Grappling Safety

[william_cain_iii]

Thursday night at Judo (I know, I know, bear with me ) I had a trio of training accidents all in one evening. Some of it was my own fault, but it did illustrate a situation that I realize I'm going to have to confront as I start up my own study group here where I live.

Specifically:

1 - my first training partner seated an arm lock on me with such force that I screamed. I have a fairly low pain tolerance, but I usually only grunt or shout, and I've been getting tougher as I keep training. This was so forceful that it really felt like my arm was going to break, I felt the joint click as he extended it with his whole body weight. The attending coaches stopped the grappling and made me take a break, and rebuked him for going too hard.

2 - Later I felt good enough to try again, and got thrown. This one was more my fault because I didn't tuck my head in properly or use my arm to arrest the fall the right way, and my head whipped over my neck. I couldn't move for a few seconds. Lesson learned.

3 - at some undetermined point, I apparently also injured my ankle, which felt a little stiff. Now amusingly, my arm is fine, my neck is fine, but my ankle is spectacularly bruised.


My specific question, now that my elaborate efforts at context have been finished, is how do various ARMA groups train for grappling safety? In Judo for example we have Ukemi, break falling practice. These are just what they sound like, drills where we learn to fall down during repeated throws without hurting ourselves (which I apparently need more practice with). further, we have someone watching carefully during matches, to try and prevent locks and takedowns from being too dangerous.

Is there an analog to this practice in ARMA? If so, is it covered in the manuals somewhere, or was it adopted out of practicality and the reality of training people safely?

Thanks in advance,

William

[Martin Wallgren]

In our group we warm up at least 15 minutes before each session. We also do alot of falling exercises. Then we try to match up one more experienced grappler with a novice in technique training. In this way the experienced one can control the speed and pace of the exerice so it fits the less experienced student. Sparring is left for more advanced students. We always have an after jogg with relaxing joints and such after our practise.

I know this is modern thinking, but we live in a modern society and we need to be fit for our offclass lives when the sessions are over.

//Martin

[Jaron Bernstein]

Before you grapple, learn how to fall safely. Tumbling was part of historical MARE training. Any competent judo school can show how to do it. Next, practice rolling and falling with a sword in hand. If you are going to do grappling (or especially the more dynamic throws), make sure to have good mats. There is also the well established protocol of "tapping out". Finally, stretch out thoroughly before you practice. Our local study group practices tumbling every class, whether we do ringen/abrazare that day or not. You might also use some form of grappling garment, whether it be a gambeson or a simple sweatshirt.

[Randall Pleasant]

William

I don't do much grappling due to age and several injuries I received before joining ARMA. But when I do engage in any grappling I make sure my training parenter fully understands that my joins are very tight, thus I have very little flexibility, and that they can only use light pressure in any type of lock. On the very rare occussion where I feel like I am talking to a wall as I explain that I just choose to sit out that phase of training.

[william_cain_iii]

I can see how you'd make that choice. I'm not going to be able to participate in judo tonight (other than the very basic technique drills my coach is setting up for me) because of the injuries my partner gave me.

[Stacy Clifford]

Agreed with everything said above, there is nothing wrong with adding a little modern thinking into your sessions when it comes to safety practices, the manuals didn't cover everything. If you have anybody new in your grappling sessions, or just people from another group that you just don't know as well, be sure and review basic safety rules like tapping out and letting your partner down easy in practice throws, etc., before getting started. At ARMA events where people from multiple study groups are gathered, we always do this as a precaution. I trust most of my fellow members quite a bit, but until you know somebody well enough to trust them, you can't have too many reminders.

[william_cain_iii]

About the answers I expected, thanks guys!

I'm fortunate in that my Judo instructor, who is finding Ringen very interesting to look at the few times I've gone over it with him, has opened up our dojo to my fencing study group. This means we have nice, padded floors to spar on, lights for when it gets dark, and a roof over our head so we can keep practicing when it rains. He's even waived any rental fees while I get the club started, which is exceedingly kind of him.

So since we have these padded floors, I want to make sure ringen (or more accurately abrazare, since I'm probably going to focus on Fiore's material for the first part) is part of our classes pretty much from day 1.

Part of that is of course good safety discipline, I don't want anyone getting hurt if the injury can be avoided. The padded floors are a good start to that, but they won't replace smart thinking and consistent training. Since there doesn't seem to be a manual source explaining falling safety, I'll probably just drop in the material from my Judo classes.

[Sal Bertucci]

Yeah,

Monte mentions the importance of falling safely, but I don't think he explains how.

Sal

[Jaron Bernstein]

One thing you might want to include in your falling, once you can do the roll falls and what not. Start falling and rolling with wasters in hand to get used to retaining the thing when you get thrown or fall down.

[Randall Pleasant]

One thing you might want to include in your falling, once you can do the roll falls and what not. Start falling and rolling with wasters in hand to get used to retaining the thing when you get thrown or fall down.

Note that a regular roll works fine if your sword arm is across your body. However, if your sword arm is out to your side then you need to do what some call the Russian roll in which you rotate your arm counter-clock wise so that you don't break your shoulder.

[william_cain_iii]

That will definitely have to be addressed. Thanks guys!