Speaking of something slightly less fun than rough sex, I remember getting caught square in the nose by my tough as nails lady instructor. It was a gorgeous spinning back kick causing an explosion of blood and other nastiness.
Pretty sure if I did this to someone, I would be mortified saying something like “holy crap! Are you ok?!?”
Her response was a steely calm, “you should keep your hands up”.
And yes, I am perfectly fine with the fact that this particular lady kicked my butt.
I practice judo for 2 years and a half and had a concussion from a bad controlled throw from an orange belt. We were practicing Harai goshi (a king of leg sweep using also the hip), he just put way to much power and felt with me.
Landed right on my head…
In competition early in december another guy was doing Tai Otoshi (forward throw), the arms of the other guy was struck and his face was throwed direct on the mat, not easy to watch. The guy was on his back after that with his arm doing uncontrolled movement and saying unnitelligent things!
So for judo, in competition, light sparring or only technical practice, the risk are real.
But it is so much fun:P
I’ll second (or third) the recommendation for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. You can train hard or train more recreationally for flow. Either way, concussions are pretty rare (I’ve never seen one in my 12 years of training BJJ). There are other injuries to be sure (knees, in particular, and there’s a good chance you’ll pop a rib at some point). But at least your brain will be intact when you’re playing with the grandkids years from now!
Iv’e suffered a bit from concussions… dehydration and concussions go hand in hand.
got a concussion in senior yr of HS wrestling - from a trip -
kid was slick and trapped my arms on the way down- and landed on my forehead.
a stray elbow or knee in college training left me seeing stars,
but most of the time I was not properly hydrated.
those concusions ( and other injuries) led me to stop wrestling
but I continued to play Judo and BJJ safely for many many years.
the volume of training is a big factor here.
how much time are you really on the mat.
as for cauliflower ears, my left is 'ok" my right was kind of deformed.
and I wore head gear well into post college competition.
but your opponent gets the choice for you to wear it.
If your the only one wearing it.
somewhere in my early 30’s a dog ( my mother in law’s dog)
bit me in the ear.
went for a trip to ER and everyone was grossed out to say the least.
turns out the hospital plastic surgeon was on call that night.
( they are just better at sewing flesh - they are not doing face lifts etc.)
while laying down - and my ear injected with numbing stuff
I hear the most heinous chalk scraping sound , and then she put like 37 stitches in my ear.
She then shows me the cup partially filled with yellow hard as fuck junk she scrapped out of my ear- she put a bunch of collagen in there and sent me on my way.
I didnt know it was that deformed til months after when friends and family
commented on it.
injuries are going to happen
wear head gear/ear guards,
do more drilling then all out sparring
yes I like to go hard too- but you wont get as jacked up in
you train safely