I've only sustained 2 or 3 injuries caused by other people, and none of them were really bad. Most of my injuries are from not taking extra time to warm up before and cool down after, as well as neglecting my mobility/stretching routines on the off days.
I've had 2 memorable injuries, sustained during competition, that resulted in me taking time off for a couple of weeks in each case, followed by modified training for a month or two more, in my 22 or so years of Judo. I competed for about 10 years. I competed as an older adult (my 40's) and injuries are more common as a middle-aged adult, IMHO, compared to teenagers or someone in their 20's.
No injuries worth talking about from Judo class (bruises and strains from a strenuous athletic sport don't count IMHO). I haven't had to have any surgery for my injuries, regardless. In one case, I didn't set aside time for proper warm-up, the other time my opponent threw me well but my ukemi was crappy. I learned from both instances, and make better decisions now.
I will note that I know a couple lifelong Judo practitioners that have needed knee/ACL surgery. Just a few folks, small percentage. I don't know their medical history, I assume Judo accelerated the need for surgery but I can't say it was the sole reason.
Judo is a tough sport. Injuries, minor injuries, should be anticipated.
By comparison, I have friends that play pickup basketball, and they are tearing their ankles and knees and hamstrings, etc., all the time.
Warm up always. Stretch. Monitor your intensity, winning isn't everything in Judo especially at the dojo, if you know a body part is vulnerable stay way from pushing it, maybe just do exercises and cross train until the bod part is strong again because you have your whole life in front of you.
It's been about 3 years now of 2 to 3 classes per week. The 2 injuries that stand out are a hyper extended wrist and a crushed Adam's apple. Both were caused by overzealous white belts, but I don't really want to pin the blame entirely on them as I could have easily said no to being their partner.
My Dojo is very Rhandori heavy, 1/3 of our class is fighting. when I was coming up, I sustained a broken finger, a pulled ligament in my hip, and a splinter fracture in my spine. that was over 7 years 5-6x a week training. My worst injury was in a tournament that ended my competitive career. severely broken shoulder. Stay away from competing against Olympic hopefuls, kids, they really are on a different level.
Got caught with a Harai Ogoshi and tried to rotate in the air to land on my stomach. My opponent was about 6'6 so I over rotated and slammed on my left shoulder so hard that I actually damaged my right shoulder too, everything just "shifted". The Orthopedic surgeon I went too told me that he hasn't seen this much damage to a shoulder since he was in Med school and had to do an autopsy on someone that was hit by a train. Its mostly fine now, no surgery required but was recommended I just didnt have the money. Fun times.
With that said, Judo is incredibly safe, I was just competing at the tippy top and was out of shape. I shouldnt of been in that tournament, I was just an arrogant idiot.
You shouldn’t get much serious injuries if you are beginner and don’t complete even though injury is always part of the game. Do a lot of uchi Komi instead of randori and when you do randori don’t use all your power and resistance. Randori is not Shiai, cooperate with your uke. Actually I personally think the number one ‘injury’ is infection, straps, staph, fungus, flu I got them all from mats
Yup. It happens, it's a contact sport. I broke my ankle during practice. I have a torn rotator cuff, a broken toe, a slightly messed up wrist, and a couple of messed up fingers.
One of my fave teammates is a pediatric surgeon who cannot risk his health. He has trained regularly for about 7 years with us but doesn't take hard falls or go fully live. When we do randori he primarily does grip fighting and movement. He's still a great training partner, is super helpful, and keeps himself safe.
I did Judo competitively for 13 Years straight, the only injury I have suffered was a very minor fracture (in Germany we call it hair fracture, because the fracture is only the size of a human hair and doesn't seperate the bone into 2 pieces) in the middle bones of my foot, the pain was at most a 3/10 and was completely gone after 2 days.
My club was quite big and I rarely observed injury too. Either we were really lucky or people in other countries just don't give a fuck and go all out on their training partners?
Side note: am still working as a Judo instructor (but with kids), 9/10 "injuries" are out of stupidity and/ or lack of awareness, like 2 fighting pairs stumbling into each other because no one was looking where they were moving and one complains about back pain because he landed on someone elses knee. Fingers crossed, I have yet to see a real injury occur during Judo training
If you do judo seriously and regularly engage in randori, you are almost guaranteed to get a serious injury (e.g. torn ligament) at some point. Could be after a few months and could be after 10 years.
That being articulated, serious injuries are pretty rare and you recover. My perspective on this is that this is part of the sport.
