Determining which sport is “more dangerous,” Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) or soccer, depends on the context and the types of injuries you’re considering.
Soccer certainly has more ankle and knee injuries since it is high impact on these joints. BJJ on the other hand has more consistent and small injuries. Of course, both sports unfortunately can have catastrophic injuries from accidents or poorly timed and incorrect movements. However, this does not really settle the debate of which is more dangerous.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ):
- Type of Sport: As you will know, BJJ is a martial art focusing on ground fighting and grappling. It involves techniques that can put significant strain on joints, including the risk of joint locks leading to sprains or breaks if not applied or defended correctly. Furthermore, injuries can happen from takedowns and simply applying body weight when it is unexpected.
- Common Injuries: Injuries in BJJ often include joint and ligament strains, particularly in the knees and shoulders. Anyone who has trained for any significant period of time will no doubt have hurt their ribs, fingers, and toes. In other words, BJJ can easily dish out small injuries to any part of the body.
- Severity: The severity of BJJ injuries varies significantly. Injuries can vary from anything such as a sprained neck muscle which fully heals in 2 days, to a completely torn ACL ligament in the knee, requiring surgery and rehabilitation.
Soccer:
- Type of Sport: Soccer is a semi-contact team sport that involves running, kicking, and occasionally collisions with other players.
- Common Injuries: Soccer injuries frequently include sprains and strains, particularly in the lower extremities, and overuse injuries such as tendinitis.
- Severity: Soccer can also lead to serious injuries, including fractures and head injuries. As with BJJ, soccer injuries vary greatly in severity too. A bruised shin can heal within a week, but once again, tearing ligaments and requiring surgery and rehab is a definite possibility when playing the sport.
Comparative Risks:
- Injury Rates: Soccer tends to have higher rates of injury overall due to its high-impact and high-collision nature. However, the injuries in BJJ can be more severe in terms of long-term joint damage if proper care is not taken.
- Long-Term Risk: Both sports can lead to chronic issues. Soccer players might experience issues with their knees and ankles from the constant running and extremely fast lateral changes in direction. BJJ practitioners might have long-term joint issues from repeated strain and pressure on their limbs.
In terms of acute injuries, soccer may present a higher risk due to the speed of the game and the potential for collisions. In terms of chronic injuries, BJJ may present a higher risk due to the repetitive stress on joints.
Competitive Level Sports
Obviously when sports become more competitive, the risk of injury increases. This is because winning and losing is taken more seriously. At the highest level, you may find BJJ practitioners allow their smaller joints to “pop” in order to get out of a submission, particularly if there is a small amount of time remaining.
On the other hand, soccer injuries do not really increase at a higher level of play. Players generally injure themselves from full-contact tackles, or simply changing direction while getting their studs stuck in the turf. This can happen at the professional level, or a pick-up game in the park.
So based on a tournament or competition setting, BJJ will certainly have more injuries than a soccer game.
Injury Prevention
Injury prevention can only be taken so far. If you’re training sensibly and at a light pace, injuries can generally be avoided for the most part. However, as soon as you play a training game of soccer, or spar in BJJ, injuries can and will happen. This is an unfortunate part of sport, but it simply cannot be completely avoided.
BJJ
Within BJJ, most injuries happen from competing or sparring. If you avoid both of these things, you will not really get injured from pure drilling. However, this is almost like learning to drive a car in a simulator – you simply won’t experience the real thing until you’re on the road.
As soon as the pace picks up in BJJ, people can get hurt. But by training with like-minded and sensible training partners, injuries can definitely be decreased. Conversely, training with maniacs who think they are going to be the next world champion will likely increase your amount of injuries.
Soccer
Soccer injuries are largely self-inflicted and not caused by opposition players. Heavy tackles can and will happen, but for the most part, fouls will mostly knock you to the floor and not cause catastrophic and career-ending injuries.
Most knee and ankle injuries are caused by rapid changes of direction with no player-to-player contact. This is also is the case for muscular injuries such as hamstring tears. Therefore, by slowing down and playing a more technical game, these injuries can be avoided.
Much like BJJ though, once soccer takes place in a full-pace setting, injuries will become more common. It’s not really possible to play a competitive game of soccer without running at full pace at some point during the match.
