Today saw Gordon Ryan sit down and discuss injuries whilst training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He started off by listing his injuries such as broken ankles, fingers, toes, chronic neck pain and a broken arm. As you can imagine, someone training as much as he has, combined with his competition has had his fair share of injuries.
Gordon Ryan said “With injuries, you can’t push yourself to the point of getting re-injured, whenever I get an injury I take good care of it for being an athlete long-term. I would rather wait the extra 2 months than go back in and re-injure it, at least with the major injuries.”
He added “(When injured) You have to find partners that you can trust that won’t injure you, like guys that are slow and controlled. I go with guys much lighter than me. You have to put yourself in situations where you can play, but still do Jiu Jitsu with your injury. A big part of it is adapting to being able to play. I’m 100% confident in saying I couldn’t train for 3-4 months after my LCL. I came back better than before because every night I’m constantly thinking about the sport. If you can’t be active physically, at least be active mentally.”
Interestingly, his teacher John Danaher has a similar philosophy when you can’t physically train. At the start of the Covid 19 pandemic he stated it’s best to think about training if you can’t do it in person, to maintain a relationship with your mind and body.
