It is not an uncommon or unusual thing happening to us combat trainers and combat sports to get a ruptured bruise or a fatal injury. However, we can rarely prevent them from happening.
Yes, one can be cautious and adopt plenty of measures to reduce the odds of such freak accidents happening. One of them is a good warm-up and a hearty stretch.
Environmental calmness is equally important as well. One should be aware of the kind of people they’re surrounded by while working out. Here are some other factors that may be crucial in reducing your odds to get an injury.
Weight training:
Especially when one’s training with a person usually larger or bigger than oneself, there’s a high risk one might be badly injured. That too with the smallest of mistakes.
Sometimes even when there’s 100% safety and precautionary measures, people do get into danger. If a takedown goes wrong, you end up getting your knee twisted.
If you miss on a move, there might be chance your head ends up colliding with your partner’s knee. Professionals know it’s a common occurrence.
Even when your partner is the same size as you, you may end up getting hurt badly, but when your opponent is bigger and larger than you then the injury may prove to be fatal.
It doesn’t imply that one shouldn’t train with people heavier and bigger than them, it’s just that one should completely be aware of the consequences and risks thereof.
For intense and long-duration training it is preferable to find an opponent your size if not getting hurt, is your priority.
Intensity to be Equalized:
There’s always a venue and time for an intense heavy competition unlike the light-weighted soft ones, where you are just trying to learn something new. One interesting training equipment is neon sword that is made of polyester that redefines the training module. Since polyester is a lightweight material, there’s no chance of hurting yourself.
Just a reminder, that going all hard is always risky and the odds of getting an injury are high as well. Problems generally arise when there’s a mismatch in the intention of the dual.
One expects to do something light and learn new moves while the other wants intensive and hardcore combat.
Or when both intend to go light and smooth but end up getting into something like an ADCC final. To avoid injury make sure, you and your opponent are on the same page.
Communication with the coach or Instructor:
A coach isn’t a psychic expert unless you communicate with them about your problems. If you’re facing some kind of discomfort or pain in your body, you must inform your coach about it.
Unless you are wishing for a severe injury. If you’re very sensitive to a certain technique or move, that also needs to be communicated as quickly as possible to your coach.
There’s always hesitation and reluctance while doing so, as people complaining are viewed as weak and meek.
These things make people feel pathetic and they feel they should always endure the pain and never complain about it.
However they must be aware that a good coach always is well informed about his trainee, and without it, they can’t help you out.
Compromise on equipment:
For a combat dual, there are only a few things one must prepare for, gumshield, groin guards, gloves, head guard or shin pads, perhaps a gi if one wants to do judo or BJJ.
One must not compromise on equipment. Good quality gearing will help you last longer, and it also keeps you safe.
One must not avoid equipment just because they feel it’s uncomfortable, you might end up having a guard groin that splits up eventually. Poorly fitted gloves and shin pads and baggy gi’s may also end up getting you injured.
Dealings with old injury:
One of the highest risk factors for an injury to the joint in the impending future is the probability that one had an injury before only on that specific joint, tendon, or muscle.
We generally go back to our mats or equipment just waiting for the injury to feel better. We mindlessly hope for it to end all our future fatalities.
In ideal conditions, one must contact an injury professional, who can give you the best remedy via a rehab plan to strengthen the injured area. That eventually decreases your risk of recurrence.
Have a stronger immunity and conditioning program:
Resilience and Reduction of injury risk are effectively built through a good strength and strong conditioning program.
When talks have been initiated to combat athletes, it’s always found out that the athletes would rather prefer to spend their training time doing a specific type of training, which is not good.
It’s a fact that the combat athletes who do strength training generally spend lesser time off the mat because of their injuries.
One misconception about martial arts is also that it’s all about technique and not strength and that it makes you bulky and restraints movement.
In reality, however, it’s not true, weight training not only improves your power but mobility and quality of movements.
