RISKY BUSINESS: THE SKETCHIEST MOVES IN MARTIAL ARTS | The Compost Bin | Forums

I love Jack Slack

There are plenty of people who are appalled at the violence on display in combat sports. No matter how much you explain the art of it, or point to the fact that it is a sporting bout between two consenting adults of equal weight under the supervision of a doctor, you'll never change their minds.

Obviously the effects of a sport where the athlete gets punched in the head fairly regularly are going to be more taxing on the body and brain than they would be on someone who plays soccer or tennis—but then competing four times a year is considered a tremendous work rate for a fighter. Many NFL or rugby players are out on the field, taking head trauma week in, week out. Obviously fighters train in the meantime, but provided they aren't training at an idiotic gym where they're getting hit hard every day, they can avoid the effects of becoming what the old timers called 'punchy'.

Of course, there will always be idiots out there. This week a video emerged from Brazil, wherein a coach has his students lined up, puts on gloves, and proceeds to tee off on each student's head in turn. They weren't learning to roll with punches and half of the students had their eyes closed throughout. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Ironically, many believe that the introduction of gloves to pugilism actually served to the detriments of fighter safety. When gloves were introduced to bouts, they distinctly reduced the number of cuts fighters experienced on their faces, and therefore gave the sport a less bloody appearance. However, when they also provided cushioning for the punching fighter.

Punching without gloves is a minefield—you don't want to hit the teeth, you don't want to hit the hard areas of the skull, or the elbows, forearms or shoulders. The fragile nature of the fist and its tendency to bruise after just a few hard blows encouraged more selective and reserved punching. With gloves, fighters were allowed to punch more often, and harder, with little concern for their hands. Even head gear, which was designed to reduce the impact of blows in sparring and amateur fights, is now thought to provide more weight to any snapping around of the head.

The truly egregious injuries in martial arts often come from the places that you would least expect. Just like any other sport, it's a matter of the feet or the knees being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Recently the IBJJF banned the jumping of closed guard at white belt. Why?

Well, here is what jumping guard looks like when it's timed well and done beautifully, even with no gi to grip.

The problem is that not everyone is Shinya Aoki. Obviously, there is great danger to the guard jumper. In competition, when adrenaline is running high, the position can easily turn into a dangerous slam. If you didn't already know, getting dropped onto the back of your head is far, far worse than taking a heavy punch. There's a reason that the back of the head is an illegal target in every combat sport, it is disproportionately effective and incredibly dangerous to strike someone there.

Now that guy was just being a poor sport and endangering his opponent. But similar things have happened when a man has been pulled off balance while his opponent is pulling guard. And that's not all, if the guard jumper misses, he can land on his head just as badly. It's a hard fight to find (though apparently the whole Pancrase library is going to be on Fight Pass soon), but Minoru Suzuki—the submission machine—attempted to jump closed guard on Guy Mezger, missed, and fell on the back of his head, knocking himself out.

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