Prevalence Of Injuries During Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Training

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art that focuses on groundwork, joint locks, and chokeholds instead of kicks and punches. Prior studies have examined injury in the sport during competition but not during training. PURPOSE: To determine the prevalence of injuries sustained during BJJ training. METHODS: A 27-question research survey was e-mailed to 166 BJJ gyms throughout the United States. Demographic information, belt level, weight class, training hours, competition experience, and injury prevalence data were collected. Survey participants were incentivized by entrance into a random drawing to receive one of four $25.00 pre-paid credit cards. RESULTS: A total of 140 athletes responded to the survey. The majority of respondents were Caucasian (n=96) males (n=121) with an average age of 30.3 years. Overall, the most common injury locations were to the hand and fingers (n=70), foot and toes (n=52), and arm and elbow (n=51). Skin infections (n=38) were the most frequent condition for which athletes sought medical attention followed by injuries to the knee (n=26) and foot and toes (n=19). The most common non-medically diagnosed injuries occurred to the hand and fingers (n=56), arm and elbow (n=40), and foot and toes (n=33). CONCLUSION: Athletes reported more frequent medically diagnosed injuries to the lower extremity and more frequent non-medically diagnosed injuries to the upper extremity. We hypothesize upper extremity injuries to be more frequent but less severe with the opposite being true for lower extremity injuries. This study highlights the prevalence of training injuries in BJJ and the distribution of injuries by age, belt level, and weight class, which may be used to educate both athletes and physicians.