How to Stop Brain Damage in the Martial Arts

Worried about brain damage? You should be!

Conversations about CTE and secondary impact syndrome are common nowadays, whether you’re talking about football, youth soccer, or martial arts. So, before you head off to your next martial arts class, let me share my thoughts and advice to help you protect yourself from brain injuries.

Train smart, stay smart! 🙂

Brain Damage in the Martial Arts

I recently saw a video on Kwonkicker’s popular YouTube channel titled, Why I Can’t Train Martial Arts Anymore. For the record, I don’t know Kwonkicker, but his situation really hit me in the heart.

Apparently, he has developed tinnitus. According to his doctors, this condition could be the result of taking too many head shots over the years.

Now, I’ve talked about injuries in a couple of different videos. You can find those here…

3 Stupid Martial Arts Injuries

Dealing with Injuries in the Martial Arts

In addition, the second article I ever wrote for this website was titled, Stop Practicing Martial Arts.

I wrote that article because I knew three people who all quit martial arts in the same year. Why? Because they were all in their 50s and their bodies had just broken down. They couldn’t take it anymore!

How tragic is that? We take martial arts to make our lives better, to protect ourselves from harm, and instead, we end up damaged.

It’s crazy, but true—most martial artists hurt themselves far more on the mats than they’ll ever be hurt by a bad guy on the streets.

But forget about wrecking your knees or back right now, let’s focus on the worst possible injury—brain damage. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather walk with a cane then lose my brain.

Depression, dementia, suicidal thoughts… brain damage and brain disease scare the hell out of me and they should scare the hell out of you, too.

The problem is I didn’t always worry about brain damage. In fact, I was almost 30 before I looked up the word “concussion”. Back in the 80s and 90s, that’s just the way it was.

If you took a shot to the head or a hard fall in the 80s or 90s, they’d say, “Walk it off,” or “Get back on the horse,” or “No pain, no gain.”

Worse, when I took a hard headshot, I was proud of myself. I felt tough. I felt hardcore. But really, I was stupid!

I hate admitting that. But for years, I was stupid, ignorant, and reckless with the most important part of my body—my brain. Don’t believe me? Let me tell you exactly how stupid I really was.

My ridiculous story…

In my late-20’s, I started assisting in women’s self-defense workshops. You know—the kind where a guy dresses up in a padded suit and a roomful of women take turns beating the crap out of him. I was that guy.

Now, don’t get me wrong—I am in full support of programs like that. Nice people get a chance to exercise their power, maybe for the first time in their lives, and for me, I got the chance to stare fury right in the face and stay cool under pressure. There was only problem—my helmet.

This wasn’t a normal sparring helmet, which I’m not a big fan of anyway, but we’ll talk about that another time. This helmet was covered in layers of foam padding. It was basically just a big ball of padding and duct tape with some eye holes punched in the front.

The result was that my head was three times its normal size! You couldn’t miss it. I don’t care who you are, you can’t slip punches with a big ol’ bucket on your head.

Plus, you couldn’t see anything. You would just get smashed from every direction with no chance of rolling with anything. I’m talking hours of blunt force trauma here.

Palm heels, elbows, knees, kicks… and not just standing up, mind you, on the ground, too. I’d end up curled up with that giant ball on my head, and a roomful of 20 or 30 women cheering each other on—“Stomp his head! Stomp his head!”

Now, I’m no doctor, but I have been told that the brain has the consistency of Jell-O. And you know when you put Jell-O in your mouth and swish it around? And it liquefies? I’m not saying that my brain liquefied, but it definitely got swished around.

Brain Damage Report

Increasingly, after each one of those workshops, I would have a headache for days. All I could do was go home, pop some Advil, close the shades because the light hurt my eyes, and lie down.

That’s it. And I tell you, my friend, it never once occurred to me, not until the very end, that I was experiencing concussions or brain damage of some kind. I just thought I was dehydrated, tired, or a little beat up. Bottom line—I needed to suck it up.

Ever since then, to this day, I have a glass jaw. I take one good shot sparring, rolling, or even if I take one good fall, it’s an instant headache.

Now, you know me… I’m a happy guy. But when that happens, I get depressed. I get depressed because I remember what a stupid, ignorant, reckless idiot I was back in my 20s. I remember how I didn’t take care of myself.

Sigh.

Maybe that’s just how wisdom works. Maybe to become a master, you have to be an idiot first. You have to make mistakes and learn from them.

The only question is how many mistakes do you have to make before you learn the lesson?

I hope that by sharing my story, you will suffer less and learn more than I did. I’ve got some more advice that might help you avoid brain damage or injuries of any kind when training in the martial arts.

FIRST TIP. Should you stop sparring? Or rolling? Or taking falls?

No. I still do all of that! That’s because I still believe that martial arts training is the best investment you can make in yourself. Is there a chance that you can get hurt? Yes. Absolutely.

