Neck Injury is one of the most common injuries for athletes who train in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts. This is not really a surprise when you consider the fact that they get punched and kicked in the face, put in choke holds and neck cranks and sometimes take nasty falls right down on their heads. So how do you prevent neck injury if you are a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or MMA fighter?
Well, in all honesty, you can’t prevent all neck injury 100% of the time. But you can take steps to keep your neck Strong, Limber and able to recover faster. For starters, injury prevention starts with the fundamentals. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS warm up and stretch your neck before you participate in Mixed Martial Arts or Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. This will tell your body that you are about to put stress on it and it needs to be prepared. At my Mixed Martial Arts gym in Houston, TX I have to be there to teach classes every day so injury prevention is key. That’s why I always stretch and warm up my neck before class begins. I also have my students do the same.
Next, you should put together a strength and flexibility program specifically for your neck. Simple ‘range of motion’ and ‘resistance’ exercises are fairly easy to do yourself but if you really want to insure the safety of your neck you need to find someone who is qualified to give you advise and help you with the exercises.
Finally, you need to know when to stop training MMA and BJJ when you are injury. As with any injury, trying to push through the pain will only result in a longer recovery time. And, unlike a knee or ankle, a spinal injury is serious enough to end your days of training for good. Respect the fact that you are injured, and let your body heal properly.
Remember, prevention is the most important step you can make toward keeping your neck and the rest of your body safe. Invest time each week to stretch and strengthen your neck and you will spend far less time being injured.
Best of luck with your Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu goals and don’t forget to take care of your neck.

Ask any top level competitor in any sport who their favorite players are and you won’t be waiting long for an answer. That’s because anyone serious about progressing in a sport is a true student of his or her craft. They study the top competitors, they watch film and they try to adapt the strategies used by these athletes to improve their own style. If you really want to excel in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Judo, Muay Thai or any Martial Art, you must become a student of the game.

You should study footage of your favorite fighters, including instructional videos, attending seminars and going to competitions. Study the athletes of yesterday as well as the fighters of today. See how the style of one high level fighter matches up to that of another. Also, try to find the practitioners who have a game similar to yours and see how they use the techniques you use against other world class athletes.
Now, this doesn’t mean you are going to learn a bunch of fancy moves and forget about your basics. On the contrary, the more you learn the more you will solidify your fundamentals and add on to them.

I am constantly telling my students how there is so much more you can do outside of the academy walls to improve your skill level. Doing extra drills and conditioning are 2 examples. Becoming a student of the game is essential and anyone really committed to self improvement. Take this lesson to heart and study the top practitioners in your field. You will learn more than you could imagine.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make as they progress in Jiu-jitsu classes at my Houston academy is that they simply refuse to change their bad habits. I’m talking about the person who, in spite of knowing that his/her technique is flawed, keeps doing it the same way because he can get away with it on smaller or less experienced grapplers. The same technique, however, gets him tapped out by higher level grapplers. Here’s an example:
Let’s say I weigh 265 lbs of solid muscle. My training partner weighs 145lbs soaking wet. We are both blue belts. Instead of me working from my bad positions when we spar, I immediately push my partner to his back thus, never going to my back. I muscle my way to pass the guard and rip a fast Americana forcing my smaller training partner to tap out or lose his arm. I didn’t focus on solid technique; I only did what was necessary to get the submission. While I did win the match, I learned absolutely NOTHING.
Your training sessions should be carried out in a manner that is designed to improve your skill level, even if it means you get tapped out a little more at first. Because in the long run, you will be tapping out less.
Ask yourself these questions:
Are you using techniques in grappling class that you can get away with on white belts but not black belts?
Do you have an obvious size and strength advantage against many of your training partners and you use it to your full advantage?
Do you have one or two really great parts of your game that you stick to and never work from your weak areas?

