Injuries are almost inevitable in the sport of BJJ.

The worst injury I've ever seen has been a total rupture of the quadriceps muscles above the knee along with full ligament tears. This took a considerable amount of time to repair for the athlete, but he was still able to get to training.

Personally I have had knee reconstructions and made it back on the mat within four weeks. But I wasn't training.

What I did was make myself available to help coach other groups or sit and watch as technique was instructed.

As my rehabilitation progressed, I would start to get my movement back through certain exercises on the mat and continue to coach.

I would limit my contact with people and only partner with those that I trusted.

When I got the tick of approval from my doctor and physio, I would participate in the warm up component of the class and, if the technique would allow me, I would participate in drilling.

As I regained my strength and mobility, I would pursue bigger or stronger partners for more resistance in the movement.

Like any rehab program, there are tests involved, and only when the physio could see my progression would he then allow me to move forward in training.

Slowly my confidence would grow and I would select partners that I trusted to wrestle with.

This type of training works in several ways;

1. to remain in contact with training partners
2. to be able to still learn even if I wasn't physically participating
3. for my MENTAL HEALTH

Too many athletes will fade away not giving thought of how being present at training can actually help the rehabilitation process. They either come back to training;

• at maximum capacity only find the rigors of the sport too much on their body
• become despondent as they see their training buddies progressing 
• or they quit because.....

Over my time in the sport, I've seen people return to the mats at a reduced capacity with arms in casts, feet or legs in 'moon' boots and from personal experience, in a sling.

So how can you manage your injury to maintain some sort of training regiment?

It's as easy as speaking to your coaches.

When it's time to return to the mats, do it in a staged manner such as;

1. Sitting on the mat learning, even if you can't do anything
2. When ready, start with the warm up. If there is discomfort in the warm up, don't do it and go back to point one.
3. When you can complete the warm up for a week with no discomfort or thought to the injury site, start to become active in the drilling of technique. If this becomes uncomfortable, just do the warm up.
4. If you can do the warm up and drilling isn't a problem, begin to involve yourself in specific positional wrestling with select partners.
5. When you become comfortable with joining in the main group for positional wrestling, introduce wrestling with select partners and pretty soon you'll have the confidence to join the rest of the team.

If at any stage you feel discomfort or you lack confidence, just move back a step for a week until things feel right again.

Just remember, continue to conduct the required rehab you had been prescribed and DON'T rush getting back to rounds of wrestling. Otherwise you might find your back at the doctors asking for a referral to see a specialist.

​Train smart, not silly.

Have you ever thought how many hats your coach wears?

Probably not.

Running an Academy is a hard thing to do, it's very time consuming and those that take the big step in running something like this full time have very little time for themselves. More often than not athletes or parents of athletes don't give any thought or consideration to these people and what they encounter each day.

Quite often the main person that runs your Academy is not just the head coach but they are also;

• book keeper
• mentor/friend
• cleaner
• maintenance 
• reception
• mediator
• and a whole lot more!

If you're at a good Academy, what you'll find is that the owner is spending in excess of 10 hours a day to ensure that the running of the facility and classes are what the consumer would expect to receive.

But what's a good Academy?

To define what a good Academy you need to ask yourself;

• is it clean
• is it open on time
• are the classes structured
• is it a safe and welcoming environment
• is it comfortable (not just for the athlete)
• does the Academy communicate (not just personally but by newsletters, texts, etc)

If all these boxes are checked then you are in a good place, trust me. I've trained at places where

• the mats were only cleaned once weekly for an hour 
• the head coach asked me after I'd trained for three months one day if this was my first class
• only invited select people to 'functions'

What many Academy owners don't appreciate, is how lazy people are becoming, specifically with regards to information or how poorly they treat the facility (such as furniture). 

With the amount of technology out there, it's not hard to go on the web and look at your Academy's website to see what's going on or even reading their newsletter (if they have one). Some Academies have an app that can provide information as to what's going on, but more often than not the parents or athletes disregard this information claiming they didn't know.

Nothing is more disheartening when cleaning the facility to find shoe prints on furniture, rubbish or food left on the ground or the place left in a real mess. It doesn't happen at home so why let your kids jump on the couch or spill food everywhere? 

It's pretty disrespectful.

Whilst many BJJ Academy owners are typically the main coach, they also have 'normal' jobs outside of the Academy.  Not only does an Academy owner have the stressors of the BJJ school, their lives outside the academy requires attention like;

• immediate family and friends
• mortgage 
• their main job
• home maintenance

Their working week would well and truly exceed 80 hours a week.

Many Academy owners do this whilst they try to get their Academy up and running to a point where they may be able to take a wage. But this takes years as they need a consistent number members for it to be lucrative, and I'm talking over 200, even then they are probably taking a wage cut.

Whilst Academy owners want to share their passion of the sport with the local community, they never look to be a peace keeper or clean up after a child has made a mess whilst the parent/guardian could have cleaned it.

So the next time you see your main coach at the Academy, why not thank them for what they do for you or your child that trains. After all they are just trying to share their passion and make an already tough sport an enjoyable one.

Reg Peters
2nd degree black belt