get hurt as a result.

Let’s add up how many days of training I’ve lost due to Jiu-Jitsu injury in the past year… it was… none. There were a ton of rolls in those 12 months, against opponents of every size, strength, and skill level. The only constant was that every single one of those opponents was younger than me; most were 30 to 40 years younger.

That’s not quite true. I did roll a couple of times at Gracie University in Los Angeles against a friend named Bill, who is a bit older than me. All of the rest were younger.

You don’t get better by missing training. You get better by being on the mat. You don’t get better getting hurt. You get better by surviving, and being on the mat. You don’t even get better by getting exhausted, as that can lead to getting hurt and missing training. You get better by being on the mat.

Of course, I might be underestimating how important it is for somebody to “win” a roll on their school’s mat. Perhaps there is a wager involved regarding a million dollars. That might encourage me to push harder. Maybe the person being rolled with is a lifelong enemy. Maybe that will do it. Perhaps the winner will get a shiny trophy or championship belt. Maybe your partner is a maniac, and is really attacking you, and you must crush them in order to survive.

I suspect none of these things are true. Rolling is a learning tool, and maybe you learn better when your neck gets seriously cranked, but I don’t. I like learning to be fun. Getting hurt is about as un-fun as anything can possibly be.

None of this means that I lay there on my back like a lump. It’s only with the craziest, most potentially dangerous opponents that it will look something like that; 100% survival. With trusted folk, you wouldn’t even know that is in my mindset. Most people fall somewhere in between, and I roll accordingly.

Some of my very favourite rolls have been with bigger, stronger, and aggressive partners.

I remember one school in particular. The instructors were great, and welcoming, as were most of the students, but there was a cadre of tough Blue Belts who seemed to take my presence as some kind of double-dog dare, and who really, really wanted to dominate me, even though my belt was Purple.

Each would come at me hard, and I would defend. Without exception it went just like Helio Gracie said it should. They would push really hard, and I would fend them off. They would start to gas out, even though they should not have let that happen against an old man. I would play at escapes just enough to keep them from slowing down, and by the end of the roll I could control them with ease. Survive, exhaust, control.

It was fun as hell, and it was also pure Jiu-Jitsu.