Hi everyone,

I hope your weekend started better than mine, because my day started with a hospital visit.

Yesterday, I went to BJJ and did some guard passing drills with a friend of mine. Of course the drill turned into giving some resistance to make it more "real", and before we knew it we were kind of sparring. I had my friend in side control (on top position), but somehow he flipped me over and my head ended up on the floor. Before I could say "tap" I heard my neck pop 3 times. It even popped loud enough for my friend to hear it too.

Side control position, just moments before the accident

At first I felt totally fine, and we even joked about how he had "re-adjusted" my neck. 15 minutes later, I noticed that my mobility became limited and I started to feel mild pain, so I decided to call it a night and go home. I bought myself a bottle of wine (on Fridays it's allowed, remember?) and proceeded to making dinner and watching a movie. I put some ice on it just to be sure it didn't get worse (things usually start to hurt more several hours after it happens) and to avoid hearing "I told you so" if I didn't do it.

During the night

I went to bed, and woke up in the middle of the night with sharp pains that caused me to literally cry out. I couldn't move in any direction. I had to go to the bathroom but couldn't sit up. To make things worse, my hubby is away on a business trip and of course I picked the best moment to have a situation like this. So I had no choice. Somehow I finally managed to get onto my knees and get up slowly.

People, I have never cried from pain, at least not since I was a child, and I think I have a pretty high tolerance to pain in general. I'm not one to complain quickly, unless it's serious. I woke up every half hour after that, and even though I was extremely tired, I wished for this night to end quickly because sleeping ended up being torture.

Getting up was worse...

At this point I'm sobbing like a child, because it turns out that you need your neck for pretty much everything. I'm still wearing my pyjama and haven't showered while I'm writing this, simply because I dread the fact that I will have to take off my shirt. Even brushing my teeth was impossible. I can't lift my arms above my head, and I can't walk or sit straight.

Luckily my brother in law @cizabocas came to my rescue, and drove me to the hospital. I got an x-ray, and fortunately everything is in the right place. My pain is just muscular. This was a huge relief, because it means it will heal fast. The doctor prescribed pain meds, muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatory pills, and told me to rest for a week. I have to look like this for the following days, but at least my body is whole.

Why I'm telling you this

Let's not kid ourselves, when we practice a combat sport we all have to expect getting hurt a little at some point. That's just part of the game, but there are injuries and injuries. I can't remember how many times I had sore elbows or shoulders from arm bars and kimuras, or sore angles and knees. Nothing you can't live with, and ironically you almost get used to it. I can't even remember a time when nothing hurt at all.

This time I was very worried, because the neck is the most fragile part of our body, and serious neck injuries can get you paralyzed or even killed. I knew of course that this wasn't my case, but my neck is always on my mind when I practice jujitsu. I'm very aware of the position of my neck when I roll, and I always tap out before it goes sideways. However, sometimes weird positions just happen, and yesterday I didn't see it coming...

Some advice if this happens to you

1) Always tap, don't be stubborn

If you are rolling and refuse to tap in a situation like this, you are just asking for accidents to happen. Winning one round is not worth jeopardizing your health or potentially your life in the very worst case

2) If it takes you by surprise like in my case, scream tap as soon as you realize what's happening. Every second matters. If I had reacted a few seconds later, it could have been a lot worse.

3) Don't put yourself in risky positions, like tripod positions which require you to be on your head. BJJ is very diverse and offers such a large choice of techniques, so why not stay away from the dangerous ones?

4) Take care of your training partner. Always! I personally don't roll with fresh male white belts, because they don't know how to manage their strength yet and they don't know how the body works. This means that they can make explosive (and wrong) moves without realizing the consequences for their training partners.

I have seen newbies neck-crank people, either because they thought this was a legitimate technique, or simply because that's what they thought of in the moment. More advanced practitioners (blue and up) have a better awareness and understanding of potential danger, and if your partner gets into a bad spot, simply pause the fight and get back to a neutral position.

A good training partner will not just look out for himself, but will make sure that he doesn't hurt you either. After all we all enjoy training, and if your training partner is out due to an injury, you have less people to train with. And it's not about winning one fight, it's about learning the gentle art together and in one piece until we all reach black belt. So be gentle with yourself and others.

OSS