Martial art’s little white lie
I remember the very first night I stepped into a martial arts school. The instructor gave me the sell. Of course, he mentioned the great shape I would get in. He also took great pride in the fact there were very few injuries in that school.
“We don’t get injured, we protect each other here.”
He wasn’t alone in this claim. Nearly every school I’ve visited makes similar ones. After all, what are they going to say? People get hurt here all the time?
Sevens years later, when I left that particular dojo for good, I had badly damaged wrists. I got off pretty lucky compared to some of my training partners. I saw torn ACLs, more damaged wrists, thrown backs, etc. Many of us didn’t have health care and believed we could heal just about anything with energy and positive thinking.
When I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, they made good on their promise to get me in better shape. I got stronger, more toned, and very flexible. My cardiovascular fitness went through the roof. The price? The injury rate more than doubled. In four years, I took more damage than I did in seven years at the last school. But to be fair, they told me up front: injuries are part of the game.
Boy were they right: I’ve had my jaw popped in and out of place, dislocated a rib, and at a tournament was ankle locked so bad my left foot was messed up for half a year. There’s a circular scar on my arm that never quite faded, from ringworm. I’ve had two instructors who had admitted they can’t lift their arms past a certain point due to shoulder damage. And my fellow students? You name it, I’ve seen it.
What they don’t tell you about injuries
So was my instructor wrong when he told me, over a decade ago, that injuries were very rare? He actually wasn’t. In any given class, my chances of getting injured were probably one in one hundred. I left the vast majority of nights feeling great. What no one factors in is the math.
If you train three nights a week, and your odds of getting injured is one in one hundred, you’ll suffer at least one injury in your first year. Train for eight years, and you’d accrue close to thirteen injuries. If even a quarter of them are serious, you’ll have three serious injuries. If you plan to be a lifelong martial artist, the math is not on your side.
When you drive your car for 500,000 miles, it will sustain wear and tear. The car doesn’t matter, the road doesn’t matter. It’s just going to happen. What they don’t always tell you about the journey of martial arts is that your body is the car, and your road trip could last the rest of your life. Especially if your aim is self-defense or sport, you cannot get reasonably good at these things without physicality. You’ll need to feel contact, aggression, and kinetic energy. Even when practiced safely, it’ll never be safe. And if you can’t tolerate that idea? Go play badminton, because you’re not going to learn about fighting without putting some skin in the game.
It’s not as bad as it sounds
Believe it or not, there are some upsides to these injuries. For one, you’ll eventually get smart and take better care of your body. When I was 22, I considered martial arts my one stop shop for health. I thought I was in such great shape, hence why I rarely got hurt. I ate whatever I wanted, stayed up all night, stayed away from gyms. Of course, the math hadn’t started to play itself out yet.
But injuries have forced me to love my body. I’ve learned I have to eat healthy and stretch both mornings and after class. I need to see a doctor every year and get plenty of rest every night. What if I had never trained martial arts, what would it have taken for me to figure this stuff out? How long would it have taken?
The other upside is that you learn how tough you are. The vast majority of my injuries have healed just fine. My rib recovered, and I can walk, run, and jump on my foot (though I tap pretty fast to those ankle locks nowadays). The human body has an incredible ability to adapt and overcome. I’ve walked into work limping, wrapped up, or even with the odd black eye. My coworkers freaked out.
“What are you doing?! You should stay home!”
You eventually get an attitude that you’re going to power through. Your body is strong, you’re not a victim of your bumps and bruises. People that take the day off because of tummy aches are a joke to you. There’s a sense of pride you feel. You’re not proud of getting hurt, you’re proud of your mindset. You’ve got grit.
Is it worth it?
Have I painted a grim picture? Is learning martial arts even worth it?
Yes. 1000% yes. Martial arts is a life-changing pathway. It’s more than fitness. It’s community, it’s fulfillment, it’s even spirituality. You’ll be in the company of exceptional people. You’ll release that pent-up energy from your day to day life. Learn about your limits, the limits of people. Test yourself. Put yourself in some stressful situations.
Remember, no one gets cancer, diabetes, or heart problems from injuries. They get it from inactivity, poor lifestyles, or randomness. You can’t do anything about the latter, but you can control the rest. Sitting on the couch, drinking Pepsi, and watching Hulu is far more dangerous in the long run than spending an hour a night at your local martial arts school. You may be an old man or woman and have some battle scars, but aren’t those the mark of a life well lived?
Are you an instructor? How do you talk about injuries with new students? How do you think about injuries in your own training? Let me know in the comments below.
Also, I have a new website, highpercentagemartialarts.com, where I use science and data to help students focus their training.
Finally, if you enjoy this article, I wrote a book about training in martial arts called The True Believers, where I talk more about the dangers of cultism in martial arts that I experienced.
He runs a site called HighPercentageMartialArts.com, dedicated exclusively to statistics in martial arts.
He wrote a book about fanaticism in martial arts, called The True Believers.
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Further your studies with the healing side of the martial arts. It’s only the beginning.