I’ve had black eyes, a broken nose, a calf contusion, jammed fingers, and shoulder issues—and that’s all just this year! But the way I see it, you can hurt dancing, lifting weights, or just getting out of bed.

Life is a contact sport.

So, I’d rather stay active and gain skills, gain wisdom, and have fun instead of sit on the couch and do nothing, gain nothing, and then end up having a heart attack, or needing a knee replacement, or losing a limb to diabetes anyway.

It all comes down to costs and benefits. I trade a little cartilage here for a little information there. I trade a little time, money, sweat, and blood over here, for skills, self-knowledge, and understanding over there.

For me, the benefits of a smart, responsible training program far outweigh the costs. But the key here is understanding the concept of diminishing returns. More is not always better.

The goal is to train hard enough to make a gain, but not so hard that you’re in pain. The golden rule—

Exert yourself, don’t hurt yourself.

ANOTHER TIP. Choose your teacher and your training partners wisely.

I get emails from new students who get thrown into full contact sparring right away. That’s crazy!

Of course, they get knocked down or knocked out and tell me they feel embarrassed because their coach yells at them and the other idiots in the gym laugh at them. Their question is—is this normal?

NO! That is not normal. That is criminal!

Listen to me—if you get injured during training and the people in your school yell at you, blame you, or laugh at you, then get the hell out of there!

As a rule, if you’re feeling too embarrassed, too scared, or too damaged to return to class, you should not be in that class.

Train with people who will encourage and challenge you, not punish you.

ANOTHER TIP. Your teacher may be a great person… they may be very skilled at martial arts… they may love you like a son or daughter… but the odds are they are not a medical doctor!

That means if you have an injury during class and your teacher says, “That looks okay. Keep going,” that doesn’t mean that you’re really okay or that you should keep going! Listen to your body or check with a doctor.

Now, I’m going to warn you, when you check with your doctor, he or she may tell you to stop practicing martial arts. But that’s probably because he or she is not a martial artist. So, my advice—

Don’t take martial arts advice from doctors and don’t take medical advice from martial artists.

ANOTHER TIP. Give yourself time to heal.

I know I just said you shouldn’t take medical advice from martial artists, but this should be common sense. It wasn’t in the 80s, but it is today.

If you take a really good shot to the head during training, that’s it! You’re done for the day. You’re in a gym or a dojo, not on the street fighting for your life. You don’t have to keep going.

If you want to jump back on the horse after jacking up your elbow or your knee, okay—I wouldn’t!—but maybe your muscles and bones can heal up later.

But your brain? Nope! There’s nothing anyone can do to fix your brain.

So, if you get rocked, don’t try to walk it off. Take off your gear, relax, and figure out if you need to see a doctor.

Keep in mind that brain damage doesn’t always show up right away—it adds up over time. That’s true for all kinds of injuries.

Wear and tear is a silent killer.

So, focus on long-term success, not short-term success. That means giving your body time to recover from hard workouts and heal from injuries. Your goal shouldn’t just be to dominate the dojo in your 20s, it should be to dominate the dojo in your 70s, 80s and beyond!

ANOTHER TIP. Don’t think that taking hits makes you “hardcore”. It doesn’t. It makes you stupid!

I hear people say things like, “Oh, I like getting hit,” or, “I don’t get fired up until I take a few hits.”

Really? Wow. If you think like that, I’d say you’ve taken a few too many hits already.

Look, I get it—standing toe-to-toe, talking trash, and banging is pretty bad ass. But let me tell you what’s not so bad ass. Sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a name tag and a blanket, while a nurse feeds you applesauce. Not so bad ass.

Show your body and your brain some respect. Don’t take hits if you don’t have to.

LAST TIP. No matter what martial art you study, protect your head!

Protecting yourself from brain damage should be your #1 priority even if your school doesn’t allow full contact sparring. Heck, even if your school doesn’t allow striking!

Any time you’re in motion, particularly when competing with another person, there’s a chance you’re going to take a shot to the head. Believe it or not, I’ve taken shots to the head during grappling that were just as hard as any shot I’ve ever taken on my feet.

So, keep your guard up. Chin down, jaw closed, and at least one hand up at all times. Don’t make it easy for anyone to hit, grab, or slam your head.

FINAL THOUGHT.

I don’t want to scare you off from training in the martial arts. Quite the opposite— I want you to train your entire life. I don’t want you to quit in your 50’s because your body is broken, you always feel depressed, or can’t remember who you are because of brain damage.

Remember this—the greatest enemy to your health and your safety isn’t someone out there. Usually, it’s you.

Sometimes you have to defend yourself FROM yourself.

Your ego. Your ignorance. Your bad habits.

So, train smart. Protect your body, protect your heart, and protect your brain.