Videos of serious injuries in MMA and other martial arts

Warning, some of this stuff is really brutal and hard on the eyes. But there's some funny vids too.

MMA, the combatants are women and the injury happens near the end. It is typical of what happens when a commitment to a movement is made and the whole momentum of the body becomes the driving force. It's amazing this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQJ8fKTmw8E&feature=related

MMA, not a very high caliber fighter goes against a wrestler and gets brutally slammed. The body's reaction to the slam is interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx2BRJLkjCg&feature=related

BJJ, this is a very serious move by JJ player. I know the position well and have always felt that the bottom person can be taken advantage off just never knew how. Maybe because in BJJ we always calculate moves to be applied in a controlled way so as not to injure our training partner. There is not way IMO to apply this move in a controlled way. I suspect the guy who did it knew that and still chose to do it. This is exactly why I'm weary of competitions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_qFMo6hRo&feature=related

Some Brazilian guys are very aggressive, like I said I think he did it on purpose to cause the effect that it did. I don't think it happened while he was trying to do something else. There are some moves that you just can't practice, you can only execute them under full commitment.

I'll give an example of what happened to me one time. When you do an ankle twist you try to do it gradually to give the opponent a chance to give up before damage is done. When you train enough this way you become complacent about some very inferior positions in the sense that you allow them to go further than they ever should. This would never happen if you were more tense or had more nervous energy going into the fight. Anyways this noob took hold of my foot while I was on my back and he was standing up. I was complacent about it because I thought I knew how long it would take him to set up for something. Instead of doing any of the traditional ankle locks he just pinned my foot across his chest with both arms and threw himself on the floor to the outside direction while keeping my foot tight. He fucked up my knee ligaments real bad and I couldn't walk for a couple of weeks. For a couple of months after I wore a knee brace.

Specifically about the back break; the bottom guy's mistake was that he let loose the opponents whole right side by uselessly putting both arms around the left leg. This allowed the opponent to pivot around his own left leg by side stepping with the right. I have no idea what he was trying to do grabbing the leg like that, looks like a dead end to me.

I still think grappling is safe. Once you get past the growing pains and know where everything can lead you can just tap. I don't practice with a gi and I no longer let anyone grab my feet or legs. I just start kicking like hell. I no longer do leg locks except for the knee bar that doesn't put me in the same position to do a leg lock on me. If we do end up like that I change the position quick as I don't want to get into the race of who puts it on first. That's a classic point of injury as both guys feel threatened and accelerate. Besides the straight ankle stretch doesn't work on many guys with strong ligaments and the ankle bar in the corner of the arm is relatively easy to escape if you don't have it snapped on perfect.

Talking about a no return point in grappling makes me think of the same in striking. Check these out.

Boxing, serious knockout. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wNrB_V3PFc&feature=related

Kickboxing, leg break. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcCMqvdFJYo&feature=related

MMA, leg break. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBE5FQR5cW8&feature=related

Quote from Toledo970

I had a similar thing happen to me Dan, with one of the JKD instructorsin Cali. I had him in a position for a RNC and didn't want to be a penis and force it in, we kept rolling and ended up each in a leg lock he cranked it I didn't.

This just reminded me of the first time I learned the hard way not to cross my legs in front of the guy when I have his back. Can you guess what I'm talking about?

But you enjoy getting hit? LOL

Is the bald guy on the right flexing his quads for the pic? LOL

I'm glad you got the riddle Ray, now I know you weren't bullshitting You never know with these internet things.. Look at me, I just started diving a month ago but you'd never know it :laughing:

Well monster, I don't disagree with some of the things you're saying but it seems to me you're applying them a little too generally here. For one there's the discrepancy of saying that the skills learned in the martial arts are not applicable in real life and should be taken only as fun and games. I remember in another discussion you were talking about a friend of yours who works in a special unit or something along those lines and how karate never failed him in numerous real life situations he faced.

Without a doubt the skills acquired grappling, combined with a common sense approach will serve you very well in all situations. Knowing when you're out gunned and running away to live to fight another day is another matter. But I do agree as I too am way past the tough guy stage and now know that the worst situations are ones you don't even ask for. Living a safe and healthy life is a balance of skills including emotional stability, a clear head when making a decision to do something, as well as the physical skills to deal with confrontations. I can't say I've perfected it for myself but at least I don't look for trouble.

About getting elbowed; I don't know Ray's way of training but I've had it happen in grappling unintentionally just by turning hard/twisting my torso to escape a clinch. I'm sure it can happen during a flurry of movement in many other situations. Hell I kneed a guy slightly trying to get top mount position today, didn't mean to do it but apparently hurt him a little. I apologized immediately.

In grappling today I experienced something relevant to what I mentioned before about becoming complacent. I let myself slip as I had north south position on a kneeling opponent. He put his arm around my elbow from the bottom. I thought he was preparing to sit out which I'm ready to counter and so didn't pay it much thought. Instead he grabbed my wrist with his other hand and did an elbow lock. It was surprisingly strong and affected my elbow and my shoulder at the same time. I was very close to injury, closer than in a long time. Fortunately he's a good guy who's aware of the effect of the lock and he applied it gradually. I asked him to show me the move. It's a good move that I will incorporate into my game because even if you don't get the lock from the bottom you can escape the position.