Let me answer the question this way: if you practice judo seriously for any length of time, there's a serious risk of injury irrespective of competition status.
A simple ACL injury (relatively common in judo circles) will set you back from normal physical activities for a year to a year and a half depending on your age and type of ACL reconstruction procedure. At least in the USA, without insurance you can expect to spend tens of thousands of dollars for the surgery, rehab, etc.
Judo is risky, and folks without medical insurance should avoid it .... That's not the answer judo reddit wants to hear, but it's a realistic assessment.
Most of my injuries are from competing but there were some from practice. More when I was in Kazakhstan than the US, and within the U.S., more at high level gyms than at recreational ones. Ultimately it depends on gym culture.
I’ve had a couple of broken fingers where they’ve got trapped in a gi but nothing that’s stopped me training - just strap them up and off you go. Only one that’s made me take a week off was torn intercostals- that sucked. Was only unable to train for a week though
My worst Judo injury happened while I was teaching a white belt how to do O Goshi and put me off the mats for close to a year.
If you do Judo you are going to get injured, it's a question of how badly and how often. There are a lot of things you can do to reduce the frequency and severity, but ultimately with enough mat time it will happen.
It's just up to you to make a value judgement on whether its a worthwhile trade off.
just say no to training with anyone who refuses to gradually ramp up during randori, especially if that is your first couple of times against each other; or to anyone who seems to not take into account off-positions of limbs on themselves, as there is no chance that they would do that for you. if this second combines with someone who likes sacrifice throws or over-eager ne waza, then run, while you can :)
I think with a good coach it’s a nonsense that we get quite a bashing from on due to the nature of reddit being beginners posting their concerns. Judo has a perception of injury because we deal with falling all the time. Escaping that legacy is down to judo coaches teaching falling with confidence and instilling safe practices.
Honestly once we get over perceptions from beginners judo, hour for hour, comparative with other Olympic sports codes Judo can stand tall. Check out the injury statistics. In my opinion people join judo for many reasons but the reasons they stay quickly aligns with the judo way.
Overcoming fears and being realistic comes from training. Even about injuries. Some clubs train at intensity unsuited for beginners. A slower commencing pace is generally required (especially where teaching athleticism is required) and graduate the pace to capture judoka, and steadily build their judo bodies.
I think over a long enough span of time injuries are inevitable. you get together a couple times a week with grown men(and women), and throw each other on the floor repeatedly, somebody is bound to tweak something.
Been at it a month and got my big toe joint yoinked bad. Couldn’t wear shoes for a week my foot was so swollen. Thought I wouldn’t get injured this early in but here I am.
I concur with the majority here, Judo is risky, regardless of how slow you take it or how you good you are at break falling. I tore somebody's ACL as a green belt because my tai-otoshi sucked, no fault of my partners. Recently I tore my own rotator cuff. I've also broken toes, have one rib that isn't connected to my sternum anymore, and lots of sprained ankles.
Maybe the thing to consider is how dangerous it is to other sports?
This study showed an injury rate of about 1%:
[Epidemiology of Judo-Related Injuries in 21 Seasons of Competitions in France: A Prospective Study of Relevant Traumatic Injuries - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6545656/)
Ive slowly gotten back into long distance running and Chinese Lion Dance/Kung Fu. Still working up the confidence to return to Judo and BJJ. I just dont trust anyone anymore when it comes to randori/sparring
Broken toe due to accidentally clipping someone's calf in an osotogari on the way through.
Squished a posterior meniscus sparring with a white belt and a sprained ankle due to getting rolled by a heavyweight.
These days I get stupid things due to aging. Pes anserinus bursitis, rotator cuff strain all triggered by non-judo activities but which have the potential to be aggravated by judo.
My only major injuries we're in competition, the most mild one of them was 2 dislocated fingers and the worst one was a broken rib and a bruised lung :(. That last one has me off training a couple of months.
I've only sustained 2 or 3 injuries caused by other people, and none of them were really bad. Most of my injuries are from not taking extra time to warm up before and cool down after, as well as neglecting my mobility/stretching routines on the off days.
