A little over 3 months ago I joined the Gracie Barra University to learn jiu-jitsu. It's a martial art, some might call it a combat sport, and it's a whole lotta fun. I'd even call it my new passion in life. I've played soccer almost my whole life. I love the game. The teamwork, the ball skill, the strategy of setting up or defending an attack on goal. It's all good. I've gotten busted up doing both sports so it got me wondering: Which sport is safer?
When I first joined jiu-jitsu I had bruises for over a month straight. They covered my chest and dotted my legs and hips. I was constantly sore and hobbling around but I'd heal. Even the bruises eventually went away, now I just get an occasional one or two. During training I've taken a few kicks to the face and elbows to the jaw but none of those really left a mark and it was always accidental. The worst I got it in jiu-jitsu was during the first, and so far only, competition I entered. My opponent caught me in an americana and cranked it pretty hard before I tapped out. Even though an americana is a shoulder lock my elbow got hurt. It was sore for a couple weeks.
Now onto soccer. Simply put, the worst injuries I've ever had came from soccer. I've taken elbows to the face, had my legs swept out from under me while running full speed, had the wind knocked out of me, taken some mean foot-stomps with cleats, kicks, kness, shoulder tackles, so on and so on. Those are the minor ones. The wear and tear has messed up my knees. Had some physical therapy for that. They don't give me much problems anymore but I know they're not 100% and probably never will be. I got slide-tackled real hard a few years ago and that really jacked up my ankle. That tackle combined with all the wear and tear led to surgery to remove all of the built-up scar tissue and help repair some tendon damage to my right ankle. It also led to several sessions of physical therapy. Today my ankle works well enough to run, but sprinting and cutting is a problem. It's also not as flexible as my left ankle. It'll definitely never be 100% again.
Then there was today. This morning I trained jiu-jitsu. The guy I rolled with was pretty good and when we sparred it was competative. It was exhausting, in a good way though. But during the course of training I took an elbow to the jaw. It hurt for a few seconds and then I was good. We shook hands and went back to training. Afterwards I went to play soccer. Been a while since I've played so I was going to take it easy and only play for about 20 minutes. So naturally I got hurt within 2 minutes on the field. I was making a run down the side, the guy defending me was a few steps in front so I cut to the inside. It looked like I had enough room to get around the guy. Usually, most defenders will stick out a leg or a shoulder to bump you away from the ball. Instead, this guy lead with his forehead and nailed me right in the face. To sum up, my front tooth is chipped and my nose is broken. Another injury - oh wait, those are two injuries - to add to the soccer list...so much for an easy-going game.
Now granted, I've played soccer all my life and I've only trained jiu-jitsu for 3 months. I've had much more opportunity to get injured in soccer. However, given the severity and long-term damage I've suffered from soccer I've decided that jiu-jitsu is definitely safer than soccer. Afterall, in jiu-jitsu it's training, people are there to learn and help each other out, and you can tap-out at any time and save yourself some pain. In soccer, it gets competative, you usually don't know the players on the opposite team, and things tend to hurt more when running full speed.
Go figure yeah...the martial art/combat sport is safer than a soccer game...at least for me. Now I'm questioning again - I had this question after having ankle surgery - if I should give up a sport I love and have played all my life. But hey, if I do that at least I can continue with jiu-jitsu...once my nose heals.
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