You’ve heard it thousands upon millions of times, “tap early, tap often”, but how much of that goes into one ear and right out the other?  How many times do you start rolling and get exhausted because you were trying to win, or trying to the last inch of extension to get out of that armbar when you knew you were done?  You’re tapping late and you’re trying to win…this is that whole ego thing that you hear you need to get rid of.  Check out this guy:

Look at his leg…it doesn’t look right, and judging by his face, it absolutely isn’t…for what?  A tournament?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to be a wimp and to not try your escapes and go for gold – you go out and win that gold, but don’t ruin the health of your body for it.  When you’re locked down like that dude is and your leg is about to look like that, you should think about tapping.  According to kidhealth.com, a child (that means they heal faster than you do) can be out for more than 6 weeks with an mcl tear.  That’s 6 weeks that you could be training had you not held on in a lock that’s pretty much set in.

My point? Well, I was rolling with Mike Hermosillo and my friend T.J. yesterday – both of which still whoop my ass.  Apparently that day was “lock Scott’s ankles, heels and toes” day.  There was one in particular that injured my foot pretty good and I tapped the second I felt it come on.  It brings a good realization to the damage that can come to you when training BJJ.  Sometimes you have to stop and check yourself and get that humbleness back…tap early and often, try new things and go easy – mutual welfare and benefit…if you don’t, you’ll have 6-10 weeks to think about rolling correctly.

All images used under section 107 of the “fair use” doctrine for point of education and analysis

Categories: EVERYTHING (in no particular order), Jiu Jitsu and Judo

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