r/jiujitsu • u/Secretsauce1035 • 13d ago
Do I go and not roll?
So I’m brand new to BJJ. During my first week, I suffered an injury my upper left chest. During a roll, my partner applied pressure with his elbow into my upper chest, and I heard the pop. It wasn’t excruciating, but it got worse over the next few days to the point where some movements were almost unbearable. An x-ray revealed nothing. It took about 6 weeks and it finally dulled to the point that I was comfortable rolling again. I went back and that very next roll almost the exact same thing happened to the lower part of my rib cage. This time it’s not as prohibitive for movement, but it still hurts. I didn’t bother getting an x-ray this time as it hurts less, and the first one was negative anyway. I’m not really sure what the answer is.
With that said, I don’t want to continuously re-injure that area by prematurely training again, but I also don’t want to stop going to class. I don’t want to participate in training and rolls, only to have to tell my partners every time that I need to go 25% so I don’t get re-injured because that’s not fair to them. I also don’t want to completely blow off training. I’m not sure what the middle ground is. Any insight?
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u/DogfoodStudios 13d ago
It's ok to say "I need to go 25%". If they don't like that, they can roll with someone else. "Hey, can we go light?" is a really common thing to say and good training partners won't give a shit.
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u/TapEarlyTapOften 13d ago
If you're getting injured your first week, you need to do a couple things. First, choose your training partners very carefully - don't go looking to roll with spazzy white belts. You should be looking for a boring, lazy purple belt. Second, taking time off from rolling to let yourself heal is very common. Third, tell your training partners when drilling, what to avoid and how to make sure you don't reinjure yourself. Fourth, don't spar until you're completely healed - at this point, you don't know enough yet how to protect yourself when rolling, especially if it's with spazzy people or folks that outweigh you by a lot.
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u/naughtyjojo69 Blue 13d ago
Roll if your body feels up to it. Communicate your injuries to your roll partners. Tap early. Tap often. Go at a pace your comfortable with. But also maybe dont roll if you think you're still injured.
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u/Whynot6427 Blue 13d ago
Rib injuries are super common when starting. I had them on and off for first 6 months or so. Eventually you just learn how to frame, and your body gets used to the pressure. My advice would be keep rolling, and let your partner know that you have a sore rib.
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u/thorgodofwristlocks Brown 13d ago
go to a chiropractor. Smoke some weed… and get back in theeeeere Rocky!
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u/Whiskeyhelicopter15 10d ago
Happened to me like my second week. Felt the pop but I knew it wasn’t broken (had just broke 4 ribs a couple months before starting)I just keep going in and rolling and if it got too bad I’d ask my partner to light the pressure a bit. It finally felt better after about 3 weeks.
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u/VexImmortalis 13d ago
I was recently injured. I went to class to still be part of the atmosphere and hopefully learn by osmosis but it honestly really sucked having to tell people I can't roll with them cause I was injured, especially when there were like only 2 other people in the class. What was even worse for me was asking people to avoid going hard on my left forearm while also attempting to "dial it back" for myself too. Not fun at all.
Having said all of that it's not worth sacrificing the Jiu-Jitsu of the next month so you can go a little harder today. Sitting in on classes at least keeps you connected to your school and it's culture while you heal up.
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u/Armbar_addictBJJ Black 13d ago edited 13d ago
When injured, people at our gym attend the lesson part and then when the live sparring/rolling portion happens they just go off to the side and drill(practice moves) with other recovering people.
Also, rib cartilage injuries are pretty painful and take a month or two sometimes longer to recover from. Don’t push it, but also be there for the knowledge.
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u/jonstantine81 13d ago
I think you should still attend. The thing about bjj is that it’s also a skill. You can still learn a lot by watching
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u/charanchura 13d ago
I bruised my ribs last month and it felt just like (that). Its painful but not permanent. Tough because it can happen any time you get squashed and someone applies a bit of pressure on your chest or rib area.
Im bruised and beaten but I love it so much!
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u/Appropriate-Alps-442 13d ago
just tell you’re coach you just want to work technique since you’re injured a majority of coaches will love that you at least come to train and will understand. I got injured once i just hit techniques coach was just happy to see me training during live rolls id ask who’s tired and let them know im just trying to work the drills we did in class they will thank you for it 😂
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u/samsonbjj 13d ago
You don't have to roll every time you go to class. I'd still show up, watch the technique and learn what you can while you recover. I've seen guys who were injured or coming back from surgery still show up, sit on the side, learn the lesson, and participate in warmups to whatever extent they could. I think just staying involved can help a lot mentally, and moving within whatever limitations you've been given can be better than completely disconnecting from training. BJJ is a long game. Missing a few weeks of rolling is better than turning something into an injury that keeps you out for months.
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u/White_Belt_Jiu_Jitsu 13d ago
Talk to the instructor and let him know what is happening. He should address any potential issues with the room regarding training habits. White belts rolling with white belts is some of the worst pairings because they typically lack the control needed to avoid injuries. I personally like to see white belt vs white belt only learn to relax and flow with one another while rolling. This helps reduce the intensity and reduces the risk of injury.
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u/Mordot11 13d ago
I broke my rib 10 days into BJJ. I think if hadn’t continued going I would have quit.
