Banned by Danaher, 3 jiu jitsu training rules created to avoid injury.

Injuries are part of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but some practitioners argue that around 50% to 70% of the injuries in BJJ are entirely avoidable. John Danaher is one of those people who believe that although some injuries are not unavoidable, there are ways to reduce the risk of many injuries with proper knowledge and education about the application of training practices inside the gym.

Injury at a BJJ competition photo credit Giselle Villa.

According to Coach Danaher there are too many injuries that should have never happened in the first place, and often those injuries end up being the ones that are of the worst kind. Coach Danaher explains that he has observed over the years a few moves that cause 80% to 90% of catastrophic injuries and should be avoided during daily training.

Let’s take a quick look at these movements and explore why you should incorporate rules for them at your gym and educate your students to practice these movements with caution.

Jumping guard:

Let’s say that two athletes are standing in a position and the other one jumps guard. There is always a danger that if one athlete physically jumps onto the other, he is throwing his body weight onto their training partner in an uncontrolled fashion. If you perform this move in poor form, then that is dangerous for your partner.

The problem comes when both athletes are in a live situation. When the top player has one of their legs extended, the guard jumper will leap up. This will cause him to land on the bottom players front leg, hyper extending their knee joint. This can result in a serious knee injury or a broken leg.

This sort of injury makes a heel hook like a joke because these injuries are potentially career-ending. It is better to pull guard but not while you are jumping. If someone wants to pull guard, they must start from the floor, so it is 100% safe.

So, what we have learned from this is that the cause of a catastrophic injury in the sport of Jiu Jitsu is uncontrolled falling body weight. According to Danaher, this is the cause of 90% of the worst injuries in the sport.

Similarly flying submissions are also part of the problem. So, the general rule of thumb is no flying armbars or flying triangles.

Tani Otoshi

Tani Otoshi translates to “valley drop”. If someone executes this technique on you, it can feel like you have fallen down a valley. This move was originated from Judo and often you can see people trying to perform it on the mats. The throw involves positioning yourself behind your opponent and taking them straight back down.

This looks okay but if you do this clumsily the opponent is going to sit on your knee and break it. Even if you have a 95-pound woman, she can break a 230-pound man’s knee. It’s a noticeably big throw and extremely dangerous as this can easily injure your own leg or your partners. This has an unacceptably high rate of injury because typically you can get your leg underneath someone’s weight and that will destroy your own leg, or even theirs.

According to @AnthonyThrows host of the podcast “Tamami Talk” on YouTube, he says the recovery after surgery from a knee injury is long and painful. After a visiting black belt came into his Judo academy from another school and tried a “shitty Taniotoshi” that caused his injury a torn PCL, Anthony had one of the most painful injuries of his career. Anthony had heard about knee injuries from this move prior to his injury from other people but he said that he never realized how bad the injury for this move could be until it happened to him.

Injury from bad attempt at Tani Otoshi.

As I mentioned to him that I would be using his example in my blog about banned BJJ moves, Anthony even said that he is sure that “whoever is reading this blog will never fully understand how painful and devastating this injury is until it happens to them”.

Anthony went on to say that the first week after the surgery was the most painful because every time, he stood up he felt the knee fluids and blood going down his leg that felt like a car running over his leg. Anthony has since put up several clips on his Instagram profile showing proper, and improper, ways to attempt this throw.

The alternate to Tani Otoshi is the Kosote Gake where your knee is a hundred percent safe and highly effective. If you are in doubt and you are not sure what to do then just don’t do the move.

No Crashing or Slamming

If you see that there’s a lack of space in the area, be mindful. You must be respectful of others' space. If you are rolling with your training partner you can’t just go driving into other people. If a pair is practicing peacefully, try and avoid crashing into them. So, the general rule of thumb is do not invade into someone else’s space, explains Danaher.

Similarly, if you’re picking people up (off the ground) it is your responsibility to put them down safely. Often inconsiderate athletes would pick their training partners up and just smash them down on the mats. The bottom person has a higher chance of breaking their ribs, shoulder, or even could have a concussion. You are not supposed to drop people on their heads or their necks in Jiu Jitsu.

It’s important to train smart and not get carried away in Jiu Jitsu, of course, that is common sense. The tragic part is that people get injured by things that are completely avoidable. But that is all the reason we all might consider the advice of John Danaher as we explore safer ways of training in Jiu Jitsu. The first step into longevity and safety is to introduce house rules that protect everyone, which is what we call risk management.

Risk management is just as relevant in BJJ training as it is in managing one’s own wealth and managing one’s own health. So, as we consider developing safer training practices at our academies lets also consider encouraging teammates, coaches, and members of BJJ schools to explore new practices and programs that reduce & manage risk for everyone.

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