This is quite a taboo subject for those who have not trained BJJ. Often the media will portray choke holds and anything which puts somebody to “sleep” as very dangerous, particularly when performed by law enforcement. In reality, it is quite the opposite and anyone who knows about concussions, blows to the head and chokes understands it is much better to go unconscious than have head trauma.
Whilst someone CAN die from being choked in BJJ, they could die from literally almost any sport you can think of. For example, soccer players have collapsed on the field after playing for 10 years, not knowing that they had a heart defect. This is somewhat similar in BJJ, the only real way you could be killed, would be if you had some kind of blood clot in your brain, or if the person literally held you in a choke hold for several minutes with the intention of killing you.
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Are BJJ Chokeholds Dangerous?
In short, if done in a controlled setting no. I have trained BJJ for many years and can count the times on both hands I have seen someone go unconscious, you have the opportunity to tap before you go out, so there is no real need to ever get to this situation. Every time I have seen someone go unconscious, we have just left them on the floor and within 5 seconds they have woken up and wondered how they got here.
It is worth noting that there are no scientifically proven long-term effects from being put unconscious by a choke. The same cannot be said for concussions and CTE injuries, if you go to a boxing gym you may find out a lot of the guys have bad memories since they have been hit in the head so many times. Sadly this is more common than people let on.
Why have people died from choke holds?
There are 2 main reasons.
- The person held the choke long enough to kill them, usually this is a very long time such as 2 minutes or more. This does not happen in BJJ since nobody would allow a murder to happen inside a gym. Examples of this are only found in street fights where somebody attacked another person with the intention of killing them.
- The sad and rare example of someone dying in BJJ is when they have a pre-existing condition and have gone unconscious. I have only heard of these examples from the internet and have never seen this proven. I do not doubt it exists, I just know it is extremely rare and not something I would worry about. If you really were worried about training BJJ because of this, it would be best to consult with a doctor first to see if you have these said pre-existing conditions.
Are there other ways BJJ can kill someone?
The only other way I have heard of people dying is being old and overweight, combined with a heart condition. BJJ is quite an intense exercise, especially when sparring. If you have a heart condition then you probably shouldn’t be doing this activity. This is rare and happens in all sports, I would imagine just as many people have had heart attacks from playing tennis or soccer, so this is not really a consideration.
Other than choke holds there are not really any other dangerous threats to your life in BJJ. Most other submissions attack upper body joints or legs. Due to this you could break your arm (again unlikely based off you and your opponents being reasonable sparring partners), but this will not kill you.
Summary
In conclusion, BJJ can kill, but most likely only if you wanted it to. In the same way boxing could kill, you would have to go out of your way to injure or hurt someone. In a relaxed gym setting, nothing bad will happen. BJJ is more violent than an average sport, but it is very controlled, if you were to worry about such things in life then you would never take part in any sport or activity with other people.