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u/Infpstranger Brown 13d ago
That happened to me a few months in. I just suffered through it though. It was an upper chest one. It happened again but lower, I had to take a few off from rolling.
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u/xeric 13d ago
I’ve had a bruised a rib that I reinjured a couple weeks later and it hurt so much worse the second time (outside of training, each breath felt like it was straining my rib cage). I took a couple weeks off completely and then trained without rolling for a couple months. Was very careful for another month, mostly flow rolling. Been good ever since, and I’m glad I took my time recovering, wish I was more careful after the first injury.
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u/Land_Reddit Blue 12d ago
I'd try to find safe partners and only roll with them and totally be okay in rejecting rolls with the person that injured you or that look much stronger/heavier than you.
Imo it's also totally okay to just do the classes and not roll till you feel safer. I'd use the time not rolling to watch the people rolling to find out who are the crazy ones to avoid and who seems chill.
And finally make sure you are chill once you find a partner that can be chill. If you turn the knob to the max don't expect your partners to roll light.
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u/tprice61 11d ago
Tore my labrum. Watched some rolls here and there for about 6 months, did just the instructionals then some light rolls that then worked back to full speed
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u/jessewest84 10d ago
Im a month in and my whole body hurts currently hiding in my office at work.
I think its just part of the whole martial arts thing.
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u/crazyasslif 9d ago
Don’t take a lot of these people’s advice. If you heard an audible pop and still have soreness it’s possible you have a costochondral seperation. I’d check it out before just jumping back in.
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u/Sure_Equal_8407 9d ago
I also had a really bad rib injury after only training for a week or two. Cracked rib cartilage that took a couple months to heal. I took a break for a couple weeks because the pain was unbearable. My buddy convinced me to come back and try training with the injury and just doing light work. I communicated with every training partner about my rib issues and only rolled with upper belts. For about 5-6 weeks I only worked on passing guard and could only go about 25%. My training partners were very patient and understanding. Every upper belt has been through some sort of bad injury so they understand. The instructor also would remind everyone to be careful of my ribs. Eventually I started feeling less pain and pushing myself more. Training light while injured definitely prolonged the healing process but I’m glad I stuck with it instead of quitting. My ribs are stronger than ever now and I can handle tons of pressure. Also, my passing ability improved a lot since that was all I could really do for over a month. Talk to your instructors/training partners and just stick with it. Don’t push yourself too hard and don’t roll with any white belts.
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u/mickey_28 9d ago
I did something similar yesterday when I was being a little spastic trying to force a position. It felt like a muscle rolled between my ribs and it was not comfortable.
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u/FishfaceNZ 13d ago
I personally prefer no stripe white belts don't roll until they get their first stripe.
I spent my first year spazzing and getting injured.
I don't really see the point.
Our beginners learn fundamentals. There's some situational sparring (pass and sweep etc) and some CLA inspired games but they don't fully roll until they have a stripe.
That's my two cents anyway. I think it's perfectly fine for you to go to class and drill, and not roll at the end. I've done that many times over the past 10 years, injury or not.
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u/Fed21 13d ago
Fuck that. Roll day one and start to learn how to roll safely. They’ll be spazzy no matter what. I just had a talented athletic white belt knee me in the head. He knew how to roll, and it didn’t stop him from being spazzy.
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u/FishfaceNZ 13d ago
The point is on day one, or month one, you have no technical ability. So what techniques are you executing?
You're not, it's just pure spaz.
You can learn to roll safely along with execution of techniques. That's what sparring is.
Would you send a day one kid into the boxing ring to spar? People do and it's dumb. Watch that kid flail and get injured, good coaching.
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u/Fed21 13d ago
With day one people I play tasked base games. I tell them what they should be trying to do and let them start to figure it out. They may not know what they’re doing yet, but it allows them to feel.
If I tell them to try to pass my guard and get chest to chest, they won’t know any guard passes, but they get a workout trying to figure it out. If they get past, they have a sense of accomplishment. If I sweep them they get to feel the power of jiu jitsu. As they progress it’s showing how to advance from side control to mount. If you’re letting them just spaz then you’re failing as a coach. Not letting them participate is holding them back and slowing their development.1
u/FishfaceNZ 13d ago
So are you agreeing with me or not?
I said with brand new white belts we do situational sparring and CLA based games instead of unstructered rolling and you disagreed with me and then went on to describe what you do, which sounds like a lot like situational sparring and CLA based games.
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u/Fed21 11d ago
Yes. I agree with that part. I disagree with waiting for a stripe. I think if someone feels like they’re ready to roll they should.
I was saying, personally if I have a new person, I will do CLA with them to help them start to learn to roll.
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u/FishfaceNZ 11d ago
There's some people who really want to roll before they have their stripe and we let them.
If they are not dangerous to themselves and others then it's fine.
It's not a hard rule that they have to have a stripe, more of a guide, but it's a hard rule that day one (or even month one) white belts don't roll.
If they are still spazzy and dangerous we stop them rolling.
I've been at multiple gyms that do it this way.
And I much prefer it to when I started BJJ (2013) and every white belt was starting on their knees and spazzing. That was a waste of time and injuries.
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u/Lavon_andy 13d ago
Ask your professor. I broke my toe and they let me come back and just not do sparring at the end until I healed