This habit is very normal among grapplers, especially in the beginning stages of your training but in is detrimental to your overall game and will stifle your growth. Here are a few things you can do to be sure you don’t get caught in this habit.
Make a conscious effort to focus on tight technique and not just getting a move or submission by any means necessary.
Ask yourself if the technique you are using to dominate a white belt would be effective against a black belt.
Try training on your “weak side”. Everyone has a dominate side they pass to and grip from. To force yourself to focus more on the right technique work your awkward side sometimes.
When training with white belts, try to limit yourself to only 1 or 2 submissions (and not the ones you are already good at).
Don’t always go for the kill in practice. In a competition you never should pass up a submission. In practice, however, the goal isn’t so much to beat your teammate but rather to improve. As you go for a submission, if the technique is not proper, flow smoothly to the next movement without force and try to pay attention and understand how your training partner escaped. This will help solidify your submissions.

This style of training may not be the most fun at first, but it will be as your technical ability begins to grow faster than ever.
Remember, the goal is to be a great Black Belt from every position and situation. It’s not to just tap out all the White Belts. I hope this idea will help you improve your game and take you one step closer to becoming a great Black Belt!

I want to address one of the most important and misunderstood aspects of Mixed Martial Arts and goal related activities. I’m talking about motivation. How many times have you been truly inspired to take action on a particular cause only to lose the motivation that initially lit such a fire under you?

Here’s a little secret, Motivation is only temporary. It is your responsibility to find new motivation the moment you feel it slipping from your grasp. You can think of motivation like a drug. The initial effects are very powerful and you feel great (by the way, don’t do drugs, it’s just an analogy), however as time passes you lose that initial feeling, that high and end up feeling pretty much as you did before. You may even feel less motivated because you may get upset with yourself for losing your motivation. Did I just describe you? This is completely normal, but you have to do something about it.

There are a million ways to find new motivation but it will be immensely more difficult if your mind is focused on negative thoughts. Positive self talk will not work if you follow it up with “Man, I suck at Jiu-jitsu”. Therefore you must remind yourself, not what you can’t do or what you don’t have, but rather focus on all your positive qualities. The best time to do this is right before you go to bed at night and right when you wake up in the morning. Of course you should practice this throughout the day as well but these two will have the most impact.

Here’s what I recommend you do: First, make a list (a written one) of all your positive attributes and qualities as well as everything you have accomplished. Be detailed with this list and make it include both Personal and Occupation related successes. Do not get hung up on all your failures. We all have them and they are an essential part of our successes, so don’t knock ‘em.  Once you have compiled your list read it to yourself every morning and every night for at least 3 or 4 weeks. Then update your list.

Read, watch or listen to the things that make you feel motivated. Like I said, motivation is temporary, so just reading a great Tony Robbins book will only give you that “high” for so long. You have to keep the fire lit. Find the material that motivates you and use it as your fuel to take action. But be careful. For every hour you spend reading, watching or listening you should spend at least 5 hours “Doing”. Don’t become the guy who has read every book on life but never leaves his parents house. That’s sort of like the Grappler who has seen every move on YouTube but never actually trains. Put your Motivation to work.

Set short term and long term goals. A key component to staying motivated is knowing where you’re going and why. If you don’t have clearly defined goals then your motivation will soon hit a brick wall as you realize “I don’t know what I’m working so hard for”. When I was living with my Dad and teaching out of his garage making $540 a month it was not easy to feel motivated. What kept me moving was that I had a clear, defined goal. I wanted to grow my academy to a respectable size so that I could teach for a living while offering world class instruction and never compromising the integrity of the system that I teach. Now that I have reached that goal, I have newer, bigger goals that keep the motivation tank full.

Remember, loss of motivation is something everyone goes through. It’s not the loss of motivation that is our fault; it’s not replenishing it that is. Refill your motivation tank the moment the warning light comes and you feel yourself slowing down. And, equally important, define your goals in exact detail.  If you can do this you will have much greater success not only in Mixed Martial Arts but in everything else that you want in your life.

Visit our school and try some mixed martial arts classes in Houston, TX.