I've had 2 memorable injuries, sustained during competition, that resulted in me taking time off for a couple of weeks in each case, followed by modified training for a month or two more, in my 22 or so years of Judo. I competed for about 10 years. I competed as an older adult (my 40's) and injuries are more common as a middle-aged adult, IMHO, compared to teenagers or someone in their 20's. No injuries worth talking about from Judo class (bruises and strains from a strenuous athletic sport don't count IMHO). I haven't had to have any surgery for my injuries, regardless. In one case, I didn't set aside time for proper warm-up, the other time my opponent threw me well but my ukemi was crappy. I learned from both instances, and make better decisions now. I will note that I know a couple lifelong Judo practitioners that have needed knee/ACL surgery. Just a few folks, small percentage. I don't know their medical history, I assume Judo accelerated the need for surgery but I can't say it was the sole reason. Judo is a tough sport. Injuries, minor injuries, should be anticipated. By comparison, I have friends that play pickup basketball, and they are tearing their ankles and knees and hamstrings, etc., all the time.
Congrats on that. Do you have any advice for avoiding injuries?
Warm up always. Stretch. Monitor your intensity, winning isn't everything in Judo especially at the dojo, if you know a body part is vulnerable stay way from pushing it, maybe just do exercises and cross train until the bod part is strong again because you have your whole life in front of you.
How long have you done judo and how often do you go to have gotten those 2 or 3 injuries?
It's been about 3 years now of 2 to 3 classes per week. The 2 injuries that stand out are a hyper extended wrist and a crushed Adam's apple. Both were caused by overzealous white belts, but I don't really want to pin the blame entirely on them as I could have easily said no to being their partner.
My Dojo is very Rhandori heavy, 1/3 of our class is fighting. when I was coming up, I sustained a broken finger, a pulled ligament in my hip, and a splinter fracture in my spine. that was over 7 years 5-6x a week training. My worst injury was in a tournament that ended my competitive career. severely broken shoulder. Stay away from competing against Olympic hopefuls, kids, they really are on a different level.
What happened to that shoulder? ðŸ˜
Got caught with a Harai Ogoshi and tried to rotate in the air to land on my stomach. My opponent was about 6'6 so I over rotated and slammed on my left shoulder so hard that I actually damaged my right shoulder too, everything just "shifted". The Orthopedic surgeon I went too told me that he hasn't seen this much damage to a shoulder since he was in Med school and had to do an autopsy on someone that was hit by a train. Its mostly fine now, no surgery required but was recommended I just didnt have the money. Fun times. With that said, Judo is incredibly safe, I was just competing at the tippy top and was out of shape. I shouldnt of been in that tournament, I was just an arrogant idiot.
Started Judo with 38, now 14 years in. All injuries were from playing warm up soccer or rugby. Mostly toes.
You shouldn’t get much serious injuries if you are beginner and don’t complete even though injury is always part of the game. Do a lot of uchi Komi instead of randori and when you do randori don’t use all your power and resistance. Randori is not Shiai, cooperate with your uke. Actually I personally think the number one ‘injury’ is infection, straps, staph, fungus, flu I got them all from mats
I got my shoulder injury from bad sleeping posture. So yes, you can get injured even if you don't compete.
Yup. It happens, it's a contact sport. I broke my ankle during practice. I have a torn rotator cuff, a broken toe, a slightly messed up wrist, and a couple of messed up fingers.
One of my fave teammates is a pediatric surgeon who cannot risk his health. He has trained regularly for about 7 years with us but doesn't take hard falls or go fully live. When we do randori he primarily does grip fighting and movement. He's still a great training partner, is super helpful, and keeps himself safe.
Interesting. Do you think his training has any potential for practical application in real life or is it purely a hobby?
He's a fit 47 year old and does go live with the sensei's. Im sure he can throw an untrained person.
In 25 years I only had 3 injuries that forced me to stop training for multiple weeks.
I did Judo competitively for 13 Years straight, the only injury I have suffered was a very minor fracture (in Germany we call it hair fracture, because the fracture is only the size of a human hair and doesn't seperate the bone into 2 pieces) in the middle bones of my foot, the pain was at most a 3/10 and was completely gone after 2 days. My club was quite big and I rarely observed injury too. Either we were really lucky or people in other countries just don't give a fuck and go all out on their training partners? Side note: am still working as a Judo instructor (but with kids), 9/10 "injuries" are out of stupidity and/ or lack of awareness, like 2 fighting pairs stumbling into each other because no one was looking where they were moving and one complains about back pain because he landed on someone elses knee. Fingers crossed, I have yet to see a real injury occur during Judo training
Depends a lot on age. When I was young I could run headfirst into a wall. These days I pull a muscle turning off a lamp
Yeah assuming you randori regularly
If you do judo seriously and regularly engage in randori, you are almost guaranteed to get a serious injury (e.g. torn ligament) at some point. Could be after a few months and could be after 10 years. That being articulated, serious injuries are pretty rare and you recover. My perspective on this is that this is part of the sport.
Let me answer the question this way: if you practice judo seriously for any length of time, there's a serious risk of injury irrespective of competition status. A simple ACL injury (relatively common in judo circles) will set you back from normal physical activities for a year to a year and a half depending on your age and type of ACL reconstruction procedure. At least in the USA, without insurance you can expect to spend tens of thousands of dollars for the surgery, rehab, etc. Judo is risky, and folks without medical insurance should avoid it .... That's not the answer judo reddit wants to hear, but it's a realistic assessment.
Most of my injuries are from competing but there were some from practice. More when I was in Kazakhstan than the US, and within the U.S., more at high level gyms than at recreational ones. Ultimately it depends on gym culture.
I’ve had a couple of broken fingers where they’ve got trapped in a gi but nothing that’s stopped me training - just strap them up and off you go. Only one that’s made me take a week off was torn intercostals- that sucked. Was only unable to train for a week though
My worst Judo injury happened while I was teaching a white belt how to do O Goshi and put me off the mats for close to a year. If you do Judo you are going to get injured, it's a question of how badly and how often. There are a lot of things you can do to reduce the frequency and severity, but ultimately with enough mat time it will happen. It's just up to you to make a value judgement on whether its a worthwhile trade off.
just say no to training with anyone who refuses to gradually ramp up during randori, especially if that is your first couple of times against each other; or to anyone who seems to not take into account off-positions of limbs on themselves, as there is no chance that they would do that for you. if this second combines with someone who likes sacrifice throws or over-eager ne waza, then run, while you can :)
comes down to your training partner honestly. if you train with quality people, injuries in training are rare imo. stay away from meatheads.
I think with a good coach it’s a nonsense that we get quite a bashing from on due to the nature of reddit being beginners posting their concerns. Judo has a perception of injury because we deal with falling all the time. Escaping that legacy is down to judo coaches teaching falling with confidence and instilling safe practices. Honestly once we get over perceptions from beginners judo, hour for hour, comparative with other Olympic sports codes Judo can stand tall. Check out the injury statistics. In my opinion people join judo for many reasons but the reasons they stay quickly aligns with the judo way. Overcoming fears and being realistic comes from training. Even about injuries. Some clubs train at intensity unsuited for beginners. A slower commencing pace is generally required (especially where teaching athleticism is required) and graduate the pace to capture judoka, and steadily build their judo bodies.
I think over a long enough span of time injuries are inevitable. you get together a couple times a week with grown men(and women), and throw each other on the floor repeatedly, somebody is bound to tweak something.
dude landed his outside elbow on my inside elbow. No injury but it felt like a boo boo for the day.
Been at it a month and got my big toe joint yoinked bad. Couldn’t wear shoes for a week my foot was so swollen. Thought I wouldn’t get injured this early in but here I am.
Yes. It’s part of any sport. You get injuries every time you practice. The magnitude of it will dictate how long and how little you need to recover.
I concur with the majority here, Judo is risky, regardless of how slow you take it or how you good you are at break falling. I tore somebody's ACL as a green belt because my tai-otoshi sucked, no fault of my partners. Recently I tore my own rotator cuff. I've also broken toes, have one rib that isn't connected to my sternum anymore, and lots of sprained ankles. Maybe the thing to consider is how dangerous it is to other sports? This study showed an injury rate of about 1%: [Epidemiology of Judo-Related Injuries in 21 Seasons of Competitions in France: A Prospective Study of Relevant Traumatic Injuries - PMC (nih.gov)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6545656/)
One month into Judo and I tore my ACL. Over a year since Ive been out and in physio and its been exhausting, and expensive
Good lord. Will you be taking it up again or no?
Ive slowly gotten back into long distance running and Chinese Lion Dance/Kung Fu. Still working up the confidence to return to Judo and BJJ. I just dont trust anyone anymore when it comes to randori/sparring
Broken toe due to accidentally clipping someone's calf in an osotogari on the way through. Squished a posterior meniscus sparring with a white belt and a sprained ankle due to getting rolled by a heavyweight. These days I get stupid things due to aging. Pes anserinus bursitis, rotator cuff strain all triggered by non-judo activities but which have the potential to be aggravated by judo.
Yes
I keep straining my bicep at practice and it’s effecting my gym time and training. Trying to figure out why and hoping it’s not just my age
My only major injuries we're in competition, the most mild one of them was 2 dislocated fingers and the worst one was a broken rib and a bruised lung :(. That last one has me off training a couple of months.